key concept 二语习得重要概念

Chp 1

1.Native-like: The ability to comprehend and produce a second language at a level

of performance which is hardly distinguishable from that of a native speaker.

2.native speaker: A person who has learned a language from a early age an who

has full mastery of that language. Native speakers may differ in terms of vocabulary and stylistic aspects of language use, but they tend to agree on the basic grammar of the language.

3.Input: The language which the learner is exposed to (either written or spoken) in

the environment.

4.grammatical morphemes:Morphemes are the smallest units of language that

carry meaning. A simple word is a morpheme(book). Grammatical morphemes are the smaller units which are added to words to alter their meaning(-s, plural) or function words(the)which are ordinarily attached to another word.

5.metalinguistic awareness: The ability to treat language as an object, for example,

being able to define a word, or to say what sounds make up that word.

6.developmental sequences/ Order of acquisition Natural order: The order in

which certain features of a language (for example, negation) are acquired in language learning. Also called developmental stages or order of acquisition.

nguage acquisition device (LAD): A metaphor for the innate knowledge of the

‘universal’principles common to all human languages. The presence of this knowledge permits children to discover the structure of a given language on the basis of a relatively small amount of input.

8.UG:Innate linguistic knowledge which, it is hypothesized, consists of a set of

principles common to all languages. This term is associated with Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition.

9.Critical Period Hypothesis: The proposal that there is a specific and limited time

period for language acquisition. There are two versions of the CPH. The strong version is that if a language is not learned by puberty the biological endowment which permits successful language acquisition will not be available. Thus the learner will have to use general learning mechanisms which are not designed for language acquisition and thus not as successful. The weak version is that, even though the same learning mechanisms are involved, second language learning will be more difficult and incomplete after puberty because most learners have neither the time nor the motivation to reach the high level of mastery which a child reaches.

10.child directed speech: T he language which caretakers address to children. In

some cases, this language is simpler than which is addressed to adults and also may involve slower speech, more repetition, and a large number of questions.