Topic 6

Question 1

What is LINGUISTICS? What does it study?

Answer 1

The study of language as a system of human communication. Linguistics studies messages with careful attention to words and phrases to see how they are used to communicate information, thoughts, and feelings.

Question 2

What is GRAMMAR?

Answer 2

Grammar describes the speaker’s knowledge of the language; it is a formal device with a finite set of rules that generates the sentences in the language. Therefore, grammars are theories of language, composed of more specific hypotheses about the organization of the language.

Question 3

What are the criteria that a grammar must fulfil?

Answer 3

OBSERVATIONAL ADEQUACY (it should specify what is and what is not an acceptable sequence in the language, referring to syntax, semantics and phonetics) and DESCRIPTIVE ADEQUACY (it must explain how a sentence relates to other sentences that are similar in meaning, opposite in meaning and so on)

Question 4

Why is the PHONOLOGICAL COMPONENT useful? (grammar components)

Answer 4

Because it makes the sound system of the language explicit

Question 5

What should the PHONOLOGICAL COMPONENT give us information about? (grammar components)

Answer 5

• What is and what is not a sound in the language
• What is and what is not an acceptable sequence of sounds
• The way different sounds and sequences of sounds are related

Question 6

How may phonemes are there in British English and how can they be analyzed?

Answer 6

There are 44 phonemes. They can be analyzed in terms of features such as voicing, energy, manner and place of articulation and aspiration.

Question 7

What’s the difference between phones and phonemes?

Answer 7

Phones are individual speech sounds, while phonemes are the smallest units that distinguish meaning.

Question 8

What is the relation between the SEMANTIC COMPONENT and GRAMMATICALITY? (grammar components)

Answer 8

The study of semantics refers to the study of meaning. This does not necessarily correspond to grammaticality because many ungrammatical sentences are meaningful. Many of the sentences that are uttered by non-native speakers of English are perfectly comprehensible, despite the fact that they do not follow the rules of English. The reverse side of the picture is sentences that are grammatically correct but that, because of the content, are meaningless.

Question 9

How would a semantic approach help us to understand something about the nature of language?

Answer 9

One way that might be helpful would be as a means of accounting for the oddness we experience when we read some English sentences. These sentences, such as “the hamburger ate the man”, may be syntactically good, but semantically odd since “hamburgers” are not capable of eating.

Question 10

What do Downing and Lock (2006) state about SYNTACTIC COMPONENT? (grammar components)

Answer 10

The moving around of bits of language suggests that language is not a series of words strung together like beads on a string. Language is patterned, that is, certain regularities can be distinguished throughout every linguistic manifestation in a text. A unit will be defined as any stretch of language which constitutes a semantic whole and which has a recognized pattern that is repeated regularly in speech and writing.

Question 11

What are the four structural units in English? Arranged in order of magnitude

Answer 11

Clause → phrase → word → morpheme.

Question 12

What are the three kind of factors that a psychologically useful model of language will have to deal with?

Answer 12

• Structural: it must be capable of representing the entailments of a sentence that speakers identify
• Functional: it must have a presentational format that is congruent with existing knowledge
• Processing: it must be sensitive to human information processing constraints.

Question 13

Explain the theory of first language acquisition based on the role of IMITATION

Answer 13

Language acquisition has long been thought of as a process of imitation and reinforcement. The popular view was that children copy the utterances they hear, and by having the correct utterances reinforced and the wrong ones corrected, they gradually build up their linguistic competence.

Question 14

Explain the critics to theory of first language acquisition based on the role of IMITATION

Answer 14

Even if imitation is important, the grammatical component cannot be acquired only in this way. Two main pieces of evidence support this criticism:
1. The way children deal with irregular forms in language. When they encounter the past form of an irregular verb or the irregular plural of a noun, they regularise them to a form that follows the regular verb and noun changes. They cannot learn these forms by a process of imitation because no adult will use them.
2. Children’s lack of ability to imitate grammatical structures even when elicited to do so. The treatment of these structures suggests that children’s language acquisition is more a matter of maturation than of imitation.

Question 15

Explain the critics to theory of first language acquisition based on the role of INNATENESS

Answer 15

Chomsky rejected the behaviorist perspective and adopted instead a mentalist viewpoint. In 1965, Chomsky had concluded that children were born with some kind of special language processing ability and had proposed the existence of a “language acquisition device” (LAD). Although a child’s experience with language input could have an effect on language learning, the ultimate form will be a function of the universal language that exists in the human mind. Universal Grammar theory posits the existence of a set of basic grammatical elements or fixed abstract principles that are common to all natural human languages and that predispose children to organize the input in certain ways. The principles themselves are thought to be innate, a product of the LAD.

