Theories in SLA

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Theories in SLA
An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition
Research
Carmen Boulter Tamkang University PhD Program
Diane Larsen-Freeman and Michael H. Long
Summary
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Theory Construction and Social Science
Theories overlap and differ greatly in scope,
range, type of data, and degree of abstraction
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The State of SLA Theories
In the SLA literature today, there are at least
40 theories, models, perspectives,
metaphors, hypotheses, and theoretical
claims
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Caution Regarding SLA Theories

• Theories tend to be oversimplifications if not
  erroneous
• A theory may mislead or obfuscate, rather than
  elucidate and motivate additional research
• Monolithic theory may be politically powerful and
  stifle alternate points of view

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Purposes of Theories

• Set-of-laws form
• Collection of unrelated statements about a
  phenomenon ie. Adults proceed faster, learners
  who begin after puberty dont have native-like
  accent, developmental sequences arent altered by
  instruction
• Causal-process form
• Sets of definitions of constructs
• Existential statements
• Deterministic and/or probabilistic causal
  statements when and that and how and why

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Types of Theories

• Nativist
• Explains acquisition by innate biological
  endowment
• Environmentalist
• Nurture is more vital than nature
• Interactionist
• Invokes both, adding variables, which adds to the
  complexity of research to validate theories

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The role of theories in making research cumulative
Resultant Hypothesis Motivation to learn an SL
results from increasing proficiency rather than
causes it
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Nativist Theories
Innate endowment involves both linguistic
principles and general cognitive notions
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Chomskys Universal Grammar

• Syntactic principles are unlearnable thus
  innate
• Know that rules are structure dependent
• Caretakers respond to meaning not form
• Research led to finding that error correction is
  ambiguous in ineffective

10
Krashens Monitor Theory

• Acquisition vs. Learning Hypothesis
• Natural Order Hypothesis
• Monitor Hypothesis
• Input Hypothesis
• Affective Filter Hypothesis

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Critique of Nativist Theories

• Learning/acquisition distinction
• Conscious/unconscious distinction
• Hypothesis/conjecture distinction

• Cognitive structures are unoperationalizable
• Cross-linguistic, cross cultural affective
  factors
• Arguing for the value of incomprehensible input
  (White 1987)

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Environmentalist Theories

• Behaviorist and neo-behaviorist
• Stimulus-response à la Skinner in Verbal Behavior
• Input mechanistic and consists of frequencies and
  external variables
• Metaphor of people being programmed like
  computers
• Not advanced in recent years

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Schumanns Acculturation Model
Social Distance Factors

• Social dominance
• Integration patterns
• Enclosure
• Cohesiveness
• Intra-group contact
• Cultural congruence
• Attitude
• Intended length of residence

14
Schumanns Pidginization Hypothesis

• Communicative
• Giving and receiving information
• Integrative function
• Degree of social integration
• Expressive function
• Psychological openness with target-language group

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Critique of Acculturation Model

• No reliable and valid measures of psychological
  and social distance
• Individual attainment on basis of group-level
  phenomena fallacy
• Halo effect present where subjects want to be
  seen as integrating into social group

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Interactionist Theories
Greater power, it should be remembered, is a
negative characteristic where theories are
concerned, meaning that more factors, variables,
causes, processes, etc., are needed by the
researcher to handle the data of interest. p. 266
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Givons Functional-Typological Theory

• FTSA Functional Typological Syntactic Analysis
• Functional Syntax emanates from properties of
  human discourse
• Typological consideration of a diverse body of
  languages
• Underlying principal human perception and
  information processing

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Critique of Givons Theory

• Due to scope an generalizability, FTSA cannot be
  expected to accurately capture the differences
  among types of language-change situations
• Linguists primarily concerned with language as a
  group phenomena, LA researchers focus on
  individual learners

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Multidimensional Model

• Naturalistic and instructed SLA
• Longitudinal study in Europe
• Speech-processing strategies
• Word-order rules
• COS Canonical Order Strategy
• IFS Initialization-Finalization Strategy
• SCS Subordinate Clause Strategy

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Teachability Hypothesis

• Variational axis of language development either
  favor accuracy or communicative effectiveness
• Some aspects of acquisition are advanced due to
  universal status and consequent cross-linguistic
  generalizability, but this does not specify how
  it is that learners learn

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Critique of Multidimensional Model

• The Multidimensional Model seeks to explain how
  factors interact with cognitive mechanisms to
  produce precisely specified microlinguistic
  features
• The model may turn out to be revealing about
  constraints on acquisition without explaining how
  learners learn

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What is a Good Theory?
Will more research of the fishing expedition
variety help?
If two theories are equally good explanations of
existing data, the better theory is the simpler
one, the one that makes fewer distinctions and
uses fewer caveats (less power) to handle the
data. p. 289