UNIT 16 :
FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
There is some innate disposition in the human infant to acquire language. This can be called as the “ language-faculty” of the human with each newborn child is endowed. By itself, this faculty is not enough.
Basic Requirements
1- Acquiring the first language interaction with other language users in order to bring the language faculty into operation.
2- The child who does not hear or isn’t allowed to use language will learn no language. Hearing is necessary but not enough.
3- The crucial requirement appears to be the opportunity to interact with others ula language. Since it is not genetically inherited, it is acquired in a particular language using environment.
The Acquisition Schedule
Language acquisition schedule has the same basis as the biologically determined development of motor skills. This biologically schedule is tied to the maturation of the infant’s brain and the lateralization process. This biological program is dependent on an interplay with many social factors in the child’s environment. Acquisition requires constant input from which the basis of the regularities in the particular language can be worked out.
Caretaker Speech
The simplified speech style adopted by someone who spends a lot of time interacting with a young child is called caretaker speech. ( Motherese ) Frequent questions, exaggerated intonation, simplified words and structures and a lot of repetition characterize caretaker’s speech.
Pre-language Stages
The pre-linguistic sounds are called “cooing” and “babbling” ( from about 3 months to 10 months ). First recognizable sounds are described as Cooing with velar consonants such as [k] and [g] as well as high vowels such as [I] and . ( By 3 months )
By 6 months, the child can produce a number of different vowels and consonants such as fricatives and nasals. Babbling stage may contain syllable type sounds such as “mu” and “da”. Around 9 months, there are recognizable intonation patterns to the consonant and vowel combinations being produced. Around 10th and 11th months, they are capable of using their vocalization to express emotions and emphasis.
[u]The One Word or Holophrastic Stage
Between 12-18 months, they produce single units utterances. ( Milk, Cookie, Cat ) . It is holophrastic because the child can use a single form functioning as a phrase or sentence. ( What’s that ? )
The Two-Word Stage
Between 12 months and 24 months , the child’s vocabulary moves beyond fifty distinct words. A variety of combinations appear in this stage ( mummy eat, cat bed ) . The child not only produces speech but receives feedback which usually confirms that the utterance worked. Children can understand five times as many than they produce.
Telegraphic Speech
Between 2 and 3 years old, the child begins producing a large number of utterances which could be classified as multiple-word utterances. Word-form variations begin to appear. The child has clearly developed some sentence-building capacity by this stage and can order the forms correctly. By the age of two and a half, the child’s vocabulary is expanding rapidly and the child is initiating more talk. By three, the vocabulary has grown to hundreds of words and pronounciation has become closer to the form of the adult language.
The Acquisition Process
For the vast majority of children, no one provides any instruction on how to speak the language, the child is not being taught the language. Children actively construct, from what’s said to them, possible ways of using the language and test whether they work or not. It’s impossible to say that the child is acquiring the language through a process of consistently imitating adult speech in parrot-fashion. Adults simply don’t produce many of the types of expressions which turn up in children’s speech.
Morphology
By the time the child is 3 years old, he starts to use some of the inflectional morphemes which indicate the grammatical function of the nouns and verbs used. First, -ing form appears in expressions such as “ cat sitting “ . Then plural morpheme –s comes as in “boys” . Acquisition of this form is often accompanied by a process of overgeneralization ( adding –s to form plurals as in foots, mans ). Then possessive inflectional –‘s occurs as in “ Mummy’s book “. Irregular past-tense forms appear before –ed inflection in child’s speech. Finally the regular –s marker on third person singular present tense verbs appears. –s occurs with full verbs first ( comes,looks ) and then with auxiliaries ( does, has ) .
Syntax
In the formation of questions and the use of negatives there appear to be three identifiable stages. Stage 1 occurs between 18 and 26 months, Stage 2 between 22 and 30 months and Stage 3 between 24 and 40 months. ( Different children proceed at different paces ) .
Questions
Stage 1 : Simply add a WH- form to the beginning or utter the expression with a rising intonation.
Where kitty?
Sit chair ?
Stage 2 : More complex expressions can be formed but raising intonation strategy continues to be used.
Why you smiling ?
You want eat ?
Stage 3 : Inversion appears but the WH- forms don’t always undergo the required inversion.
Can I have a piece ?
Will you help me ?
Why kitty can’t stand up?
Negatives
Stage 1 : “No” or “Not” should be at the beginning of any expression.
No fall
No sit there
Stage 2 : “Don’t” and “ can’t” appear but “no” and “not” are stil used but in front of the verb.
He no bite you.
I don!t know.
You can’t dance.
Stage 3 : “Didn’t” and “ won’t” appear. Acquisition of the form “isn’t” is the latest.
I didn’t caught it.
She won’t let go.
He not taking it.
Semantic
During the holophrastic stage, many children use their limited vocabulary to refer to a large number of unrelated objects ( bow-wow to refer to a dog ). Sometimes children use bow-wow ot refer to cats and horses. This is called “ overextension “ which is done on the basis of similarities of shape, sound and size. The semantic development in child is use of words is usually a process of overextension initially,followed by a gradual process of narrowing down the application of each term as more words are learned. In terms of hyponomy, the child will almost always use the middle level term in a hyponymous set such as animal – dog –poodle. It also seems that antonymous relations are acquired fairly late. ( after the age of 5 )
* By the age of 5, the child has completed the greater part of basic language acquisition process. According to some, the child is then in a good position to start learning a second language.
