Chapter 9: First and Second Language Acquisition

Question 1

Sensitive Period

Answer 1

-although there’s an optimal age for language learning, it can happen outside of that optimal period just not well
-phonetics/phonology works best in young children

Question 2

Phonetics and Phonology in the First 5 Years

Answer 2

-children learn what aspects of speech sounds to pay attention to and which ones to ignore
-their brains have formed strong connections that spread activation from hearing these speech sounds to memories of all the words that contain those sounds

Question 3

Phonotactics and Children

Answer 3

-children learn what sequences of sounds in their language are common in various positions in words
-also learn rare sequences and impossible sequences
-learn to produce most common sequences and some rare

Question 4

Transfer

Answer 4

-applying your existing knowledge in learning a new skill or new language
-transfer can be useful or harmful depending on how well situations match

Question 4

Phonotactics and Adults

Answer 4

-unfamiliar sequences will slow our processing
-may mishear it and misspeak it because it will activate familiar sound sequences and motor sequences that are fairly similar

Question 5

L1 Connections

Answer 5

-L1 connections are not too powerful before age 5
-become stronger and harder to compete with as L2 learning starts later and later

Question 6

L1 and L2 Use of Information

Answer 6

-it is especially difficult to start using kinds of information (phonetic, semantic, or syntactic) that our L2 needs but our L1 did not
-L1 trained our brains to send that information to the wrong place for L2 or treat it as background noise

Question 7

First Writing System

Answer 7

-our first writing system affects the kinds of information about written symbols that we become skilled at noticing and using

Question 8

Early Language Exposure

Answer 8

-if interactive has a strong and lasting effect on how we sort sounds into phonemic categories

Question 9

Effects of not using L1 for a long time

Answer 9

-may not be arousable
-but speech sounds and sound distinctions are able to be relearned/considerable accuracy
-pronunciation should be better for relearning vs hearing it for the first time

Question 10

Foreign Accent Modification

Answer 10

-people with foreign accent often faced with need to sound more like standard speakers
-hard to master new sounds
-may feel like betraying family or heritage

Question 11

What will decrease the need to modify accents

Answer 11

-exposure to many foreign accents and change in social attitudes