Second Language Acquisition: Course Outline ENG-206

This course is a general introduction to scientific research into how people learn a second language. Although the course is designed to be accessible to students from a wide variety of backgrounds, some knowledge of the linguistic structure of English will be assumed.

Second language acquisition, or SLA, is a theoretical and experimental field of study which, like first language acquisition studies, looks at the phenomenon of language development -- in this case the acquisition of a second language.  The term "second" includes "foreign" and "third", "fourth" (etc.). Since the early nineteen seventies, SLA researchers have been attempting to describe and explain the behavior and developing systems of children and adults learning a new language.

The dominant aim behind this research is to extend our understanding of the complex processes and mechanisms that drive language acquisition.

By virtue of the fact that language itself is complex, SLA has become a broadly-based field and it now involves:

	Studying the complex pragmatic interactions between learners, and between learners and native speakers
	Examining how non-native language ability develops, stabilizes, and undergoes attrition (forgetting, loss)
	Carrying out an analysis and interpretation of all aspects of learner language with the help of current linguistic theory
	Developing theories that are specific to the field of SLA that aim to account for the many facets of non-native language and behavior
	Testing hypotheses to explain second language knowledge and behavior

UNIT I

• Basic Concepts of SLA  Key issues in second language acquisition

UNIT II

•   Language, acquisition and learning

UNIT III

•   First language acquisition

UNIT IV

•   Comparing and contrasting first and second language acquisition

UNIT V

•   Factors affecting second language acquisition

UNIT VI

•   Social factors and second language acquisition

UNIT VII

•   Cognitive factors and second language acquisition

UNIT VIII

•   Individual differences and second language acquisition

UNIT IX

•   Classroom second language acquisition

UNIT X

•   Formal instruction and second language acquisitio

UNIT XI

•   Classroom interaction and second language acquisition

UNIT XII

•   Input, interaction and second language acquisition

UNIT XIII

•   Error analysis and second language acquisition

UNIT XIV

•  Theories of SLA: The Monitor Model the Acquisition versus Learning Hypothesis.

UNIT XV

• The Monitor Hypothesis.
•   The Natural Order Hypothesis.
•   The Input Hypothesis
•   The Affective Filter Hypothesis.

UNIT XVI

•  70 Inter-language Theories  Over generalisation
•   Transfer of Training
•   Strategies of Second Language Learning
•   Strategies of Second Language Communication
•   Language Transfer

UNIT XVII

•   Stabilization and Fossilization in Interlanguage
•  Language Socialization in SLA  Acculturation/Pidginization Theory
•   Socio-cultural Theory
•   Processability Theory

UNIT XVIII

•  Cognitive approaches to second language acquisition
•   Cognitive Processes in Second Language Learners
•   Universal grammar
•   Role of Universal Grammar in First and Second Language acquisition
•   Principle and Parameter Theory
•   Projection Principle
•   Language learning through association