UNIT 17 : SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION/LEARNING
Acquisition Barriers
1- Most people attempt to learn another language during their teenage or adult years.
2- In a few hours each week of school time.
3- With a lot of other occupations.
4- With an already known language available for most of their daily communicative requirements.
5- Adults’ tongues get stiff from pronouncing one type of long and just can not cope with the new sounds of another language. ( There is no physical evidance to support it. )
Acquisition & Learning
Acquisition refers to the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situations.
Learning refers to conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of a language.
• Even in ideal acquisition situations, very few adults seem to reach native-like proficiency in using a second language. There one individuals who can achieve great expertise in writing, but not in speaking. This might suggest that some features ( vocabulary, grammar ) of a second language are easier to acquire than others ( phonology ) .
• After the Critical Period ( around puberty ) , it becomes very difficult to acquire another language fully. Because long faculty being strongly taken over by the features of the L1 loses its flexibility or openness to receive the features of another language. For the second language, the optimum age may be during the years from ten to sixteen when the flexibility of the language acquisition faculty hasn’t been completely last and the maturation of cognitive skills allows a more effective “ working out “ of the regular features of the L2 encountered.
The Affective Filter
Affect is a type of emotional reaction. Affective filter is a kind of barrier to acquisition that results from negative feelings or experiences. If you are stressed, uncomfortable, self-conscious or unmotivated, you are unlikely to learn anything.
• Children seem to be less constrained by the effective filter.
Focus on Method
A variety of educational approaches and methods which are aimed at fostering L2 learning has been led. In 1483, William Caxton used his newly established course material for L2 learners. It was in phrase book format.
Grammar-Translation Method
Long lists of words and a set of grammatical rules have to be memorized and the written language rather than the spoken language is emphasized. It is inefficient because it is not focused on how the language is used.
Audio-Lingual Method
It emphasizes the spoken language moving the simple to the more complex in the form of drills which the student had to repeat. FLL is a mechanical process of habit formation. Its critics pointed out that isolated practise in drilling language patterns bears no resemblance to the interactional nature of actual language use. It can also be boring.
Communicative Approaches
Against the artificiality, the functions of language should be emphasized rather than the forms of the language. ( Asking for things in different social contexts rather than the forms of the past tense in different sentences. )
Focus on Learner
An error is not something which hinders a student’s progress, but is a clue to the active learning process being made by a student as he or she tries out ways of communicating in the new language.
Creative Construction
Creative construction is used by the learner in accordance with tyhe most general way of making forms in English. ( Women’s is formed by using the most general way of making plural forms which is also called overgeneralization. )
Some erors may be due to the transfer of expressions or structures from the L1. If the L1 and the L2 have similar features, then the learner may be able to benefit from the Positive Transfer of L1 knowledge. Tranfering a L1 feture that is really different from L2 results in Negative Transfer which isn’t effective for L2 communication. (inference)
Interlanguage
There is some in-between system used in L2 acquisition which contains aspects of L1 and L2 but which is an inherently variable system with rules of its own. This system is called an Interlanguage and it is basis of all L2 production. If a learner’s L2 forms contain many features which don’t match the target language, they don’t progress any further and their interlanguage is fossilized.
Motivation
Students who experience some success are among the most motivated to learn. And motivation may be as much a result of success as a cause. The learner who is willing to guess, risks making mistakes and tries to communicate in the L2 will tend, given the opportunity to be more successful.
Input & Output
Input is the language that the learner is exposed. It has to be compressible by using simpler structure and vocabulary in a variety of speech known as foreigner talk. It provides the beginning learner with clearer examples of the basic structure of the L2 as input.
Negotiated input is the L2 material that the learner can acquire in interaction through requests for clarification and active attention being focused on what’s said.
Output is the language which learners produce in meaningful interaction. The opportunity to produce it is the most crucial factor in the learner’s development of L2 abilities. Task-based learning provides learners opportunities to interact with each other.
Communicative Competence
Communicative competence is using the L2 accurately, appropriately and flexibly. It has got three components. The first component is grammatical competence which involves the accurate use of words and structures in the L2. Sociolinguistic competence provides the learner with the ability to interpret or produce language appropriately. Strategic competence is the ability to organize message effectively and to compensate for any difficulties. ( using a communicative strategy not to stop talking – defining the word you don’t know )
Applied Linguistics
It is the area which investigates the ralation between language and other fields as Education, Psychology, Sociology.
UNIT 19 : LANGUAGE, HISTORY & CHANGE
Languages are believed to be descendants on the basis of similar features existing in records.
Family Tree
Historical study of languages is described as philology. These studies incorporated the notion that this was the original form (proto) of a language which was the source of modern languages in the Indian-sub-continent (Indo) and in Europe (European). Pro-Indo-European was established as the great-grandmother of many modern languages. (German,Italian,English). There are about 30 such language families which have produced the more than 4000 languages in the world. In terms of numbers of speakers, Chinese ( 1 billion ), English ( 350 million ), Spanish ( 300 million ), Hindi ( 200 million ) and Arabic & Russian ( 150 million ) are used in the world. But English is more widely used one of all.
