1.3 Basic terminology in SLA

The main purpose of this chapter is to set the scene for the rest of the book. We have discussed what is meant by the term Second Language Acquisition, and declared the main objectives of the study of SLA. Here we think it necessary to examine a few key terms relating to the research of SLA. Understanding these terms may pave the way to a better knowledge of what SLA is about.

 

1.3.1 Native and target language

Native language refers to the mother tongue, or the first language (L1) spoken by native speakers. For example, English is the native language for American and British people; Chinese is the native language for Chinese people and Japanese for Japanese people. Native language is ‘picked up’ in naturalistic environment and in an informal manner. People generally learn to speak and use the language in real communicative contexts, and the primary focus is on meaning instead of linguistic forms. Native language is also tightly bound to native culture, and because of this, it is often difficult to decode for a person from another culture. Target language refers to any language that is the aim of learning. A second or foreign language which is being learnt can be called a target language. A target language, unlike native language, is often learned in classrooms in a formal way. People learn to speak it in an inauthentic context. While people are learning it, their primary focus is on linguistic forms first, and then move on gradually toward interactive communication.

 

1.3.2 Second and foreign language

A second language, in a broad sense, refers to any language learned after one has acquired one’s native language. However, when compared with a foreign language, it refers more narrowly to a language which plays a dominant role in a particular country or region though it may not be the first language of many people who use it. A second language is often acquired by minority group members or immigrants who speak another language natively. However, a foreign language is not the native language of large numbers of people in a particular country or region. It is not used as a medium of instruction in schools, nor is it widely used as a medium of communication. A foreign language is typically taught as school subjects for the purpose of communicating with foreigners or for reading printed materials in the language. English, for instance, is a second language for Chinese immigrants in the U. S. A., but it becomes a foreign language for Chinese people in China.

Similar distinction should also be made between the second language context and foreign language context. In a second language context, the language is spoken in the country or area where it is being learnt. In a foreign language context, the language is not normally spoken outside the classroom, as is the case of learning English in China. In this book and in the field of SLA in general, a second language refers to any language other than a person’s first language. Therefore, for a learner of English in China, the field of SLA research would say that English is a second language being learned in a foreign language context.

 

1.3.3 Bilingualism and multilingualism

Bilingualism refers to the use of two (or at least two) languages either by an individual, or by a group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a country. Bilingualism is the normal linguistic phenomenon in most of the countries of the world. In everyday use, a bilingual person is one who can speak, read, or understand two languages equally well. But the ability to read and write a second language or foreign language does not necessarily imply a degree of bilingualism. That is, bilingual is an end point, usually referring to someone who can use two languages with some degree of proficiency. However, SLA researchers are interested in individuals who are in the process of learning.

Multilingualism refers to the use of three or more languages by an individual, or by a group of inhabitants of a particular region or country. Usually, a multilingual person does not know all the languages equally well. For example, he or she may speak and understand one language best, or may be able to write in only one of them. Or he or she may use each language for different communicative purposes; one language at home, one at work, and one for shopping. Multilingualism and multilingual acquisition are complex phenomena . They implicate all the factors and processes associated with SLA and bilingualism as well as unique and potentially more complex factors and effects associated with the interactions that are possible among the multiple languages being learned, and the processes of learning them (Cenoz and Genesee, 1998, see Gass and Selinker, 2008: 21).

It must be pointed out that both bilingualism and multilingualism overlap to some extent with second language acquisition.

 

1.3.4 Second language acquisition and foreign language learning

Second language acquisition, generally, refers to the learning of a new language after the native language has been learned. Sometimes the term refers to the learning of a third or fourth language. It also means both the acquisition of an L2 in a classroom setting and in the natural environment. Foreign language learning, however, is different. It refers to the learning of a nonnative language in the environment of the learner’s native language. For example, French speakers learn English in France or Chinese speakers learn Spanish in China. Second language acquisition, in contrast, refers to the learning of a nonnative language in the environment in which the language is spoken. For example, if German speakers learn Japanese in Japan, Japanese is their second language. Such a process of learning may or may not take place in a classroom situation. An important distinction is that learning in a second language environment has considerable access to speakers of the language being learned, whereas learning in a foreign language environment usually does not have such an advantage.

 

1.3.5 Input and output

Input refers to the language which a learner hears or receives and from which they can learn. In contrast, the language a learner produces is called output. Both input and output are important for L2 learning. In second language acquisition, one learner’s output can be another learner’s input.

As for ‘input’ in SLA, it must be pointed out that the language a learner hears or reads must have some kind of communicative intent. That is, there must be a message in the language. A learner’s job is to understand the message, to comprehend the meaning of the utterance or sentence. Therefore, input is related to comprehension in that whenever a learner of a language is engaged in actively trying to understand something in the L2, he is getting input and the input serves as the basis for acquisition. Input for acquisition is not information about the language; it is not drilling or filling out an exercise to practice verb forms. Thus, when a teacher corrects a student who pronounces the –ed ending of the past tense as a full syllable by saying “Not ‘talkED’. Talk[t]. talk[t],” this speech is not input for acquisition. Only instances of the L2 that are used to communicate information or to seek information can be considered as input for acquisition (VanPatten, 2007:36). Another feature of input is that it must somehow be comprehensible. Language that is completely incomprehensible to the learner will not be of much use.

Input can be conversational and non-conversational. Conversational input refers to the language learners hear in communicative contexts; the learner is part of the interaction. Everyday conversations, classroom conversations, playing games are all examples of such contexts in which learners can receive input. non-conversational input is the language that is not used in conversations. It is not directed to an individual learner. When a learner listens to the radio, watches TV, or attends a lecture, he gets non-conversational input, in which the learner does not participate in communicative conversations.