Question 16

What are the innate linguistic properties of the language acquisition device (LAD) as suggested by Brown (1994), inspired by the ideas of Chomsky?

Answer 16

The ability to distinguish speech sounds from other sounds; the ability to organize language into a system of structures; the knowledge of what was possible and what was not possible in any linguistic system; the ability to construct the simplest possible system based on the linguistic data to which one was exposed.

Question 17

Explain the critics to theory of first language acquisition based on the role of COGNITION

Answer 17

According to Piaget, linguistic structures will only emerge if there is an already-established cognitive foundation. This has been proved to some extent in the sensor-motor stage (up to eighteen months), as children begin to name classes of objects after they have developed a sense of object permanence. However, it is difficult to show precise correlations between general cognitive abilities and linguistic development, and the issue becomes more and more complex as the children develop.

Question 18

Explain the critics to theory of first language acquisition based on the role of INPUT

Answer 18

In the 1970s, studies of “motherese” (the special way of talking to get the most of children that is developed by mothers), showed that parental input is adapted in a way that facilitates language acquisition by the children. Several characteristics were outlined:
- Simplicity: utterances are shorter and meanings are in proximity of the children
- Clarity: sentences are repeated and paraphrased several times
- Expressive: these words show an affective element of motherese
- Attention-catching: high pitch voice when addressing the baby and high rising intonation utterances

Question 19

What is the difference between the way language is used at home and at school?

Answer 19

At home, language serves that Halliday calls “interpersonal functions”. Language was primarily an instrument for social interaction.
The language of the school is different. On the one hand, it focuses on the “ideational function”, the expression of ideas. On the other hand, levels of formal and informal speech are carefully distinguished, and standards of correctness emphasized.

Question 20

According to behaviorism (theory of foreign language acquisition), what is the view of learning?

Answer 20

According to the theory, behavior happens in associative chains; all learning is thus characterized as associative learning or habit formation, brought about by the repeated association of a stimulus with a response (Hadley, 2001)

Question 21

What method emerged as a result of behaviorism (theory of foreign language acquisition)?

Answer 21

The audio-lingual method (1950s - 1960s). This method consisted of an unending series of drills followed by positive or negative reinforcement. It incorporated structural linguistic theory (use of drills), and the language habit was formed by the repetition of correct utterances which were reinforced by the teacher. Mistakes were immediately criticized and errors played no part in language learning.

Question 22

What are the five central hypotheses of The Monitor Theory (theory of foreign language acquisition)?

Answer 22

1. The acquisition-learning hypothesis
2. The natural order hypothesis
3. The monitor hypothesis
4. The input hypothesis
5. The affective filter hypothesis

Question 23

Explain THE ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS (The Monitor Theory: theory of foreign language acquisition)

Answer 23

It states that adults have two distinct and independent ways of developing competence in a second language: acquisition, which is a subconscious process similar, if not identical, to the way children develop ability in their first language, and learning, which refers to the conscious knowledge of the rules of grammar of a second language and their application in production.

Question 24

Explain THE NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS (The Monitor Theory: theory of foreign language acquisition)

Answer 24

It maintains that acquisition of grammatical structures (primarily morphemes) follows a predictable order then that acquisition is natural (e.g. not via learning)

Question 25

Explain THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS (The Monitor Theory: theory of foreign language acquisition)

Answer 25

It states that acquisition is the sole initiator of all second-language utterances and is responsible for fluency, while learning (conscious knowledge of rules) can function only as an “editor” or “monitor” for the output. This monitor operates only when there is sufficient time, the focus is on form, and the language user knows the rule being applied.

Question 26

Explain THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS (The Monitor Theory: theory of foreign language acquisition)

Answer 26

iT maintains that we acquire more language only when we are exposed to “comprehensible input” - language that contains structures that are “a little beyond” our current level of competence, but which is comprehensible through our use of context, our knowledge of the world, and other extra linguistic cues directed to us. According to this hypothesis, acquirers “go for meaning” first, and, as a result, acquire structure as well. A third part of the hypothesis states that input need not be deliberately planned to contain appropriate structures: If communication is successful and there is enough of it. A final part of the input hypothesis maintains that speaking fluency cannot be taught directly, but rather “emerges” naturally over time.