Family Relationships
Language groups in a language familya re related. So Indo-European languages are related to each other. One way to see the relationships more clearly is by looking at records of an older generation from which the modern languages developed. The fact that close similarities occur ( especially in the pronounciation of the forms ) is good evidance for proposing a family connection.
Cognates
Within groups of relate dlanguages, we often find close similarities in particular sets of terms. A cognate of a word in one language is a word in another language which has a similar form and is used with a similar meaning.
True Cognates : Radio, Television, Empathy
False Cognates : Apartment, Sympathetic
Comparative Reconstruction
The aim of this procedure is to reconstruct what must have been the original or proto form in the common ancestral language. In carrying out this procedure, there are some general principles:
The Majority Principle : If in a cognate set, 3 forms begin with a [p] sound and one form begins with [b] sound, the majority have retained the original sound [p].
The Most Natural Development Principle : It’s based on the fact that certain types of sound-change are very common, whereas others are extremely unlikely.
Types of sound change :
1- Final vowels often disappear ( cavallo-caval )
2- Voiceless sounds become voice between vowels ( mube-mupe )
3- Stops become fricatives ( under certain conditions ) ( cavallo-cheval )
4- Consonants become voiceless at the end of the words
Language Change
Written forms from an older period of a language may not bear any resemblance to the written English to the written English to be found in our daily newspaper. Languages undergo some substantial changes through time. Historical development of English is usually divided into three periods :
Old English ( 7th-11th century ) : The primary sources for English languages were the Germanic languages spoken by a group of tribes from northern Europe who invaded the British Isles in the 5th century AD. These tribes were Angles, Saxons and Jutes from the 6th to 8th century, there was a period in which these Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity and a number of terms from the language of religion, Latin, came into English at that time. From the 8th century through the 10th century, Vikings and their language, old Norse, came to setle in, parts of the coastal regions of Britain.
Middle English ( 12th-16th century ) : This period starts with the arrival of the Norman French in English in 1066. These French-speaking invaded proceeded to take over the whole of England. They became the ruling class, so that the language of nobility, the government, the law and civilized behaviour in England fort he next 2 hundred years was French. In the late 14th century, it has changed substantially from Old English but several changes were yet to take place before the language took on its modern form. Borrowed words, external changes and internal changes can be noted in the development of English.
Sound Changes
One of the diffrences between the Modern English and the Middle English is in quality of vowel sounds. ( Long vowels are shortened ) . Some sounds disappeared from the general pronounciation of English ( /x/ in (nixt) nicht
The change known as “Metathesis” involves a reversal in position of two adjoining or non-adjoining sounds.
e.g. acsian-ask
bridd-bird
waeps-wasp
frist-first
Another change involves three addition of a sound to the middle of a word which is known as “Epenthesis”.
e.g. aemtig-empty
spinel-spindle
Another change involves the addition of a sound to the beginning of a word and is called “Prothesis”.
e.g. schola-escuela
Spiritus-espiritu
Syntactic Changes
In Old English, we can find a number of different orders which are no longer possible. For ex. Subject can follow the verb and the object can be placed before the ver bor at the beginning of a sentence. Double negative construction was also possible. We can also the loss of a large number of inflectional affixes from many parts of speech.
Lexical Changes
Modern English differs lexically from Old English in the number of borrowed words, particularly from Latin and Grek. Some words are no longer in general use in Modern English since we no longer need those things. Broadening is kind of lexical change in which a word which carries a specific meaning is used as a general term. ( Holy day- Holiday ) Reserve process is called Narrowing. A word which is used as a general term become restricted to only some specific things. ( meat – any food meat – a specific food )
The Process of Change
Changes are gradual and difficult to discern while they are in progress. Major social changes, wars,invasions and cultural transmission can be linked to language change. Each new language-user has to recreate for himself the language of the community. There is also occasional desire to be different.
UNIT 20 : LANGUAGE VARIETIES
a- The Standard Language
Standard English is the variety which forms the basis of printed English in newspapers and books, which is used in the mass media and which is thought in schools. It is more easily described in terms of the written language than the spoken language.
b- Accent & Dialect
Accent is the description of aspects of pronounciation which identify where an individual speaker is from, regionally or socially.
Dialect describes features of grammar & vocabulary, as well as aspects of pronounciation.
c- Regional Dialects
Some regional dialects clearly have stereotyped pronounciations associated with them. The informants in many dialect surveys tended to be NORMS, or non-mobile, older, rural, male speakers. Such speakers were selected because it was believed that they were less likely to have influences from outside the region in their speech.
d- Isoglosses & Dialect Boundaries
Isogloss is the line which represents a boundary between the areas with regard to that one particular linguistic item. ( e.g. paper bag / paper sack )
Dialect Boundary is a more solid line of a number of isoglosses.
e- The Dialect Continuum
Isoglosses and dialect boundaries don’t have sharp breaks from one region to the next, they exist along a continuum.
