Second Language Acquisition

While learning a second language (L2) has some similarities with learning a first language (L1), there are also some important distinctions. First, second language learners come from a wide variety of cultural and developmental backgrounds. They begin learning an L2 at different stages of their L1 development. For example, compound bilinguals are children who learn two languages simultaneously, usually because they are raised by parents who speak multiple languages at home. In contrast, coordinate bilinguals are people who develop one language before learning a second language. Both types may or may not develop into "balanced" bilinguals, with an equal proficiency in two languages (Williams & Snipper, 1990). This page will examine the main theories of second language acquisition in coordinate bilinguals, the most common type of English learner in the Nashoba Regional School District.

Traditional behaviorists believe that second language learners must be conditioned to use L2 through mimicry, stimulus, and response. No explicit grammar rules are taught because it is assumed that the L2 is best learned by repetition of complete phrases and sentences. Some Americans who use foreign language tapes to prepare for travel abroad are familiar with this model, in which they listen to a series of common travel phrases in the foreign language and repeat again and again until they are (hopefully) memorized. When errors are detected, they are corrected immediately and drilled repeatedly. This can be tedious for the language learner and in most cases results in acquisition of only a limited number of L2 phrases.

An alternative innatist perspective views second language learning as a matter of resetting the parameters of universal grammar (see How We Learn Language) to reflect the new surface structure of the L2. Many believe that there is a critical period, usually falling somewhere around puberty, after which it becomes significantly more difficult to learn a second language. This increased level of difficulty is attributed to the lateralization of the brain, the process whereby certain cognitive functions are assigned to the left or right hemisphere of the brain.

Applied linguists argue that sociocultural and environmental conditions are at least as important as biological ones when acquiring a second language. There are certainly examples of adults who gain fluency in a second (or third) language long after the "critical period." The acquisition of a native-like phonology (or accent) in the L2 is often considered separate from other linguistic areas because it is more related to psychomotor issues. Just as young children often have trouble controlling their mouth muscles to pronounce words in their first language, these muscles must be reconditioned to accommodate strange new sounds in the L2. Children older than 5 seem to have more phonemic control of the new language; adults, however, often have difficulty acquiring a native-like accent in the L2 (Brown, 1994).

Linguistic errors can be perceived as helpful indicators of the language learner’s development. Analysis of these language errors can give insight into which areas have been mastered and which have not. Errors in the second language can be both interlingual (as a result of negative L1 transfer) and intralingual (within the development of L2 proficiency). Like young children learning their first language, L2 learners acquire a second language through active interaction with their environment. Speakers of the target language will often scaffold or modify their language to make it more comprehensible to the language learner. As in L1 acquisition, applied linguists emphasize the functional aspect of language and believe that grammar forms are acquired through communication in context.

Vgotsky made a distinction between a person’s Zone of Actual Development (ZAD) and his/her Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Simply put, the ZAD is what a person can do by him/herself, and the ZPD is what s/he can do with the assistance of a knowledgeable other person; in the case of L2 acquisition, a mentor or interested language model (Mantero, 2002). The task of the language mentor is to assess and expand the language learner’s ZAD by scaffolding language to lie within the learner’s ZPD. Language that is too far beyond the learner’s ZPD will do little to facilitate L2 acquisition.

Some ways in which language teachers can scaffold language are through active modeling, providing verbal or nonverbal feedback to the L2 learner, asking questions, and explicitly teaching the linguistic and paralinguistic conventions of the target language (including eye contact and body language). In this way, language is viewed as a "two-way street," and effective communication requires the cooperation and active participation of all parties.