Nature and nurture in second language acquisition

/in /by

Department of Language and Linguistics

 

Nature and nurture in second language acquisition– LG438-7-SP

 

Assessment 2020-21

 

KEEP A COPY OF ANY PIECE OF WORK YOU SUBMIT FOR ASSESSMENT

 

Mid-term assessment task (50%)

 

Deadline: to be submitted via online submission by 4 p.m. on Monday 22nd February 2021

 

Word length: 1500 words (in total, i.e. including answers to both questions).

 

There are TWO questions in this assignment; answer BOTH questions:

 

 

  • QUESTION 1: The L2 lexicon

 

 

Answer ALL subsections in this task (there are THREE parts: a, b, and c):

 

  1. An oral Word Association test has been carried out with two native speakers of English (NS), and two second language learners of English (NNS; one intermediate and one advanced). Their responses to the prompts are given in the table below. 

 

Responses 
Prompt word NS1 NS2 NNS1 (intermediate) NNS2 

(advanced)
Egg Bacon Hen Yellow Bacon 
Government  Johnson Incompetent Policy Policy 
Salt Pepper Pepper Sea Pepper
Butterfly Insect Moth Fly Pretty
Run Walk  Jog Fast Walk
White  Black Black Colour Black
Old New Young Grandfather Man
Cousin Family Nephew Pablo Family
Sleep Night Wake Awake Dream
Knot Rope String Pot Tie
Elephant Giraffe Animal Jungle Animal
Pure Innocent Clean World White
Painting Drawing Drawing Wall Picture
Build House Construct Tower House
Table Chair Chair Dinner Chair
Give  Take Gift Gift Present
Emotion  Feeling Happy Motion Sad
Work  Study Play Hard Job
Wave  Sea Beach Save Goodbye
Concept  Idea Idea Contest Lecture 

 

  1. Analyse the type of relationships between the prompt and the response given in the table above.

Classify the responses as either paradigmatic or syntagmatic, or another relationship, and compare the results from the native speakers and the second language learners. Present both your classification and your analysis clearly, using tables and descriptive statistics.

 

  1. Discuss your findings in the context of what we know about how the mental lexicon is organised in native speakers and in second language learners. Discuss whether your results support findings in the literature or not, and why this might be the case (or not).

 

See class notes 2 and 3 for useful references.

 

 

  • QUESTION 2: Language development

 

 

Klein and Perdue (1992: 91 and 101) provide short transcripts of the English speech of a native speaker of Italian, ‘Andrea’, who was working in London as a waiter. The first sample of speech was collected after he had been in London for 6 months; the second sample was collected 20 months later. Andrea appears to have been acquiring English primarily on the basis of interaction with other speakers of English.

 

Task: Assuming that what Andrea says reflects his knowledge of English:

(a) describe the changes that have taken place in his knowledge of lexical and grammatical (functional) morphemes between the first sample of speech and the second;

(b) discuss whether the pattern of development is what you would have expected on the basis of other studies of early L2 learners that you have encountered in the module or in your readings.

 

Transcript 1 (6 months after arrival). Andrea is describing a scene involving a man and two women cooking when a fire breaks out (… = pauses):

 

every people happy in the cooking … tea … biscuit … one man … I dunno … for the window …the man thinks for … no possible from the door. This man one idea from the window but when this man is in the cooking the door is open from the very quickly fire brigade

 

Transcript 2 (26 months after arrival). Andrea is describing a scene from the Charlie Chaplin film Modern Times.

 

well after ten days they meet again and she tell him that she find, found one house for their, for them, and they go together to see this house. This house is a very old house all in wood in one field near one lake and they stay in this house, well they stay there.

 

See class 3 and 4 notes for useful references

 

End of term assessment (50%)

 

Deadline: to be submitted via on-line submission by 4pm on Monday 12th April 2021

 

Word length: 1500 words

 

Answer ONE of the following questions. (There are TWO questions):

 

  1. To what extent do you think innate linguistic knowledge is involved in second language learning? Support your argument with evidence from studies encountered in the module and in your readings.

 

You might find the following sources particularly useful:

 

Hawkins, R. (2019). How second languages are learned: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hawkins, R. 2001. Second language syntax: a generative introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, chapter 1.4.

Hawkins, R. 2004. The contribution of the theory of Universal Grammar to our understanding of the acquisition of French as a second language. Journal of French Language Studies, 14, 233-255.

Hawkins, R. 2008. The nativist perspective on second language acquisition. Lingua, 118, 465-477.

O’Grady, W. 2008. The emergentist program. Lingua, 118, 447-464.

Mitchell, R., Myles, F., and Marsden, E. 2013. Second language learning theories. Abingdon: Routledge, chapter 3. 

White, L. 2003. Second language acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapters 1 and 2.

 

  1. Choose one English linguistic structure studied during the module (e.g. verb morphology, articles, passives, double objects, relative clauses, word order, scrambling, aspect…). Outline what we know about its acquisition by second language learners and discuss the role of at least two of the following factors in its development:
  • The L1 of the learners
  • Innate knowledge vs. language-specific properties
  • The input
  • Explicit instruction
  • The age of onset of acquisition 

Please note not all these factors will be relevant for all the structures studied. Indicate briefly which factors your essay focuses on and why. 

 

You might find the following sources particularly useful:

See module notes (on Moodle) for references to specific linguistic structures.

 

The following textbooks might be particularly useful:

Hawkins, R. (2019). How second languages are learned: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hawkins, R. (2001). Second language syntax: a generative introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell

Herschensohn, J. (2007). Language development and age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mitchell, R., Myles, F., & Marsden, E. (2019; 4th ed.). Second Language Learning Theories. Abingdon: Routledge.

White, L. (2003). Second language acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press