Speakers who move back and forth across tis border, using different varieties with some ease, may be described as bilialectal.
f- Bilingualism
People who know two district languages are called bilinguals. Bilingualism can be resulted from political, social or individual.
g- Language Planning
Government, legal and educational bodies in many countries have to plan which varieties of the language spoken in the country are to be used for official business.
Language planning has five steps :
1- “ Selection “ : Choosing an official language.
2- “ Codification “ : Basic grammars, dictionaries and written models used to establish the standard variety.
3- “ Elaboration “ : The standard variety being developed for use in all aspects of social life and the appearance of a body of literary work written in the standard.
4- “ Implementation “ : Government encourages use of the standard.
5- “ Acceptance “ : When a substantial majority of the population have come to use the standard as the national language, not only social, but also national identity.
h- Pidgins & Creoles
A pidgin is a variety of a language ( e.g. English ) which developed for some practical purpose ( e.g. trading ). The English Pidgins are characterized by an absense of any complex grammatical morphology and a limited vocabulary. E.g. : plural – s and possessive – ‘s are very rare in the English Pidgins.
e.g. : Functional morphemes often take the place of inflectional morphemes found in the source language.
( instead of your they use belong you )
Your book = buk bilong yu
When a Pidgin develops beyond its role as a trade language and becomes the first language of a social community, it is described as a Creole. A Creole develops as the first language of the children of Pidgin speakers. Creoles have large numbers of native speakers and are not restricted at all in their uses.
ı- The Past Creole Continuum
“ Creolization “ : Development from a Pidgin to a Creole.
“ Decreolization “ : Development from a Creole to a variety that is closer to the external standard models.
The more basic variety is called “ basilect “ .
The variety closer to the external model is “ Acrolect “ .
Between these two there’s a range of different varieties : “ Mesolects “.
This is called the Past-Creole Continuum.
UNIT 21 : LANGUAGE, SOCIETY & CULTURE
A speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms, rules and expectations regarding the use of language. Investigating language from this persective is known as “ Socio linguistics “.
A- Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics deals with the inter-relationships between language and society. It has strong connections to :
a-Anthropology : Through the investigation of language and culture.
b-Sociology : Through the curicial role that language plays in the organization of social groups and institutions.
c-Social psychology : How attitudes and perceptions are expressed and how in – group and out -group behaviors are identified.
B- Social Dialects
Social dialects are varieties of language used by groups defined according to class, education, age, sex, and a number of other special parameters.
Prestige : It exists because of the interaction between social values and language use.
a- Overt Prestige : Generally recognized “ better “ or positively valued ways of speaking in social communities.
b- Covert Prestige : “ Hidden “ type of positive value is often attached to non-standard forms and expectations by certain sub-groups. ( e.g schoolboys )
B1- Social Class and Education
People who go to college or university tend to have spoken language features which derive from a lot of time spent working with the written language.
Social class; it seems that the higher the socio economic status, the more [r] sound is produced. In reading, the lower/ working class speakers tend to produce more [r] sounds.
B2- Age and Gender
Variation according to age is most noticeable across the grandparent-grandchild time span.
Gender : Female speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than male speakers with the same gemeral social background.
In same gender pairs having conversations : Women generally discuss their personal feelings more than men. / Men appear to prefer non-personal topics such as sport and news.
Men tend to respond to an expression of feelings or problems by giving advice on solution / women mention personal experiences that match or connect with the other woman’s.
Women co-operate and seek connection via language. / Men are more competitive and concerned with power via language.
In mix-gender pairs having conversations the rate of men interrupting women is substantially greater than the reserve.
C- Ethnic Background
Black English Vernacular ( BEV ) is a widespread social dialect, of ten cutting across regional differences. When a group with in a society undergoes some form of social isolation, such as the discrimination or segregation experienced historically by African-Americans, than social dialect differences become more marked.
The priorities of BEV :
a- Frequent absence of the copula : They mine/ You crazy etc.
b- Double-negative constructions : He don’t know nothing etc.
D- Idiolect
It is used for personal dialect of each individual speaker of a language. Voice quality and physical state contribute to the identifying features in an individual’s speech. You are what you say.
E- Style / Register / Jargon
Style : There is a gradation of style of speech from the very formal to the very informal. Differences in style can also be found in written language.
Variation according to use in specific situations is also studied in terms of register. ( Religious / legal / linguistics register etc … )
Jargon can be defined as technical vocabulary associated with a special activity or group.
F- Diglossia
To say the right thing to the right person at the right time is a monumental social accomplishment. The choise of appropriate linguistic forms is made a little more straightforward because of diolossia. There are two varities of language co-exist in a speech community. “ High “ variety, for formal or serious matters, “ Low “ variety, for conversational and other informal uses.
G- Language & Culture
Culture : Socially acquired knowledge.
Different groups have different languages and they have different world views which are reflected in their languages.
H- Linguistic Determinism
Your language will give you a ready – made system of categorizing what you perceive, you will be led to perceive the world around you only in those categories.
Linguistic determinism : Language determines the thought. You can only think in the categories which your language allows you to think in.
I- Language Universal
All languages have certain common properties, these are called language universals.
