Assignment
1. Translate the following into Chinese.
(1)Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture --- both productively when attempting to speak the language and to act in the culture and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and the culture as practiced by natives.
--- Lado
(2) Acquisition [is] a process similar, if not identical to the way children develop ability in their first language… Language acquirers are not usually aware of the fact that they are acquiring language, but are only aware of the fact that they are using the language for communication. The result of language acquisition, acquired competence, is also subconscious. We are generally not consciously aware of the rules of language we have acquired. Instead, we have a ‘feel’ for correctness. Grammatical sentences ‘sound’ right, or ‘feel’ right, and errors feel wrong, even if we do not know what rule was violated.
--- Krashen
2. Match the following theories with their central figures.
1) Contrastive Analysis (CA) a. Krashen
2) Error Analysis (EA) b. Chomsky
3) Interlanguage c. Lado
4) Monitor Model d. Halliday
5) Universal Grammar (UG) e. Corder
6) Systemic linguistics f. Selinker
3. Fill in the blanks in the following passage. The first letter of the word is given.
According to Krashen, second language learners have two independent means of developing knowledge of a second language --- one way is through a_______ and the other is through l______. There are two different knowledge types. The a________ system is used to produce language, while the l________ system is used as an ‘inspector’ of the acquired system. It checks to make sure that the utterance is correct against the knowledge in the learned system.
According to Halliday, Language acquisition … needs to be seen as the mastery of linguistic f__________. Learning one’s mother tongue is learning the u____ of language, and the m_________, or rather the meaning potential, associated with them. The structures, the words and the sounds are the r__________ of this meaning potential. Learning language is learning how to mean.
4. Answer the following questions.
(1) What are the common characteristics of human language?
(2) What are the main criticisms against the CAH? Give examples to illustrate.
(3) Why is the study of learner errors beneficial to both the teaching and learning of a second language?
(4) What is the procedure of error analysis? What are the main shortcomings of EA?
(5) What are the five assumptions of the Monitor Model?
(6) What is the relationship between a principle and a parameter in language? give examples to illustrate.
(7) Is there a general agreement that L2 learners have access to UG in the initial state of SLA? What are the different opinions on it?
(8) What is accessibility hierarchy? What is the basic principle of accessibility hierarchy?
(9) What is the functional view of language acquisition? What is the primary purpose of language according to a functionalist perspective?
5. Mini-discussion corner.
(1) Krashen’s Input Hypothesis is crucially dependent upon the concept of i + 1 and comprehensible input. How can you determine whether there is sufficient comprehensible input? If a learner seems to have fossilized, does it mean that there is insufficient input? If a learner has fossilized and you can show that the input is rich with a particular structure, what other explanations can you give for the non-progress?
(2) According to the accessibility hierarchy, if a language has a relative clause of type X, then it will also have any relative clause type higher on the hierarchy, that is, to the left of the type X. For example, English has OPREP (object of preposition) relatives (That’s the woman about whom I told you), then it has the first three types, SU (That’s the woman who came yesterday), DO (That’s the woman whom I saw yesterday) and IO clauses (That’s the woman to whom I lent some money). Can we make a prediction that learners of ESL follow a natural order in learning English relative clauses? In other words, can we say that the relative type on the left is easier to learn than those on the right? Cite relevant research on this area, conduct a survey of your own to support your opinion.
(3) Listen to someone who learns and speaks your language non-natively. Write down some ungrammatical sentences they have spoken. Use principles of CA and the procedures of EA in this chapter and try to classify the errors into different types. Finally, explain why the learner makes such errors.
(4) The following data are from the written composition of intermediate Chinese ESL students. Study them carefully and discuss the following two questions with your classmates.
--- How do the italicized parts differ from standard English?
--- Can you find a consistent predictable relationship between these learner forms and standard usage?
Group 1
a. He is my image.
b. This accident will give people experience.
c. Because of watching TV constantly, children change lazy.
d. My friends listens to the class very carefully.
e. I’ll make some delicious vegetables for you.
f. These blooded young men are ready to contribute their force to their country.
g. At ordinary times, he always practices his English with his friends.
Group 2
a. Most people are often by car or by bike to go to work.
b. No stopping watching TV leads children to have an abnormal life.
c. Depending on my opinion, we should control the time of watching TV.
d. In cities, people must get education, but in countryside, people no need to get much education.
e. But as a normal person, he wants to marry whom is his own thing.
Group 3
a. She didn’t find a good job because she has no background.
b. After entering college, they think study or nonstudy is not important.
c. I have never seen her just sitting there doing nothing. Even when watching TV, she would always prepare her lessons or correct her students’ homework.
d. When we children argue with Father, she always scolds us and say we are no older and younger.
