developmental sequences in learner language

Developmental Sequences in Learner Language

The Silent PeriodIn L1 acquisition, children go through a lengthy period of listening to people talk to them before they produce their first words.This silent period is necessary for the young learners to discover what language is and what it does.In L2 acquisition, the silent period is not necessary, since the learner already knows about language, having already acquired one. Yet, many L2 learners, opt for a silent period.Saville-Troike (1988), reports that six out of nine children learning L2 English that she studied opted for a silent period. Not all learners go through a silent period, as Saville-Troike’s study shows. Many learners, particularly classroom learners, are obliged to speak from the beginning.


The Silent PeriodGibbons (1985), reviewed the evidence in favour of a silent period in both children and adults and found it inconclusive. His own survey of 47 children learning English as an L2 in Sydney primary schools revealed considerable individual variation, with a mean length of just two weeks in silence.There is some disagreement regarding the contribution that the silent period makes to language learning.Krashen (1982), argued that it provides an opportunity for the learner to build up competence via listening while Itoh and Hatch (1978), refer to the silent period as a ‘rejection stage’ in which the learner tries to avoid learning English.


The Silent PeriodThe silent period provides learners with opportunities to prepare themselves for social use of the L2 by means of PRIVATE SPEECH which they engage in while they are ‘silent.Saville-Troike, defines silent speech as speech that is produced at a very low volume which is inaudible to anyone present and does not expect any response.In general, in L2 acquisition, early language is characterized by a silent period although not all learners go through this period.


Formulaic SequencesFormulaic sequences consist of expressions which are learnt as unanalysable wholes and employed on particular occasions. It differs from creative speech. Two types of Formulaic sequences according to Hakuta (19760, Krashen and Scarcella (1978)- ROUTINES and PATTERNS – refer respectively to whole utterances learnt as memorized chunks (eg: ‘I don’t know’) and utterances that are only partially unanalysed and have one or more open slots (eg: ‘Can I have a__________?’)Formulaic speech can also be observed in the speech of native speakers (eg: ‘Can I come in?’, ‘What’s for dinner?’).Formulaic sequences have been observed to be very common to all learners in L2 acquisition, irrespective of their age, particularly in the early stages.


Structural and Semantic SimplificationIn comparison with formulaic speech, learners early creative utterances are typically truncated, consisting of just one or two words, with both grammatical functors and content words missing. Hanania and Gradman (1977) gave the following examples produced by their adult subject Fatmah:library (= He is in the library)clean floor (= give me something for cleaning floors.)Ellis (1984) found further evidence of simplified speech in the speech of three children learning English in a classroom setting.Me no blue (= I don’t have a blue crayon)Eating at school (= she eats meat at school)These utterances indicate that both structural and semantic simplification are taking place in learner language.


The Acquisition of Grammatical Morphemes : Order and SequenceMuch of the early research focussed on the order of acquisition while subsequent research has increasingly paid attention to sequence of stages evident in the acquisition of a single feature as well as order.Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of a language.Eg: developmental = develop + ment + alEarly studies of the acquisition of grammatical morphemes such as plural – s and articles produced mixed results.The morpheme order acquisition is not the same in L1 and L2 acquisition. Dulay and Burt (1974), studied the acquisition of 10 grammatical morphemes by children learning English as a second language .


The Acquisition of Grammatical Morphemes : Order and SequenceUsing the ‘Bilingual Syntax Measure’ they counted morpheme use in obligatory contexts, that is, a context where the item was obligatory in correct native speaker speech.They compared the acquisition order they obtained with the acquisition order for the same morphemes obtained in both longitudinal studies and cross-sectional of L1 English. They found that the orders were different.Articles, copula and auxiliary ‘be’ were acquired earlier by L2 learners while irregular past tense was acquired later.The process by which individual morphemes are acquired displays both similarities and differences. For example: both L1 and L2 learners omit pronouns and they both overgeneralize individual pronouns.In general , the morpheme acquisition order studies appear to show strong evidence of a natural sequence, but there is also evidence that points to differences.