There is some innate disposition in the human infant to acquire language. This can be called as the “ language-faculty” of the human with each newborn child is endowed. By itself, this faculty is not enough.
Basic Requirements
1- Acquiring the first language interaction with other language users in order to bring the language faculty into operation.
2- The child who does not hear or isn’t allowed to use language will learn no language. Hearing is necessary but not enough.
3- The crucial requirement appears to be the opportunity to interact with others ula language. Since it is not genetically inherited, it is acquired in a particular language using environment.
The Acquisition Schedule
Language acquisition schedule has the same basis as the biologically determined development of motor skills. This biologically schedule is tied to the maturation of the infant’s brain and the lateralization process. This biological program is dependent on an interplay with many social factors in the child’s environment. Acquisition requires constant input from which the basis of the regularities in the particular language can be worked out.
Caretaker Speech
The simplified speech style adopted by someone who spends a lot of time interacting with a young child is called caretaker speech. ( Motherese ) Frequent questions, exaggerated intonation, simplified words and structures and a lot of repetition characterize caretaker’s speech.
Pre-language Stages
The pre-linguistic sounds are called “cooing” and “babbling” ( from about 3 months to 10 months ). First recognizable sounds are described as Cooing with velar consonants such as [k] and [g] as well as high vowels such as [I] and . ( By 3 months )
By 6 months, the child can produce a number of different vowels and consonants such as fricatives and nasals. Babbling stage may contain syllable type sounds such as “mu” and “da”. Around 9 months, there are recognizable intonation patterns to the consonant and vowel combinations being produced. Around 10th and 11th months, they are capable of using their vocalization to express emotions and emphasis.
[u]The One Word or Holophrastic Stage
Between 12-18 months, they produce single units utterances. ( Milk, Cookie, Cat ) . It is holophrastic because the child can use a single form functioning as a phrase or sentence. ( What’s that ? )
The Two-Word Stage
Between 12 months and 24 months , the child’s vocabulary moves beyond fifty distinct words. A variety of combinations appear in this stage ( mummy eat, cat bed ) . The child not only produces speech but receives feedback which usually confirms that the utterance worked. Children can understand five times as many than they produce.
Telegraphic Speech
Between 2 and 3 years old, the child begins producing a large number of utterances which could be classified as multiple-word utterances. Word-form variations begin to appear. The child has clearly developed some sentence-building capacity by this stage and can order the forms correctly. By the age of two and a half, the child’s vocabulary is expanding rapidly and the child is initiating more talk. By three, the vocabulary has grown to hundreds of words and pronounciation has become closer to the form of the adult language.
The Acquisition Process
For the vast majority of children, no one provides any instruction on how to speak the language, the child is not being taught the language. Children actively construct, from what’s said to them, possible ways of using the language and test whether they work or not. It’s impossible to say that the child is acquiring the language through a process of consistently imitating adult speech in parrot-fashion. Adults simply don’t produce many of the types of expressions which turn up in children’s speech.
Morphology
By the time the child is 3 years old, he starts to use some of the inflectional morphemes which indicate the grammatical function of the nouns and verbs used. First, -ing form appears in expressions such as “ cat sitting “ . Then plural morpheme –s comes as in “boys” . Acquisition of this form is often accompanied by a process of overgeneralization ( adding –s to form plurals as in foots, mans ). Then possessive inflectional –‘s occurs as in “ Mummy’s book “. Irregular past-tense forms appear before –ed inflection in child’s speech. Finally the regular –s marker on third person singular present tense verbs appears. –s occurs with full verbs first ( comes,looks ) and then with auxiliaries ( does, has ) .
Syntax
In the formation of questions and the use of negatives there appear to be three identifiable stages. Stage 1 occurs between 18 and 26 months, Stage 2 between 22 and 30 months and Stage 3 between 24 and 40 months. ( Different children proceed at different paces ) .
Questions
Stage 1 : Simply add a WH- form to the beginning or utter the expression with a rising intonation.
Where kitty?
Sit chair ?
Stage 2 : More complex expressions can be formed but raising intonation strategy continues to be used.
Why you smiling ?
You want eat ?
Stage 3 : Inversion appears but the WH- forms don’t always undergo the required inversion.
Can I have a piece ?
Will you help me ?
Why kitty can’t stand up?
Negatives
Stage 1 : “No” or “Not” should be at the beginning of any expression.
No fall
No sit there
Stage 2 : “Don’t” and “ can’t” appear but “no” and “not” are stil used but in front of the verb.
He no bite you.
I don!t know.
You can’t dance.
Stage 3 : “Didn’t” and “ won’t” appear. Acquisition of the form “isn’t” is the latest.
I didn’t caught it.
She won’t let go.
He not taking it.
Semantic
During the holophrastic stage, many children use their limited vocabulary to refer to a large number of unrelated objects ( bow-wow to refer to a dog ). Sometimes children use bow-wow ot refer to cats and horses. This is called “ overextension “ which is done on the basis of similarities of shape, sound and size. The semantic development in child is use of words is usually a process of overextension initially,followed by a gradual process of narrowing down the application of each term as more words are learned. In terms of hyponomy, the child will almost always use the middle level term in a hyponymous set such as animal – dog –poodle. It also seems that antonymous relations are acquired fairly late. ( after the age of 5 )
* By the age of 5, the child has completed the greater part of basic language acquisition process. According to some, the child is then in a good position to start learning a second language.
