What is second language acquisition?

Recent phenomenon belonging to the second half of the 20th century

Communication between people has expanded beyond their local
speech communities
Learning a second language is now a means of obtaining education or
securing employment
The context second can refer to any language that is learned
subsequent to the mother tongue

What are the goals of SLA

One approach is to ask student which has provided some valuable
insights, though it is somewhat limited in. What learners are probably
not aware of or cannot remember the actual learning process they
engaged in.
A better approach might be to find what learners actually do by
collecting samples of learner language to analyze them carefully.
The description of L acquisition
Identifying the external and internal factors that account for why
learners acquire L2 in the way they do
External factors
Social conditions influence the opportunities that learners have to hear
and speak the language and the attitudes that they develop towards it
Input that learners receive, that is, the samples of language to which a
learner is simplified of exposed.
Language learning cannot occur without input. Do learners benefit
more from input that has been native-speaker communication?
L2 acquisition can be explained in part by these external factors but
there are also internal factors to consider.
Internal factors
Learners possess cognitive mechanisms which enable them to extract
information about the L2 from the input (plurality)
L2 learners bring an enormous amount of knowledge to the task of
learning an L2. They have already learned a language (their mother
tongue)
They also possess a general knowledge about the world which they can
draw on to help them understand L2 input.

 Elements; motivation, learner styles, personalities, attitude,

etc.
Learners possess communication strategies that can help them make
effective use of their L2 knowledge.

Input and interaction

L2 acquisition can only take place when the learner has access to
input in the second language. That input may come in written or
spoken form
Spoken input occurs in face-to-face interactions, non-reciprocal
discourse includes listening to the radio or watching a film.
Behaviorists claim that presenting learners with input in the right
closes and then reinforcing their attempts to practice them can
control the process of acquisition
Chomsky pointed out that in many cases there was a very poor
match between the kind of language found in the input that learners
received and the kind of language that themselves produces.
Comprehensible input (krashens 1985 Input hypothesis) proposed
that learners acquire morphological features in a natural order as a
result of comprehending input addressed to them. Long (1981 a)
argued tha input which is made comprehensible by means of the
conversational adjustments that occur when there is a
comprehension problem is especially important for acquisition
Swain (1985) proposed the comprehensible output hypothesis which
states that learners need opportunities for pushed output in
speech or writing that makes demands on them for correct and
appropriate use of the L2
Questions
1. - why do we said that mathematics is learn, not acquired?
2.-What are four typical barriers to acquiring as an adult compares to L1
acquisition as a child?
3. - what are the differences between positive and negative transfers?
4. - what happens when an interlanguage fossilasisses?
5.-What are the three components of communicative competences?

Yule chapter fifteen second language acquisition for next Monday