Question 27

Explain THE AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS (The Monitor Theory: theory of foreign language acquisition)

Answer 27

It states that comprehensible input can have its effect on acquisition only when affective conditions are optimal: the acquirer is motivated; he has self-confidence and a good self-image; and his level of anxiety is low. When learners are put on the defensive, the affective filter is high, and comprehensible input cannot get in.

Question 28

What are the three major theories of foreign language acquisition?

Answer 28

1. Behaviorism 2. The Monitor Theory 3. Cognitive Theory

Question 29

Where does COGNITIVE THEORY (theory of foreign language acquisition) derive from?

Answer 29

It derives from the field of cognitive psychology and focuses on the role of more general cognitive processes involved in language acquisition, such as transfer, simplification, generalization and restructuring.

Question 30

Explain COGNITIVE THEORY (theory of foreign language acquisition)

Answer 30

Like Universal Grammar, Cognitive Theory is in direct opposition to Behaviorist Theory because, from a cognitive perspective, learning is believed to result from internal mental activity rather than from something imposed from outside the learner. For a language learner to become proficient, subskills of this complex task must be practiced, automatized, integrated and organized into external representations, or rule systems, that are constantly restructured as proficiency develops.

Question 31

Explain the characteristics of COGNITIVE THEORY (theory of foreign language acquisition)

Answer 31

- Cognitive psychology emphasizes knowing rather than responding and is concerned with studying mental processes involved in the acquisition and use of knowledge. The focus is not stimulus-response bond, but mental events. - The Cognitive approach emphasizes mental structure or organization. Cognitive psychology assumes human knowledge is organized and that anything new that is learned is integrated into this structure - Cognitive Theory, as opposed to Behaviorist Theory, views the learner as one who acts, constructs, and plans rather than simply receives stimuli from the environment. Therefore, a complete understanding of human cognition would require an analysis of strategies used for thinking, understanding, remembering and producing language.

Question 32

Name the terms in which first and foreign language acquisition are different

Answer 32

1. The age factor 2. Fossilisation 3. Transference

Question 33

Describe how first and foreign language acquisition are different according to THE AGE FACTOR

Answer 33

Most applied linguists agree that the age at which a learner attempts to acquire the foreign language plays an important role. Since most learners start this process at the age of five, the possibilities to internalise the phonological, semantic, syntactic and pragmatic components of the foreign language are reduced. This is due not only to the students’ age, but also to the limited exposition to the foreign language.

Question 34

Describe how first and foreign language acquisition are different according to FOSSILISATION

Answer 34

Fossilisation, which is the permanent retention of non-native interlanguage forms in the learner’s developing linguistic system. This process may occur either because students do not actually learn the right structure or just because they transfer structures from L1 to L2 and internalize those structures as if they belonged to the foreign language.

Question 35

Describe how first and foreign language acquisition are different according to TRANSFERENCE

Answer 35

Transference, which refers to the negative influence that the first language has on the production of the second language. Learners are likely to keep the same word order, syntactic structures and phonological patterns they use in their mother tongue.

Question 36

Name the terms in which first and foreign language acquisition are similar

Answer 36

1. Interlingua development 2. Subconscious mental process 3. Personality and contextual factors

Question 37

Describe how first and foreign language acquisition are similar according to INTERLINGUA DEVELOPMENT

Answer 37

Both in first and second language, human beings go through a silent period before they are able to speak fluently. First, learners are unable to say anything, only odd sounds, words or expressions. They need to be exposed to the language for a certain period of time so as to go onto the pre-syntactic stage. At this stage, learners are able to produce their first utterances.

Question 38

Describe how first and foreign language acquisition are similar according to SUBCONSCIOUS MENTAL PROCESS

Answer 38

It is a fact that the brain is in charge of organizing and storing the input that the learner receives in order to make the speech mechanisms available. If the language has been acquired (not just learned), learners can produce the language without actually reflecting on the process.

Question 39

Describe how first and foreign language acquisition are similar according to PERSONALITY AND CONTEXTUAL FACTORS

Answer 39

Not all language learners acquire the language in the same context. The different contexts that the learner may experience will determine the acquisition of that language. In addition, the psychological component plays a crucial role since in relation to the learner’s personality, individual variations will take place.