SLA Theories

SLA Theories

What's the purpose of SLA theories?
1. A set of principles that tries to explain the phenomena of the language learning process.
  1. Knowing the theories will help SL teachers apply the best learning methods, teach the most appropriate content, etc.
    1. It should result in "learner centered" rather than "teacher centered" instruction
Methods differ because they emphasize different elements of the SLA process
1. To date, there is no "single" method that SLA researchers would reach a consensus about.
2. Acculturation
  1. Schumann
  2. Considers social and psychological integration of learner with the target language group. Pays attention to social and affective variables
    1. The shorter the social distance, the better the SLA results.
    2. Alberto is an example. He had a large social distance and it affected his acquisition negatively.
3. Comprehensible input
  1. Krashen
  2. Appropriate level (comprehensible, i+1), extensive input is needed and SLA will naturally occur.
4. Interaction hypothesis
  1. Long
  2. Acquisition happens when students interact in L2. Use negotiation of meaning to get modified input, which ensures that the input is at the appropriate level.
  3. Also believes that significant amounts of input are needed.
5. Pushed output hypothesis
  1. Swain
  2. Being forced to push the language out is the trigger that helps the learner pay attention to the language and helps develop rules, or at least notice them.
6. Noticing hypothesis
  1. Schmidt
  2. Successful acqisition takes place when learners notice language that they produce and also what they take in.
  3. Negative example was Wes in Hawaii. He will never acquire proper grammar rules because he only produced without noticing.

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	Created by Caleb A almost 9 years ago