UNIT 17 : SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION/LEARNING
Acquisition Barriers
1- Most people attempt to learn another language during their teenage or adult years.
2- In a few hours each week of school time.
3- With a lot of other occupations.
4- With an already known language available for most of their daily communicative requirements.
5- Adults’ tongues get stiff from pronouncing one type of long and just can not cope with the new sounds of another language. ( There is no physical evidance to support it. )
Acquisition & Learning
Acquisition refers to the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situations.
Learning refers to conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of a language.
• Even in ideal acquisition situations, very few adults seem to reach native-like proficiency in using a second language. There one individuals who can achieve great expertise in writing, but not in speaking. This might suggest that some features ( vocabulary, grammar ) of a second language are easier to acquire than others ( phonology ) .
• After the Critical Period ( around puberty ) , it becomes very difficult to acquire another language fully. Because long faculty being strongly taken over by the features of the L1 loses its flexibility or openness to receive the features of another language. For the second language, the optimum age may be during the years from ten to sixteen when the flexibility of the language acquisition faculty hasn’t been completely last and the maturation of cognitive skills allows a more effective “ working out “ of the regular features of the L2 encountered.
The Affective Filter
Affect is a type of emotional reaction. Affective filter is a kind of barrier to acquisition that results from negative feelings or experiences. If you are stressed, uncomfortable, self-conscious or unmotivated, you are unlikely to learn anything.
• Children seem to be less constrained by the effective filter.
Focus on Method
A variety of educational approaches and methods which are aimed at fostering L2 learning has been led. In 1483, William Caxton used his newly established course material for L2 learners. It was in phrase book format.
Grammar-Translation Method
Long lists of words and a set of grammatical rules have to be memorized and the written language rather than the spoken language is emphasized. It is inefficient because it is not focused on how the language is used.
Audio-Lingual Method
It emphasizes the spoken language moving the simple to the more complex in the form of drills which the student had to repeat. FLL is a mechanical process of habit formation. Its critics pointed out that isolated practise in drilling language patterns bears no resemblance to the interactional nature of actual language use. It can also be boring.
Communicative Approaches
Against the artificiality, the functions of language should be emphasized rather than the forms of the language. ( Asking for things in different social contexts rather than the forms of the past tense in different sentences. )
Focus on Learner
An error is not something which hinders a student’s progress, but is a clue to the active learning process being made by a student as he or she tries out ways of communicating in the new language.
Creative Construction
Creative construction is used by the learner in accordance with tyhe most general way of making forms in English. ( Women’s is formed by using the most general way of making plural forms which is also called overgeneralization. )
Some erors may be due to the transfer of expressions or structures from the L1. If the L1 and the L2 have similar features, then the learner may be able to benefit from the Positive Transfer of L1 knowledge. Tranfering a L1 feture that is really different from L2 results in Negative Transfer which isn’t effective for L2 communication. (inference)
Interlanguage
There is some in-between system used in L2 acquisition which contains aspects of L1 and L2 but which is an inherently variable system with rules of its own. This system is called an Interlanguage and it is basis of all L2 production. If a learner’s L2 forms contain many features which don’t match the target language, they don’t progress any further and their interlanguage is fossilized.
Motivation
Students who experience some success are among the most motivated to learn. And motivation may be as much a result of success as a cause. The learner who is willing to guess, risks making mistakes and tries to communicate in the L2 will tend, given the opportunity to be more successful.
Input & Output
Input is the language that the learner is exposed. It has to be compressible by using simpler structure and vocabulary in a variety of speech known as foreigner talk. It provides the beginning learner with clearer examples of the basic structure of the L2 as input.
Negotiated input is the L2 material that the learner can acquire in interaction through requests for clarification and active attention being focused on what’s said.
Output is the language which learners produce in meaningful interaction. The opportunity to produce it is the most crucial factor in the learner’s development of L2 abilities. Task-based learning provides learners opportunities to interact with each other.
Communicative Competence
Communicative competence is using the L2 accurately, appropriately and flexibly. It has got three components. The first component is grammatical competence which involves the accurate use of words and structures in the L2. Sociolinguistic competence provides the learner with the ability to interpret or produce language appropriately. Strategic competence is the ability to organize message effectively and to compensate for any difficulties. ( using a communicative strategy not to stop talking – defining the word you don’t know )
Applied Linguistics
It is the area which investigates the ralation between language and other fields as Education, Psychology, Sociology.
UNIT 19 : LANGUAGE, HISTORY & CHANGE
Languages are believed to be descendants on the basis of similar features existing in records.
Family Tree
Historical study of languages is described as philology. These studies incorporated the notion that this was the original form (proto) of a language which was the source of modern languages in the Indian-sub-continent (Indo) and in Europe (European). Pro-Indo-European was established as the great-grandmother of many modern languages. (German,Italian,English). There are about 30 such language families which have produced the more than 4000 languages in the world. In terms of numbers of speakers, Chinese ( 1 billion ), English ( 350 million ), Spanish ( 300 million ), Hindi ( 200 million ) and Arabic & Russian ( 150 million ) are used in the world. But English is more widely used one of all.
