September+3rd

9/3/2009 Second Language Acquisition 7534/8534 Acquisition is not a great phrase Steven Krashen: Learning involves a conscious effort, acquisition does not require active effort Phil’s cell number is 230-0742, call if you need help, just not when it’s dark. Phil LOVES getting emails. Phil ESPECIALLY likes Wild Blue beer. Hint hint. This course is relevant to anyone interested in ESL/Linguistics There are a variety of theories as to how people learn languages
 * · Cognitive
 * · Environmental
 * · Social dynamics of language acquisition

Phil is very, very congitivist. Chomsky sucks. Frequent lectures, lots of discussions of the readings, implications, relation to SLA and linguistics Students will become familiar with ideas, theories, research, and approaches in First and Second Language Acquisition The textbook is short and sweet, but really good. Will read a chapter at a time. Other books are a little dated, but good. You must be able to do research, empirical research, to get a good linguistics job. Bring the book to every class, start using it on 9/17. Students will be required to read many articles, will be demanding, but the reports on them will be challenging. Must read all assignments and be prepared to engage in discussion. H1N1 is the bomb. Students will present ONE paper, ppt format. Will be about 20 minute presentation, paper will be agreed upon 2 weeks in advance. Article must be turned in 10 days before, then 2 page single spaced 12 pt FULL PAGES summary must be turned in 5 days in advance. Email the summary to the class, and the class has to read it. Thus, all will be prepared for your talk and you need to be REALLY prepared. Graded on:
 * · Presentation quality
 * · Summary
 * · Timeliness and organization of materials

Everything MUST be APA format. Presentations will be 20%. Major Written Work will be 20% We must select 9 articles related to ONE chapter. Collect articles mentioned in the book. We must OK the articles with Phil FIRST before writing on them. Must submit APA style references when telling Phil about them. Times New Roman, 12 pt font, single spaced. More than 1 page, less than 2. We DO NOT write our thoughts and opinions on the summary. We can place it elsewhere. Written Work will be 20% May be permitted to work on various research papers, so if you have something in place, please do continue this. He will modify the workload accordingly. Tasks will be 20% Online quizzes, surveys, locating documents, reporting findings, attending talks, helping with data collections, etc. Will be assigned this. Final exam will be 20%. 2 people each week will be adding their notes to the wiki. Please don’t be late. Don’t plagiarize. Please come. Food and drink is OK. Must know what a computer is. SPSS is available online. Amazing statistical package, need to check it out. In ALL email use SLA_f2009_7534_8534_[prompt]. Otherwise, email may not be read. Email account must be big enough for attachments. No, no, NO docx. Know how to use internet, ppt, etc. Keep everything as a hard copy in a folder. Might be asked to turn everything in at the end of the semester. If anything is missing, you may receive and F. Anything can change, life is like that. The assignment schedule may change. Willing to accommodate anything from SDS.

**Popular opinions about Language Learning** 1. Languages are learned mainly through imitation Behaviorist more than just imitation. Do pick things up through imitation, but not the be all and end all of learning a language. 2. Parents usually correct young children when they make grammatical errors No, they usually don’t. Very rare, but if they do, they are WRONG. They are doing it from a very prescriptive POV. 3. Highly intelligent people are good language learners. NO. Intelligence is arbitrary. Has very little to do with language ability. 4. The most important predictor of success in second language acquisition is motivation Motivation is a huge factor in success in a language. 5. The earlier a second language is introduced in school programs, the greater the likelihood of success There is a strong correlation between starting early and success in language. 6. Most of the mistakes that second language learners make are due to interference from their first language Kind of disagree. Most is a very bad word. Interference is very important to learning a language, but ‘most’ is not accurate. Mistake is not following a rule, but error is following a rule, but the wrong one. 7. The best way to learn new vocabulary is through reading It is essential for learners to be able to pronounce all the individual sounds in the second language 9. Once learners know roughly 1000 words and the basic structure of a language, they can easily participate in conversations with native speakers

10. Teachers should present grammatical rules one at a time, and learners should practice examples of each one before going to another 11. Teachers should teach simple structures before complex ones 12. Learners errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation of bad habits Big no. 13. Teachers should use materials that expose students to only those language structures they have already been taught 14. When learners are allowed to interact freely (for example, in group or pair activity), they copy each other’s mistakes 15. Students learn what they are taught 16. Teachers should respond to students’ errors by correctly rephrasing what they have said rather than explicitly pointing out the error 17. Students can learn both language and academic context (for example, science and history) simultaneously in classes where the subject matter is taught in their second language.