Topic 2.

GENERAL THEORIES ABOUT LEARNING AND ACQUISITION OF

A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. THE CONCEPT OF INTERLANGUAGE.

ERROR ANALYSIS

0. INTRODUCTION

1. PRELIMINARY NOTIONS

 First / Second / Foreign Language

 Why learning a foreign language?

2. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

3. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING

 Behaviourist view
 Cognitive view
 Creative Construction Theory
o - Krashen

4. THE CONCEPT OF INTERLANGUAGE

 Fossilization

5. ERROR ANALYSIS

 Error vs. Mistake

6. CONCLUSION

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

0. INTRODUCTION

This topic will deal with some of the theories of language learning and acquisition,
together with the concept of interlanguage, that plays an important role in the former
ones.

Before entering in depth with the topic, it would be interesting to draw a difference
between learning and acquiring a language. Following Krashen, learningis a process
that people go through consciously; it is the formal study of language. In turn,
acquisitionrefers to an unconscious process of getting to know a language; it is the
natural assimilation of the language rules through using language for communication.
This way, you acquire the language and then you learn how to construct structures.

And now that these two concepts are clear, let us move to the development of the topic
itself.

1. PRELIMINARY NOTIONS

Through this topic we a re going to use some concepts which have to be clear from the
very beginning. These are:

 First language: it is the same as saying Mother Tongue (MT). It is the first
language we acquire when we are children, distinguished from any other
language that we may learn in life (i.e.: English in England)
 Second language: it is a non-native language taught in school that is used for
purposes of communication, education, government or business in a particular
country (i.e.: English in India)
 Foreign language: it is a non-native language taught in school that has no status
as means of communication in that country; it is just learned by pleasure (i.e.:
English in Japan)

Why learning a foreign language?

Languages are needed for communication, work, sociability…- and even more
nowadays than ever. There are no boundaries between countries and learning a foreign
language is a must if you intend to succeed in the outside world.

Many people choose English as a foreign language (EFL) and that is because it has
become a Lingua Franca as it was Latin in The Middle Ages.

2. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

As formerly said, acquisition is done unconsciously, it is the way we learn the Mother
Tongue.

Children are exposed to language from the very first day and they are not taught
anything, they just imitate what they hear. Their grammar is full of errors because they
do not have the knowledge of the rules (examples: singed, goed, instead of sangor
went). They make grammar as simple as possible. It can be said that language
acquisition is a creative construction process as children have to make up their own
rules of grammar.

When they grow up and go to school, then they will learn the proper rules of their MT.

Here we have some theories about the acquisition of a language:

 Imitation: children imitate what they hear.

 Positive reinforcement: children learn to produce “correct sentences” because
they are positively reinforced when they say something right, and negatively
reinforced when they say something wrong.
 Creative construction: they build up their own rules.

3. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING (Second or Foreign)

If we speak in very broad terms about linguistic trends in our century, we can identify
three fundamentally different ideas about the nature of learning. These approaches do
not only include a view of how learning occurs, but also a view of what knowledge
actually is, as we will see now.

These basic approaches or psychological theories are three and are referred to as
Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Constructivism.

> Behaviourism

This view was very dominant in the 1950s and 60s and remains influential today
although “new” theories have gained much ground.

Behaviourism is concerned with stimulus-response theories that define learning as

establishing an associative link between a particular stimulus and a particular response.
Behaviourists do not study introspection (what people think), they only study
behaviours because we cannot know what is inside the human’s mind so we can only
study what we see. This is the only way to get reliable data.

In short, behaviourists tried to explain learning without referring to mental processes.

The focus was on observable behaviour and how an organism (person or animal) adapts
to the environment. The famous ‘Dog-Salivation-Experiment’ by Pavlov where he
makes the dog salivate at the sight of food is one example of behaviourists learning
experiments. Thus, the subject is determined by his environment and so he passively
adapts to the circumstances.

As far as knowledge is concerned, behaviourists say that it is already given and

absolute.

> Cognitivism

Cognitive psychology arose from a reaction to Behaviourism because they felt that
Behaviourism’s emphasis on the link between a stimulus and a response was not
sufficient to account for all human activity.

As stated above, behaviourists argued that mental events were impossible to observe
and measure and could not therefore be studied objectively. Consequently,
behaviourists could not explain the ways learners attempt to make sense of what they
learn. Cognitivists proposed that, through empirical research and observation,
inferences could indeed be drawn about the internal, cognitive processes that produce
responses.

In all, the birth of Cognitive studies should be listed around the year 1956, when, being
discontent with the limitations of Behaviourism (as it did not incorporate mental
events), a large number of researches (psychologists – Piaget– and educators) published
influential books and articles on attention, memory, language, concept formation, etc in
response to many years of almost exclusively behaviourist research.

The Cognitive School ‘went inside the head of the learner’ in that they made learner’s
mental processes the primary object of study and so tried to discover and model them
during the learning process. Obviously, changes in behaviour are observed, but only as
an indicator to what is going on in the learner’s head.

However, Cognitivism has something in common with Behaviourism, and it is that the
knowledge that the individual has is still viewed as given and absolute.