Family Relationships
Language groups in a language familya re related. So Indo-European languages are related to each other. One way to see the relationships more clearly is by looking at records of an older generation from which the modern languages developed. The fact that close similarities occur ( especially in the pronounciation of the forms ) is good evidance for proposing a family connection.
Cognates
Within groups of relate dlanguages, we often find close similarities in particular sets of terms. A cognate of a word in one language is a word in another language which has a similar form and is used with a similar meaning.
True Cognates : Radio, Television, Empathy
False Cognates : Apartment, Sympathetic
Comparative Reconstruction
The aim of this procedure is to reconstruct what must have been the original or proto form in the common ancestral language. In carrying out this procedure, there are some general principles:
The Majority Principle : If in a cognate set, 3 forms begin with a [p] sound and one form begins with [b] sound, the majority have retained the original sound [p].
The Most Natural Development Principle : It’s based on the fact that certain types of sound-change are very common, whereas others are extremely unlikely.
Types of sound change :
1- Final vowels often disappear ( cavallo-caval )
2- Voiceless sounds become voice between vowels ( mube-mupe )
3- Stops become fricatives ( under certain conditions ) ( cavallo-cheval )
4- Consonants become voiceless at the end of the words
Language Change
Written forms from an older period of a language may not bear any resemblance to the written English to the written English to be found in our daily newspaper. Languages undergo some substantial changes through time. Historical development of English is usually divided into three periods :
Old English ( 7th-11th century ) : The primary sources for English languages were the Germanic languages spoken by a group of tribes from northern Europe who invaded the British Isles in the 5th century AD. These tribes were Angles, Saxons and Jutes from the 6th to 8th century, there was a period in which these Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity and a number of terms from the language of religion, Latin, came into English at that time. From the 8th century through the 10th century, Vikings and their language, old Norse, came to setle in, parts of the coastal regions of Britain.
Middle English ( 12th-16th century ) : This period starts with the arrival of the Norman French in English in 1066. These French-speaking invaded proceeded to take over the whole of England. They became the ruling class, so that the language of nobility, the government, the law and civilized behaviour in England fort he next 2 hundred years was French. In the late 14th century, it has changed substantially from Old English but several changes were yet to take place before the language took on its modern form. Borrowed words, external changes and internal changes can be noted in the development of English.
Sound Changes
One of the diffrences between the Modern English and the Middle English is in quality of vowel sounds. ( Long vowels are shortened ) . Some sounds disappeared from the general pronounciation of English ( /x/ in (nixt) nicht
The change known as “Metathesis” involves a reversal in position of two adjoining or non-adjoining sounds.
e.g. acsian-ask
bridd-bird
waeps-wasp
frist-first
Another change involves three addition of a sound to the middle of a word which is known as “Epenthesis”.
e.g. aemtig-empty
spinel-spindle
Another change involves the addition of a sound to the beginning of a word and is called “Prothesis”.
e.g. schola-escuela
Spiritus-espiritu
Syntactic Changes
In Old English, we can find a number of different orders which are no longer possible. For ex. Subject can follow the verb and the object can be placed before the ver bor at the beginning of a sentence. Double negative construction was also possible. We can also the loss of a large number of inflectional affixes from many parts of speech.
Lexical Changes
Modern English differs lexically from Old English in the number of borrowed words, particularly from Latin and Grek. Some words are no longer in general use in Modern English since we no longer need those things. Broadening is kind of lexical change in which a word which carries a specific meaning is used as a general term. ( Holy day- Holiday ) Reserve process is called Narrowing. A word which is used as a general term become restricted to only some specific things. ( meat – any food meat – a specific food )
The Process of Change
Changes are gradual and difficult to discern while they are in progress. Major social changes, wars,invasions and cultural transmission can be linked to language change. Each new language-user has to recreate for himself the language of the community. There is also occasional desire to be different.
UNIT 20 : LANGUAGE VARIETIES
a- The Standard Language
Standard English is the variety which forms the basis of printed English in newspapers and books, which is used in the mass media and which is thought in schools. It is more easily described in terms of the written language than the spoken language.
b- Accent & Dialect
Accent is the description of aspects of pronounciation which identify where an individual speaker is from, regionally or socially.
Dialect describes features of grammar & vocabulary, as well as aspects of pronounciation.
c- Regional Dialects
Some regional dialects clearly have stereotyped pronounciations associated with them. The informants in many dialect surveys tended to be NORMS, or non-mobile, older, rural, male speakers. Such speakers were selected because it was believed that they were less likely to have influences from outside the region in their speech.
d- Isoglosses & Dialect Boundaries
Isogloss is the line which represents a boundary between the areas with regard to that one particular linguistic item. ( e.g. paper bag / paper sack )
Dialect Boundary is a more solid line of a number of isoglosses.
e- The Dialect Continuum
Isoglosses and dialect boundaries don’t have sharp breaks from one region to the next, they exist along a continuum.