Input can be visual as well as aural. Reading, for example, is an important means of input, especially for adult language learners. But for child language learners, oral input is the most important type.

As for ‘output’ in SLA, it is not language production without meaning. Output in SLA means language that has a communicative purpose. It is the language an L2 learner produces to convey certain kind of meaning. Meaningless utterances and imitations are not output. In this case, output is like input; they are of the same kind of language that has some kind of communicative intent (VanPatten, 2007: 80).

 

1.3.6 Competence and performance

Philosophers and scientists have dealt with the difference between competence and performance for centuries. Competence refers to a person’s underlying knowledge of a system, event or fact. It is the non-observable ability to do something. Performance is the observable and concrete realization of competence. It refers to the actual doing of something, such as walking, singing, dancing and speaking. In western society, competence-performance distinction is used in all walks of life. For example, children in schools are assumed to possess certain competence in given areas and that this competence can be measured and assessed by means of observation of elicited samples of performance. As for language, competence is one’s knowledge of the system of a language, that is, the rules of grammar, its vocabulary, all the pieces of a language and how these pieces fit together. Performance, however, is the actual comprehension (listening, reading) or production (speaking, writing) of linguistic events. According to Chomsky (Ellis, 1994:12-13), competence is the mental representations of linguistic rules that constitute the speaker’s internal grammar. The internal grammar is implicit rather than explicit. The speaker has the intuitions about the grammaticality of sentences. That is, they know whether an utterance is grammatically correct or not. The competence-performance distinction has been extended to cover communicative aspects of language. Some scholars have distinguished communicative competence and communicative performance. The former includes both linguistic and pragmatic knowledge, that is, the speaker’s knowledge of what is the appropriate and correct language behavior and what is effective language behavior in relation to particular communicative goals. Communicative performance is the actual use of these two types of knowledge in understanding and producing speech.

In light of this distinction, the principal goal of SLA is to describe and explain the learners’ linguistic competence. This is usually done by studying the samples of their performance, for the mental knowledge is not open to direct inspection. As for research method, some SLA researchers analyze the actual utterances learners produce in speech and writing. Some try to tap learners’ intuitions about what is correct or appropriate by means of judgment tasks. Others rely on the introspective and retrospective reports that learners provide about their own learning (Ellis, 1994:13). One thing we think necessary to point out here is that none of these research methods can provide a direct window into competence. It is not easy to extract underlying grammatical knowledge from the subjects, especially children, for example, whether it’s better to say “two foots” or “two feet”. Children may have no interest in the researcher’s grammatical question and therefore say whatever they want to. Researchers then have to design indirect methods of inferring competence, among which are tape recording and transcription of countless hours of speech followed by studious analysis.

 

1.3.7 Usage and use

The distinction between usage and use, according to Widdowson, is a distinction between the function of a linguistic item as an element in a linguistic system and its function as part of a system of communication (Richards and Schmidt, 2003). For instance, if the progressive aspect is studied as an item of usage, we consider how it compares with other aspects and tenses in English and the constructions in which it occurs. If it is studied in terms of its use, we consider how it is used in discourse for performing such communicative acts as descriptions, plans and commentaries. SLA research has been primarily concerned with studying usage, although it is now paying more attention to use. Even if the aim is to find out how learners acquire formal features, such as verb + -ing or copula ‘be’, it is often necessary to examine how they use these features to express meaning. Consequently, research based on ‘form’ have increasingly given way to the research of ‘form-function’ mappings.

 

1.3.8 Comprehension and production

Comprehension refers to the identification of the intended meaning of written or spoken communication. It can be a bottom-up process, drawing on information contained in the message, or a top-down process, which draws on information contained in the background knowledge, information from the context and from the listener’s and speaker’s purposes or intentions. Production refers to the output of language, such as speaking and writing. In child language, most evidence points to the general superiority of comprehension over production. They seem to understand “more” than they actually produce. A good example can be found in a child’s phonological development. Look at the following example from a dialogue between a 3-year-old child and W. R. Miller (Brown, 2002: 34):

 

(C = Child; M = Miller)

C: My name is Litha.

M: Litha?

C: No, Litha.

M: Oh, Lisa.

C: Yes, Litha.

 

Obviously, the child can perceive the contrast between two English sounds: /s/ and /th/, though she could not produce the contrast herself. Similarly, a beginner may understand an English sentence with an embedded relative clause, but he is not able to produce one in speaking or in writing. Look at the following example:

 

(T = Teacher; L = Learner)

T: Which girl is your sister, the girl who is standing under the tree, or the girl who is talking with the tall man?

L: The girl is standing under the tree. She is my sister.

…

T: Do you like the teacher who taught you Math or do you like the teacher who taught you English?

L: Oh, I like the teacher. He teach (taught) us Math.

 

How do we explain this difference? It is known that even adults understand more words than they can use in speech; they also perceive more sentences than they can speak out. Can we say that comprehension ability is somewhat separate from production ability? Can we say comprehension indicates more of our overall competence, and production, a smaller portion? Definitely not. So it is necessary to distinguish production competence from comprehension competence. A theory of language must include some explanation of the separation of two kinds of competence.

 

1.3.9 Naturalistic and instructed second language acquisition

    This distinction is made in accordance with where second language acquisition takes place. Naturalistic second language acquisition takes place in naturally occurring social situations while instructed second language acquisition often takes place in classrooms, with the help of ‘guidance’ from reference books and language teachers. The learning occurs differently in the two situations. In the former case, the learner focuses on communication and thus learns incidentally, whereas in the latter case, the learner typically focuses on some aspect of the language system.