A thoroughly updated edition of this award-winning, accessible guide to the study of language acquisition.
Table of Contents
1. Learning a first language
Say what I say: the behaviourist position
It's all in your mind: the innatist position
The `critical period' hypothesis
Mom's the word: the interactionist position
Caretaker talk
Summary
2. Theories of second language learning
Activity: Learner profiles
Behaviourism: the second language view
Cognitive theory: a new psychological approach
Creative construction theory
1. The acquisition-learning hypothesis
2. The monitor hypothesis
3. The natural order hypothesis
4. The input hypothesis
5. The affective filter hypothesis
Summary
The second language interactionist view
Summary
3. Factors affecting second language learning
Activity: Characteristics of the `good
language learner'
Research on learner characteristics
Intelligence
Aptitude
Personality
Motivation and attitudes
Learning styles
Age of acquisition
Summary
4. Learner language
The concept of learner language
Activity: The Great Toy Robbery
Developmental sequences
Grammatical morphemes
Negative sentences
Question formation
Activity: Learners' questions
Relative Clauses
More about sequences of development
Summary
5. Second language learning in the classroom
Comparing instructed and natural settings
for language learning
Activity: Natural and instructional settings
Activity: Classroom comparisons
Five proposals for classroom teaching
1. Get it right from the beginning
2. Say what you mean and mean what you say
3. Just listen
4. Teach what is teachable
5. Get it right in the end
The implications of classroom research for teaching
Summary
6. Popular ideas about language learning: Facts and opinions
1. Languages are learned mainly through
imitation
2. Parents usually correct young children
when they make grammatical errors
3. People with high IQs are good language
learners
4. The most important factor in second
language acquisition success is motivation
5. The earlier a second language is
introduced in school programs, the greater
the likelihood of success in learning
6. Most of the mistakes second language
learners make are due to interference from
their first language
7. Teachers should present grammatical
rules one at a time, and learners should practise examples of each one before going
on to another
8. Teachers should teach simple language
structures before complex ones
9. Learners' errors should be corrected as
soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation of bad habits
10. Teachers should use materials that
expose students only to those language structures which they have already been
taught
11. When learners are allowed to interact
freely they learn each others' mistakes
12. Students learn what they are taught
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
