unit 7 monitor theory

Discussion
• How should we take it into consideration in teaching English?
puzzles
• Consequently, though it was clear that second language acquisition took place in a definite order, it was unclear what are the implications for language teaching.
Monitor hypothesis (监察假说) 监察假说)
• Output is always supervised • Anything learners want to say originates in their acquired knowledge, and is turned into spoken output by the process of speech production. • Leant knowledge, if available, may monitor the learner’s production either before or after the actual sounds are produced.
AcquisitionAcquisition-learning hypothesis
• two distinct and independent means for developing competence and internalizing the target language: • Learning • acquisition
Learning
• Quite like classroom learning • Features: • conscious and explicit process • awareness, intentional • the result: only as a monitor, grammatical rules, language usage
Monitor theory
• By Krashen • Monitor theory is a very important theory in second language learning and it deals with the laws of L2 learning. In so far as it is probably the most comprehensive of existing theories.
suggestions
• Learnable (易学性): simple rules that can be learned more easily should be present first; • Portable (易记性): rules that can be memorized easily in the learner’s head should be present first; • not yet acquired (新东西): only rules that have not been acquired need to be taught. For rules that students have already acquired, they need not to be taught.
grammatical morpheme acquisition
• ---articles: the, a an, • ---past tense • ---passive, active
Two methods
• Natural utterance record • Elicited response with a researcher (by experiment): • ---test (wug test) • ---illustration reading
• The percentage of correct items supplied for each morphemes is calculated in each transcript. If a morpheme is supplied in over 90% of its obligatory contexts in three consecutive transcripts, the child is regarded as having acquired it. Then the dates on which each morpheme was acquired can be put in sequences to arrive at the acquisition order
Acquisition
• like the process used by a child to “pick up” the first language. • Features: • implicit, informal, natural • subconscious and intuitive process • the result: acquired competence, language use
Children’s native language
• ---manner? • ---the teacher? • ---what is learned?
Classroom L2 learning
• ---the manner • ---the teacher • ---what is learned
findings
• there is a predictable, natural order for the acquisition of grammatical structures of the second language, regardless of age differences and language backgrounds of the acquirers.
Three alternatives
• ---to use no order of presentation ( since the learner’s mind will automatically impose one) • ---to follow the ‘natural’ order (since learners will be unable to absorb things that are too far distant from their current point of acquisition) • ---to use the reverse order( since learners need to pay most attention to the things they will find difficult rather than those that are easy).
The monitor model
• Learned knowledge
•
Monitoring
• Acquired knowledge
output
Preconditions
• Having time • Focusing on form • Knowing the rule
Implications
SLL sequence
• By Dulay and Burt • Spanish-speaking childrቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱn learning English
sequence
copula be auxiliary • Plural -s ing be articles the / a irregular ed past 3 rd person –s possessive -s
reflection
• What are the features in classroom second language learning? And how about children’s native language acquisition? How do they differ? (5 mins) • ---the manner? • ---the teacher? • ---what is learned?
Rodger Brown(1973)
• Studied three children learning English as a first language. • He collected transcripts of the children’s speech every month up to the age of 4.
• What would we learn from the distinction of acquisition and learning, and monitor hypothesis? • Is learning useful, if it only serves as monitor? • If learning is a monitor, why do we (classroom learners) still can have output?
Natural order hypothesis
• One of the most exciting discoveries in language acquisition research in the 1980s • It erupted from grammatical morpheme acquisition studies
First language order
plural -s • Ing • irregular -ed past possessive –s copula be articles the /a • regular past -ed 3rd person –s auxiliary be. • This true longitudinal study was largely corroborated by cross-sectional work by de Villiers and de Villiers (1973)