> Constructivism

Constructivism come out as a response to both theories afore explained, but not because
of the way they deal with how a language is learned but as a response to the view of
knowledge they have. The Constructivist theories are based on the premise that we all
construct our perspective of the world depending on our individual experiences and
schema. In this way, its basic distinction is that, while both the afore explained theories
view knowledge as given and absolute, the Constructivist School views knowledge as a
constructed entity made by each learner through a learning process. Knowledge cannot
be transmitted but it is constructed or reconstructed by each individual; thus it is relative
(varies according to time and space) and it cannot be taken for granted.

4. INTERLANGUAGE

This term was coined by Selinkerin the 1970s to refer to the system created by someone
who is in the process of learning a foreign language. This intermediate state contains
properties of both the L1 and L2, or the foreign language, because interlanguage can be
between L1 and L2, or L1 and FL, and varies according to the learner’s evolving system
of rules.

In addition to this idea, there is the concept of fossilization, also by Selinker. This term
describes those incorrect linguistic features which have became a permanent part of a
learner’s production (i.e. features which identify a foreign accent – Spanish rolled /r/ in
their English interlanguage)

These two terms are half responsible for children’s errors in the target language.

5. ERROR ANALYSIS

Defined by Corder, this is the study of the unaccepted forms produced by someone
learning a language, especially a foreign language.

Traditionally, errors were very frowned upon because they were thought to be
deviations from the target language norm, which had to be avoided at all costs.
However, nowadays errors are considered as inevitable, necessary, systematic in the
process of L2 learning and proved to facilitate feedback and, therefore, correction.

Going back to Corder, he was also the one who drew a distinction between two terms
which, even nowadays, are still used incorrectly:

• ERROR: it is a systematic deviation made by the learner who does not

still master the rules of L2. Therefore, errors are the result of lack of
 knowledge on the target language. They are of particular interest in the
field of linguistic research because they provide evidence about the
nature of the language learning process (related to the COMPETENCE
one has in the target language)

• MISTAKE: it is a random performance slip (due to fatigue, excitement,

lapse of memory…) It can be self-corrected right away (related to the
PERFORMANCE one does in the target language)

Thus, in order that errors may become mistakes, there are analysis so as to control their
sources and try to avoid them.

Entering in the field of error analysis, we find that errors are due to:

- influence of the mother tongue (sometimes it is possible to predict

where a student may find difficulties by the similarities between the L1
and L2 –false friends)

- external influences (inadequate teaching)

- the need to make oneself understood by all means possible (making up

words)

- affective variables

- sociolinguistic context of communication (lack of sociolinguistic

competence)

Hendrickson, in this bookError Correction in Foreign Language Teaching classified

errors into:

> Global errors: prevent the hearer from understanding some aspects of
the message.

> Local errors: only affect a single element of a sentence; do not prevent
a message from being heard; context provides keys to meaning.

Among the most common errors we find:

- Errors in verb groups

We are live in this house She always talk a lot

He did not found I am interesting in that

He born in England He had come today

 - Errors in the use of prepositions (here the interference with the mother
tongue is more visible)

married with in the next day

consist with rich of vitamins

arrive to pay attention on it

- Errors in the use of articles

a bad news the nature

he was good boy a milk

after the school at the home

- Errors in questions

What was called the film? Do you know what is the time?

Do he go there? Why this man is old?

What she doing?

So, what does error analysis say in order to avoid errors? First there are some stages to
analyse the error:

1) Identify the error: why the student said so? What were his intentions when saying so?

2) Sources of the error: why did it happen? (reasons for errors already mentioned)

3) Deciding how serious the error is: the more serious the higher priority for remedial
work (although there is no scale for grading errors, grammar errors are more important
than lexical ones)

4) Correcting the error: immediate feedback is extremely valuable for the student
(teacher points out the mistake, explains what is wrong and provides some extra
practice)

Teachers should use a polite correction, not to frighten the student; here are some hints
that can be used:

 . repeating the mistake correcting it ourselves

 . asking the student to repeat the correct form
 . face expressions and body language
 . ask a partner to help

And also some advices in order to let the student overcome the error properly:
  . avoid red for correction in paper (red marks the distinction between the teacher
and the learners)
 . advisable to write V (for vocabulary), Gram, L (for lexis), so as the student
knows what the error is about.
 . avoid overcorrection
 . avoid interrupting an oral presentation

So remedial action is a good way to face errors and try to overcome them by using some
of the afore said techniques.

6. CONCLUSION

Learning a foreign language is necessary nowadays. As the mother tongue is learned

instinctively, in the field foreign language is where teachers should make the most to
guarantee a good level of language. The first stages are the more recommended to start
the learning of a L2, and providing a good base is essential for the further development
the learner will do of the language.

We should encourage the students when dealing with errors and mistakes, which is
something that will be present everyday. They are necessary to achieve a good
competence because from errors you learn.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

- HENDRICKSON, JAMES, M. (1978) Error Correction in Foreign Language

Teaching : Recent Theory, Research, and Practice

- ELLIS, R. Understanding SLA. OUP 1990

- CORDER. Error Analysis and Interlanguage. OUP 1981

- KRASHEN. Principles and Practice in SLA. Pergamon 1982

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