language acquisition 英语专业语言学PPT.ppt

Language Acquisition Universal grammar The critical period hypothesis Differences between L1 and L2 Major theories in L2 acquisition Some major hypotheses Individual differences Learning strategies Some major teaching methods （subject to change) Questions about UG What is UG? How is UG related to L2 learning? How is 2nd language learning different 1st language acquisition? Does Critical Age exist for language learning? Universal Grammar (UG) UG is ‘the system of principles, conditions, and rules that are elements or properties of all human languages… the essence of human language’( Chomsky qtd. Cook, 153). Universal Grammar (UG) Chomsky and those working in a broadly Chomskyan framework note various factors which they claim support the idea that humans are innately (genetically) endowed with universal language-specific knowledge, or what Chomsky calls Universal Grammar (UG). A person who knows a language has acquired a grammar which consists of the universal principles of language the parameters that explain why certain expressions are possible in one language but not in another. Much of the L2 research has been concerned with the question of whether Universal Grammar is still available to the L2 learners, some insisting vehemently that L2 learning goes by a different route. (to be discussed later) The Critical Period Hypothesis This hypothesis claims that there is such a biological timetable in our first and second language acquisition—a biologically determined period of life (puberty) when language can be acquired more easily and beyond which time langue is increasingly difficult to acquire (Brown 52). The Critical Period Hypothesis Some research findings suggest that SL phonological attainment is strongly conditioned by learner age; a native-like accent is impossible unless first exposure is quite early, probably around age six. Very high standards can be attained starting later than six, of course, but not, it would seem, native-like standards (Long 158)