second language acquisition and materials development.pptx

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Second Language Acquisition

andMaterials Development

Brian Tomlinson

Presented by: Mehran Daghestani



Introduction

Second language acquisition (SLA)is the process by which people acquire

and/or learn any language in addition totheir frst language. It is also the name othe academic discipline which studiesthat process. Some SLA researchers use

the term 'acquisition' to reer to theinformal , subconscious process ogaining a language rom exposure and

use while resering the term 'learning'



!here is considerable controersyin the feld as to which o theseprocesses is the most li"ely to helpa learner to deelop the ability to

use a language e#ectiely butmost researchers seem to agreethat learning is insucient and

needs to be at least supplementedby acquisition.



Some researchers also di#erentiatebetween ‘acquisition’ and‘development’. $or example, !omlinson%&''(a, p. &) says that acquisition* is theinitial stage o gaining basiccommunicatie competence in a

language* and *deelopment* is thesubsequent stage o gaining the abilityto use the language successully in awide range o media and genres or awide ariety o purposes+.



esearch and !heory

It is generally agreed that SLA isacilitated by-

A rich and meaningful exposure tolanguage in use

rashen %01. 002) claimed thatexposure to comprehensible input was both

necessary and su3cient or SLA. Ideally theinput which the learners are exposed toshould be rich in the sense that it containsa lot o implicit informal about how thelanguage is actually used to achiee



It should also be meaningful inthe sense that it is relevant tothe learner and the learner is able

to understand enough o it togain meaning rom it.



Self#con$dence and self#esteem are also important aspects oa#ectie engagement as is feeling

positive about the learning

enironment.It is also ery important that learnersare cognitiely engaged by the textsand tas"s they are gien to use. !hey

need to use such high leel mentals%ills as inferencing, connecting,

predicting and evaluating while

processing language.



I they do, they are much more li"ely toachiee deep processing and toeentually acquire language and

develop language s%ills than i theyare restricts to using such low leeldecoding and encoding s"ills aslearning dictionar& de$nitions,

recogniing and repeating sounds,listening to and repeatingutterances, learning spellings and

reading aloud short phrases.



Making use of those mentalresources typically used incommunication in the L1

In the L-9e ma"e ull use o the resources

o our brain when we uselanguage $or example, whenlistening or reading we ma"euse o our inner voice to silentlyecho the utterances we hear or

see and to comment to ourseles



9e ma"e use o visual imaging torepresent the meaning o what is said

or written.:rior to spea%ing or riting we use

visual imaging and inner speech todeelop a mental representation o ourintended message and inner speech toprepare whet we are going to say orwrite.



;et when learning an L& learnersrarely ma"e use o these mentalresources at all.

!his is mainly because-

!hey are not encouraged to do soby their teachers and materials.

!heir reluctance to tolerateambiguity

!heir *need* to "now the meaning

o eerything



Noticing ho the L! is usedIt is essential or the learner to pay attentionto the salient eatures o the language theyencounter in order to eentually acquirethem. !he more the learner pays willingattention%either deliberately and consciouslyor incidentally and subconsciously) to a

eature o the language the more thelearner*s brain is li"ely to notice that eatureas salient in subsequent input and thereadier the learner will be or acquisition.



:ienneman %01<) claims that ps&chological readiness is animportant acilitator o acquisitionand that this can be in=uenced bymaterials and teachers. >ne way odoing this is to dra the

learner's attention tolanguage features in use ortas" completion.



A ery e#ectie way o helping learners toachiee ps&chological readiness is touse eperiential discover& approaches in which the learners frst o all respondpersonally to the content o an engagingwritten or spo"en text and then go bac" toma"e discoeries about the form and

function o a particular eature o thattext %!omlinson, 002, &''?b, &''(b@olitho et al., &''?@ olitho and !omlinson,&B'<)



Another way is to ma"e use o aorm7ocused approach %Long,00@ Cllis, &''&@ 9illiams, &''<@$otos 8 4assa5i, &''(.) in whichlearners frst ocus on themeaning o a text and later ocus

on the form and function o aspecifc linguistic eature.



"eing given opportunities forcontextuali#ed and purposefulcommunication in the L!

It has been ound that output %i.e. producinglanguage or communication) is also animportant acilitator o acquisition. It canproide learners with contetual feedbac% ,

it helps to automatie language! itconstitutes auto#input and it can elicitfurther comprehensible input too %Swam,00< 001@ Cllis, &''1@ >rtega, &'').



