Second Language Acquisition (7)

LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF INTERLANGUAGE

A.    Typological Universals: Relative Clauses

Languages vary in whether they have relative clause structures. This linguistic difference influences the ease with which learners are able to learn relative clauses. Learners whose L1 includes relative clauses find them easier to learn than learners whose L1 does not and consequently, they are less likely to avoid learning them.

B.     Universal Grammar

It is the Noam Chomsky’s theory that states language is governed by a set of highly abstract principles that provide parameters which are given particular settings in different language. English only permits ‘local binding’. ‘Long-distance binding’, where the reflexive co-refers to a subject in another clause, is prohibited.

C.     Learnability

Chomsky has claimed that children their L1 must rely on innate knowledge of language because otherwise the task facing them is an impossible one. The input to which children are exposed is insufficient to enable them to discover the rules of the language they are trying to learn. This insufficiency is referred to as the poverty of the stimulus. Children must have prior knowledge of what is grammatically possible and impossible and this is part of their biological endowment. This knowledge was referred to as Language Acquisition Device.

D.    The Critical Period Hypothesis

It states that there is a period during which language acquisition is easy and complete and beyond which it is difficult and typically incomplete. The hypothesis was grounded in research which showed that people who lost their linguistic capabilities, for expel as a result of an accident, were able to regain them totally before puberty (about the age of twelve) but were unable to do so afterwards.

E.     Access to Universal Grammar

1.  Complete Access        : The learners begin with the parameter setting of their L1 but subsequently learn to switch to the L2 parameter settings.
2.  No Access                   : UG is not available to adult L2 learners.
3.  Partial Access              : Learners have to access to parts of UG but not others.
4.  Dual Access                : Adult learners make use both UG and general learning strategies.

F.      Markedness

It refers to general idea that some structures are more ‘natural’ or ‘basic’ than other structures. In Chomskyan linguistics, unmarked structures are those that are governed by UG and which, therefore require only minimal evidence for acquisition. Marked structures are those that lie outside UG (for example, have arisen as a result of historical accident).

G.    Cognitive Versus Linguistic Explanations

It allows for modularity , the existence of different components of language that are learned in different ways, some through universal grammar and others with the assistance of general cognitive ability.