The Acquisition of Tense and AspectThe morpheme studies belong to an early period in SLA (the 1970s and 1980s), however, tense and aspect, both of which involve the acquisition of morphological features, have been studied intensively in SLA in more recent years.Studies of the acquisition of tense and aspect lend strong support to the existence of developmental patterns in L2 acquisition.Learners of different L2s manifest similar patterns of development when acquiring tense and aspect.Klein (1995), identified the following order of acquisition of English tense-aspect morphological forms in a longitudinal study of an Italian learner:Third person – s and present tense copulaIrregular past tense forms and verb-ingPresent perfect formsRegular past tense formsFuture with ‘shall’ or ‘will’Past perfect formsBardovi-Halig (2000) reported a similar order in her longitudinal study of 16 learners of L2 English from 4 different language back grounds.past > past progressive > present perfect > past perfect


The Acquisition of Tense and AspectProposed ‘natural order’ for L2 acquisition


The Acquisition of Syntactic Structures - NegativesA number of studies which examined the acquisition of negatives in English and German provide evidence of a clear sequence of development.The acquisition of negation shows clear transitional structures which involves a series of forms which learners use en route to mastering the target language form. EXAMPLES OF ENGLISH: no swim (at the beginning of the utterance) – external negation I no can swim (the negative article comes inside the utterance) internal negation I can’t swim (negative is attached to modal verbs)These forms are indicative of the developmental stages that learners pass through on the way to TL competence.Examples of negatives : no, not, don’t, doesn’t, didn’t won’t, can’t


The Acquisition of Syntactic Structures - Relative ClausesStudies on the acquisition of relative clauses also provide evidence of an order of acquisition.There is evidence that learners solve it piecemeal by learning to modify noun phrases before the verb, and then noun phrases that follow the verb.Examples :‘A beautiful girl who lives next door.’‘I got a friend who speaks fluent English.’

Also, learners acquire the functions that relative pronouns can perform in a fairly well-defined order.

Developmental Sequences in Learner LanguageThe Acquisition of Syntactic StructuresThe ZISA project and research based on Pienamann’s Processibility Theory have provided impressive evidence to show that learners acquire a range of features in a predictable order.

Stage L2 Process Morphology/Syntax

6 Main and subordinate clauses

Embedded questions:‘I wonder why he sold the car.’

5 Subject-verb agreement 3rd person-s: ‘This man owns a dog

4 Inversion Yes/no inversion: ‘Has he seen you?’

3 Noun phrase agreement Plural: ‘He own many dogs’Adverb: ‘He sleeps always.’

2 Plural/possessive pronoun Canonical order (Subject-verb-object: ‘He buy car.’

1 Invariant forms Single constituent (including formulaic chunks) ‘eating’/ ‘I don’t know.’


The Acquisition of VocabularyTwo broad approaches to the study of developmental patterns in the acquisition of vocabulary can be identified:1) Longitudinal studies of L2 learners productive vocabulary2) Experimental studies of learners’ acquisition of individual words L2 acquisition, like the acquisition of grammar, is a slow and gradual process. Learners gradually extend their lexicons while simultaneously accumulating

knowledge of lexical forms and meanings. However, there is little evidence of any order or sequence. There is some evidence that early acquisition is characterized by nouns and

adjectives, with verbs only appearing later. But there does not seem to be any clear hierarchy in learners’ acquisition of

the properties of individual words. It is important to note that vocabulary constitutes an open system that is

not subject to ‘rules’ in the same way as grammar or phonology. The acquisition of vocabulary is seen as involving item rather than system

learning and for this reason is inherently ‘variational’.


The Acquisition of PhonologySimilarities are also evident in the acquisition of phonology, despite the fact that L2 learners are known to transfer features from their L1.Abrahamson (2003), claimed that closed syllable structure is essentially the same for L1 and L2 learners.When faced with articulating a closed syllable such as ‘sad’ learners are likely to either omit the final consonant (i.e. Say ‘sa’), add a vowel (i.e. Say ‘sadi’), or devoice the /d/ (i.e. Say ‘sat’)Thus, learners’ acquisition of closed syllable structure shows a staged progression from consonant deletion to epenthesis to feature substitution to target form.

developmental sequences in learner language

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