It seems that pushed output%communicating something which isnot easy to express) can beparticularly benefcial as itstretches the learner's

capabilities by ma"ing them ma"eull use o their acquired languageand o their strategic competence,as well as proiding opportunities or

new but comprehensible input romtheir interlocutors who are helpingthem to negotiate meaning.



"eing encouraged to interactLong %00D) posited an interactionhypothesis in which he claimed that oral

interaction in the L& creates propitiousconditions or its acquisition as it helpsto ma"e input more comprehensible, itproides meaningful feedbac% and it

pushes learners to modif& theiroutput .



"eing alloed to focus onmeaning

!he learner*s natural syllabus ismeaning#focused and it is generallyagreed upon by SLA researchers that

learners are more li"ely to acquireorms i their primary ocus is onmeaning rather than orm %:rabhu,01(@ Long, 00D@ Cllis, &''1, &').

Eoweer it does seem that moreattention to orm is needed as thelearner progresses to adanced leels.



>ne way o helping learners to acquirelanguage rom a ocus on meaning is touse an eperiential approach %olb,012@ !omlinson, &''?b) in which thelearners $rst eperience an engagingtext holisticall& , respond to itpersonally and then return to the text to

focus discretel& on a salient eature olanguage use.



>ther generally accepted acilitatorso language acquisition and

deelopment-

*eing relaed 7a condition in which

can be promoted by giing learnersthe time, silence andencouragement to use their inneroice%!omlinson 8 Aila, &''(a, b)

and by textboo"s using a personalvoice and chatting to their learnersin the informal a& %ec" et al.,00<@ !omlinson, &'a).



*eing motivated to participateand to learn%Fornyei, &'', &''<@Gshioda, &''?)@

eing helped to develop anemerging interlanguage whichgradually moes closer to thetarget language.

Feeloping h&potheses aboutho the language is used forcommunication%Hass 8 Selin"er,

&''1)@



*eing catered for as an individualwho might learn aster or slower than

others, who has preerences orcertain learning styles and who willnot use language with consistentaccuracy and e#ect %Arnold, 000@Fornyei &''<@ Cllis, &''1)@

+a%ing full use of non#linguisticmeans of communicating

%c6a#erty %&''2), c6a#erty 8Stam %&''1) ).

*eing read& to acquire a focusedfeature.



atch between SLA theory and CL! materials

!o try to gauge the match

between theory and practice !omlinson analyJed a number orecently published global

courseboo"s.9hat he ound is that there is aver& ea% match beteentheor& and practice.



Ee ound that-

,one of the courseboo%s focus on

meaning.

-ourseboo%s are all forms#focused

he ma/orit& of their activities are

language item practice activitiesSome of the courseboo%s providesome opportunities for noticingand most ma%e attempt at

personaliation.,one of them oer choice content!

route of activities.



According to !able &. in giing

scores out of 0 %with < indicating aperect match) !omlinson tried tobe as ob5ectie as possible. A

di#erent ealuator might haegien di#erent scores but hecannot imagine anybody giinghigh scores or any o the

categories.



It is particularly noticeable that- 1er& little use is made of

literature(ecept in global).

he tets are ver& short and simple.

+ost activities involve practicerather than use.

he topics and activities are bland

safehe learners are rarel& as%ed to be

creative

he learners are rarel& as%ed tothin% for themselves ece t in ust



he learners are rarel& as%ed to

spea% or rite at an& length.he learners are rarel& as%ed to

interact for a communicative purpose or at an& length

he units are predominantl&forms#focused.

All the units have revie

sections at the end but there islittle evidence of actualrec&cling of language in use.



All the boo%s and all the units inthem are ver& similar in theirapproach and in their frequent use

of conventional practice eercises.



!he big question is-

9hy is there typically such a wea"match between SLA theory andglobal courseboo"sK

1er& often SLA researchers endthe reports of their research b&sa&ing that the evidence isinconclusive or that more

research needs to be done.4ften research and theor& is

ritten about in language hichis onl& accessible to academics.



-ourseboo% publishers are cateringmainl& for teachers ho do nothave access to research $ndings.

-ourseboo% publishersunderstandabl& publish hat the&%no the& can sell.

"ublishers are reluctant to ris%innovations that threaten the facevalidit& of their courseboo%s.

"ublishers understandabl& clone

courseboo%s hich have been big



Some of the $ndings of SLA researchseem dicult to appl& to materialsdevelopment.

SLA research is often seen as a‘resource to inform teaching

practice’("ica 5660!p.578) rather thanas a determiner of the content and

format of courseboo%s.9n man& countries there is a massive

mismatch beteen t&picaleamination tas%s and SLA principles.

