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Second Language Acquisition (ENG -318): Course outline (ENG -318 )

Course description

The field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) investigates how people attain proficiency in language, which is not their mother tongue. Bilingualism is also a sub discipline of this field. English language teachers teaching in bilingual settings must have theoretical background in SLA, so that they may discover links between acquisition theories and different pedagogic techniques used for teaching second language. They will also understand the relationships between linguistics, psychology and first language acquisition, which are source fields for the study of SLA.

Course contents

  1. Unit I: Introduction
    • Second Language Acquisition as a field of study?

Unit II: Learning Grammar

 

    • What is grammar?
    • Structure words, morphemes and sequence of acquisition
    • The processability model
    • The role of explicit grammar

Unit III: Learning vocabulary and meaning

    • Word frequency
    • Knowledge of words
    • Types of meaning
    • Strategies for understanding and learning vocabulary

Unit IV: Acquiring pronunciation

    • Phonemes and SLA
    • Learning syllable structure
    • Ideas about phonology learning

Unit V: Acquiring a new writing system

    • Writing systems
    • Spelling
    • Punctuation

Unit VI: Strategies for communication and learning

    • Communication strategies
    • Language learning strategies

Unit VII: Individual differences in L2 users and L2 learners

    • Motivation
    • Attitudes
    • Aptitude
    • Age
    • Personality traits

Unit VIII: The L2 user and the native speaker

    • L2 user vs native speaker (NS)
    • Code switching by L2 users
    • English as lingua franca (ELF)

Unit IX: General models of SLA

    • Universal grammar
    • Processing models
    • The socio-educational model
    • The interaction approach

 
    • Socio-cultural SLA theory (SLA and Pragmatics)
    • Multi-competence (in world Englishes perspective)

 

Course objectives

On successfully completing this course, the learners will be able to:

    • Know major developments in SLA research
    • Understand developmental patterns
    • Explain external factors of SLA
    • Explain internal factors of SLA
    • Explain individual differences in SLA

Textbooks

Teaching-learning strategies

Teaching will be done through lecture method with a combination of tasks/projects and presentations

 

          Assessment and Examinations

Assessment will be done as per university/department policy.