Speakers who move back and forth across tis border, using different varieties with some ease, may be described as bilialectal.
f- Bilingualism
People who know two district languages are called bilinguals. Bilingualism can be resulted from political, social or individual.
g- Language Planning
Government, legal and educational bodies in many countries have to plan which varieties of the language spoken in the country are to be used for official business.
Language planning has five steps :
1- “ Selection “ : Choosing an official language.
2- “ Codification “ : Basic grammars, dictionaries and written models used to establish the standard variety.
3- “ Elaboration “ : The standard variety being developed for use in all aspects of social life and the appearance of a body of literary work written in the standard.
4- “ Implementation “ : Government encourages use of the standard.
5- “ Acceptance “ : When a substantial majority of the population have come to use the standard as the national language, not only social, but also national identity.
h- Pidgins & Creoles
A pidgin is a variety of a language ( e.g. English ) which developed for some practical purpose ( e.g. trading ). The English Pidgins are characterized by an absense of any complex grammatical morphology and a limited vocabulary. E.g. : plural – s and possessive – ‘s are very rare in the English Pidgins.
e.g. : Functional morphemes often take the place of inflectional morphemes found in the source language.
( instead of your they use belong you )
Your book = buk bilong yu
When a Pidgin develops beyond its role as a trade language and becomes the first language of a social community, it is described as a Creole. A Creole develops as the first language of the children of Pidgin speakers. Creoles have large numbers of native speakers and are not restricted at all in their uses.
ı- The Past Creole Continuum
“ Creolization “ : Development from a Pidgin to a Creole.
“ Decreolization “ : Development from a Creole to a variety that is closer to the external standard models.
The more basic variety is called “ basilect “ .
The variety closer to the external model is “ Acrolect “ .
Between these two there’s a range of different varieties : “ Mesolects “.
This is called the Past-Creole Continuum.
UNIT 21 : LANGUAGE, SOCIETY & CULTURE
A speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms, rules and expectations regarding the use of language. Investigating language from this persective is known as “ Socio linguistics “.
A- Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics deals with the inter-relationships between language and society. It has strong connections to :
a-Anthropology : Through the investigation of language and culture.
b-Sociology : Through the curicial role that language plays in the organization of social groups and institutions.
c-Social psychology : How attitudes and perceptions are expressed and how in – group and out -group behaviors are identified.
B- Social Dialects
Social dialects are varieties of language used by groups defined according to class, education, age, sex, and a number of other special parameters.
Prestige : It exists because of the interaction between social values and language use.
a- Overt Prestige : Generally recognized “ better “ or positively valued ways of speaking in social communities.
b- Covert Prestige : “ Hidden “ type of positive value is often attached to non-standard forms and expectations by certain sub-groups. ( e.g schoolboys )
B1- Social Class and Education
People who go to college or university tend to have spoken language features which derive from a lot of time spent working with the written language.
Social class; it seems that the higher the socio economic status, the more [r] sound is produced. In reading, the lower/ working class speakers tend to produce more [r] sounds.
B2- Age and Gender
Variation according to age is most noticeable across the grandparent-grandchild time span.
Gender : Female speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than male speakers with the same gemeral social background.
In same gender pairs having conversations : Women generally discuss their personal feelings more than men. / Men appear to prefer non-personal topics such as sport and news.
Men tend to respond to an expression of feelings or problems by giving advice on solution / women mention personal experiences that match or connect with the other woman’s.
Women co-operate and seek connection via language. / Men are more competitive and concerned with power via language.
In mix-gender pairs having conversations the rate of men interrupting women is substantially greater than the reserve.
C- Ethnic Background
Black English Vernacular ( BEV ) is a widespread social dialect, of ten cutting across regional differences. When a group with in a society undergoes some form of social isolation, such as the discrimination or segregation experienced historically by African-Americans, than social dialect differences become more marked.
The priorities of BEV :
a- Frequent absence of the copula : They mine/ You crazy etc.
b- Double-negative constructions : He don’t know nothing etc.
D- Idiolect
It is used for personal dialect of each individual speaker of a language. Voice quality and physical state contribute to the identifying features in an individual’s speech. You are what you say.
E- Style / Register / Jargon
Style : There is a gradation of style of speech from the very formal to the very informal. Differences in style can also be found in written language.
Variation according to use in specific situations is also studied in terms of register. ( Religious / legal / linguistics register etc … )
Jargon can be defined as technical vocabulary associated with a special activity or group.
F- Diglossia
To say the right thing to the right person at the right time is a monumental social accomplishment. The choise of appropriate linguistic forms is made a little more straightforward because of diolossia. There are two varities of language co-exist in a speech community. “ High “ variety, for formal or serious matters, “ Low “ variety, for conversational and other informal uses.
G- Language & Culture
Culture : Socially acquired knowledge.
Different groups have different languages and they have different world views which are reflected in their languages.
H- Linguistic Determinism
Your language will give you a ready – made system of categorizing what you perceive, you will be led to perceive the world around you only in those categories.
Linguistic determinism : Language determines the thought. You can only think in the categories which your language allows you to think in.
I- Language Universal
All languages have certain common properties, these are called language universals.