,ot all research $ndings are equall&applicable to all materialsdevelopment! contets or teachers.(3ichards! 5667)



9hat we would li"e to "now about SLATheory

!here are still many unansweredquestions in SLA research.



$or example-

9s SLA primaril& implicit or

eplicit:Some researchers %especially rashen,01) argue that it is implicitacquisition which enables the learner

to communicate spontaneousl& inan L& and that eplicit learning isonly o alue in monitoring output inorder to achiee repair and in planneddiscourse when the learner has thetime to ma"e use o explicitly learnedrules.



ost researchers though %e.g. Cllis, I00?@Foughty 8 9illiams,001) claim thateplicit %noledge and conscious

practice can only acilitate theacquisition of implicit %noledge% i. e.they can help learners acquire morelanguage rom their exposure to it).



9s there a natural sequence in

language acquisition:>ne plausible explanation orsimilarities in sequences oacquisition is o#ered by

ac9hinney %01(@ &''<). Eiscompetition model claims thatwhat learners can pay attention to

at any one time is limited and thatthey flter out eatures o languagewhen they listen to a secondlanguage.



Learners graduall& get better atprocessing sentences and mentalresources are reed up to ocus on more

comple features o the input. !omlinsonwould argue that this inclination to learnthe simplest structures $rst isreinorced by the learner's initial

prioritiing of meaning over form.9hat is essential or communication islearned beore what is perceied asredundant.



Are the factors hich determine

the eectiveness of languageacquisition variable:

uch has been written on thevariabilit& of L5 use and there

seems to be little doubt that learnerso an L& var& in accurac& andeectiveness from one interactionto another. A learner, or example,

might be accurate but restricted inexpression when tal"ing to a teacherand less accurate but more expressiewhen tal"ing to a riend.



!here is een less doubt that Cnglish as anL& varies according to the region,language group and social class that

the interactants belong too and that L&users modiy their language byaccommodating towards theirinteractants* ariety o Cnglish.



;oes tet enhancement facilitatelanguage acquisition:

Sharwood Smith %00?) proposed tetenhancement %e. g. color coding,

boldfacing, audio repetition) as a meanso drawing learners+ attention to salienteatures o their input.



Suggestions or applying SLA theory to CL!materials deelopment

!here are a number o principledpedagogic approaches which doapply SLA theory to their practice

and or which materials hae beendeeloped.



$or example-

$ask%&ased approach !as"7based materials %e.g. an denranden, &''D) proide the learnerwith a purpose and an outcome

which can only be achieed throughinteraction in the L&.

'ro&lem%&asedapproaches%ishan, &'')

In which learners communicate witheach other to sole a problem.



oth approaches apply SLA theory topractice by proiding the learners withopportunities or purposeful , pushed

output , by stimulating interaction andoten by helping them to notice featureso their own and/or other people*s use othe language.



(ontent and Language )ntegratedLearning*(L)L+ %Snow, &''<)

6LIL materials help learners to acquirean L& by teaching them a sub/ect , topic or s%ill they are interested in through

the medium o the L& %e.g. 6oyle et al.,&''@ !omlinson et at orthcoming). 6LILmaterials apply SLA theory by proidinga rich and meaningful eposure tothe language in use, by stimulatingaective and cognitive engagementand by proiding a need and purposeor learners to interact with each other.



$ext%driven approach %!omlison,&''?)

!his approach has the greatest potential or the application o SLAtheory to materials deelopment.

!ext7drien materials are determinedby potentially engaging ritten

and<or spo%en tets rather than bylanguage teaching points.



!he learners+ interactions with thetexts drie personal responseactivities, thin%ing activities,communication activities,

creative riting activities andlanguage aareness activities, aswell as oten initing supplementationwith other locally appropriate texts.



!ext7drien approach -=pose the learners to rich and

meaningful use of language

=ngage the learners aectivel& and

cognitivel&Stimulate the learners to utilie the

resources of their brains

"rovide opportunities for purposeful andmeaningful communication

>elping the learners to notice features oflanguage use



!omlinson %&''?) and !omlinson andasuhara %&''2) outline a =exible text7drien ramewor" which is designed to

help teachers to deelop principled ande#ectie materials ery quic"ly. !able&.& outlines the recommendedstages.



6onclusion !he commercial publishers o globalcourseboo"s ace many di3culties ithey try to do the same %e.g. con=ict

with user expectations, teacherresistance to innoation con=ict withthe demands o examinations, etc. )4eertheless !omlinson beliees that

they could ma"e more attempt to applygenerally accepted principles o SLA totheir material deelopment. > coursethey would be helped to do this i global

second language acquisition and materials development.pptx

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