Formal linguistics approaches to adult second language acquisition and processing

This chapter provides an overview of the major contemporary trends driving adult, non-native language acquisition and processing research from a formal linguistic theory perspective. In doing so, we contextualize for the reader what formal linguistics is, inclusive of the main tenets of generative grammar. We provide an overview of the formative questions of generative second language acquisition (GenSLA), focusing on how they have been recast/refocused over time in accord with: (a) the evolution of formal linguistic theory, (b) insights from GenSLA’s own research over three decades and other paradigms of SLA, as well as (c) the expansion of empirical testing methods to include psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic processing measures. All of the aforementioned is done with the backdrop of adult language learning in mind; that is, what do formal linguistic studies on adult non-native language acquisition and processing contribute to our understanding of how L2ers typically learn/process language

Kesantunan Berbahasa Ditinjau dari Prespektif Kecerdasan Majemuk

Politeness is not solely concerned the language proficiency but a form of multiple intelligence. In the reality of life is not a high IQ who became the only determinants ofsuccess alive. Many people who are cognitively smart but failed in life. On the contrary, many people who are cognitively average but a success in life. Theoretically, there are other factors which are thought to be the deciding one\u27s success in life, among others, the ability to speak in a polite form of intelligence is linguistic, interpersonal, intercultural and personal. Because politeness is a form of intelligence, hence his acquisition should be through education, both in the institution of formal and non-formal. Children need to be educated to use polite language as the embodiment ofa good personal identity, in order to succeed in wading through life.This paper discusses the relationship between politeness and intelligence compounds. Some theory of politeness language (linguistic politeness theory) try combined with compound theory of intelligence (KM), which was conceived by Howard Gardner (1983). Gardner finds evidence that linguistic intelligence is one form of intelligence compound. In the perspective of theory of language, the Gardner\u27s view can be realized in the form of politeness language. The theory is the theory that the new reatif in the field of psychology, relevant as Basic politeness in speaking

Incomplete and Continuing: Theoretical Issues in the Acquisition of Tense and Aspect

The purpose of this paper is to argue against a proposal to adopt formal linguistic theory to the psychological problem children face in acquiring the semantic domains of tense and aspect. As semantic rather than syntactic categories, tense and aspect vary between languages. Without universal statements about meaning, we have no reason to substitute a linguistic analysis for psychological theory. The only real alternative, then, is to attempt to characterize the child language data in terms of categories derived from a child's language behavior, and to search in the contextual events which relate to the child's utterance for cues to the acquisition of motivating categories and distinctions

Teori Pemerolehan Bahasa dan Implikasinya dalam Pembelajaran

There are two types of language acquisition, Natural and formal. In natural type children usually got their second language through their interaction with their friends when they are playing. For adults, they got their second language through their interaction with their community. The community “force” them to learn or understand the laguage used by the most speaker at the place. So, the person can speak the language without learning from formal school. Indonesia formal type, a learner has to follow the lesson inside of classroom under guidance of teacher. It is not true the statemant said that formal type will have a better result Indonesia language learning. Behavioritic theory told us that language or second language can reach through practicing the language Indonesia speaking. Because of that, someone who wants to master a language has to receive stimulus and answer the stimulus given. But mentalistic theory told us that language is innate owned by human being as a gift inside of their mind. The theory tols us that language is not a habit. Because of that human doesn’t need learn their language. They will master language or second language through interacting with other people. There are 4 factors that influence the language acquisition. First is motivation from inside of the learner. Second is age of the learner. Third is taching and learning process and the last is first language which was masterd by the learner

Informal Language Learning: The Perspective of Higher Education Students in Brussels. A Case Study

This research explores informal language learning by Higher Education (HE) students in Brussels. Informal language learning is defined in this thesis as learning that takes place outside formal HE institutions. Informal language learning has been studied less than its counterpart, formal learning, because it is more difficult to observe, to quantify and to evaluate. It depends more on the learner, which makes it more difficult to grasp. Informal learning is less structured because it does not occur within a formal learning context; the learning objectives are not defined by the teacher and can vary, according to the learner’s situation. The literature review examines the difference between learning and acquisition; this study draws on Krashen’s (1976) monitor theory where learning comes from formal instruction and is a conscious process, while acquisition involves meaningful interaction in the target language and is a subconscious process. This study explores the different types of motivation to study informally and examines how reflection can be used to monitor and improve the language that has been acquired by the learner outside class. This project is situated within an experiential approach in qualitative inquiry. The students’ experience of learning outside class as it is lived by them has been studied. This is naturalistic rather than experimental research as normal learning situations are examined from the learners’ point of view. Mixed methods were used to collect the data: questionnaires, interviews and self-reports to analyse the informal learning process in more detail. The self-report was an adaptation of the ‘European Language Portfolio’ (ELP) (Council of Europe 2009), which is a tool that links informal to formal learning. Recommendations based on the findings of this study suggest new methods and strategies for language learning to students and that teachers should be aware of what students do, what motivates them and how learners reflect upon the language learning process, in order to help them learn in class and beyond

Instructed SLA and Task-Based Language Teaching

Although second language acquisition (SLA) and language teaching are two distinct fields, an increasing number of classroom-based SLA research on the effectiveness of different types of instruction, such as focus on forms, focus on meaning, and focus on form (see Norris & Ortega, 2000 for a review), corrective feedback (e.g., Lyster & Ranta, 1997), input enhancement (e.g., White, 1998), etc., has brought about a burgeoning subfield of SLA known as Instructed SLA (ISLA). ISLA, which is often pitted against naturalistic SLA, “occurs in formal settings where language is intentionally taught and intentionally learned – within a limited amount of time” (Spada, 2015, p. 71). Given ISLA’s immediate and potential relevance to second language (L2) pedagogy, Long (2014) made the first attempt to formulate a cognitive-interactionist theory of ISLA. In what follows, this theory will first be presented and then discussed in relation to its significance to and implications for task-based language teaching (TBLT) and syllabus design

Grammar Is a System That Characterizes Talk in Interaction

Much of contemporary mainstream formal grammar theory is unable to provide analyses for language as it occurs in actual spoken interaction. Its analyses are developed for a cleaned up version of language which omits the disfluencies, non-sentential utterances, gestures, and many other phenomena that are ubiquitous in spoken language. Using evidence from linguistics, conversation analysis, multimodal communication, psychology, language acquisition, and neuroscience, we show these aspects of language use are rule governed in much the same way as phenomena captured by conventional grammars. Furthermore, we argue that over the past few years some of the tools required to provide a precise characterizations of such phenomena have begun to emerge in theoretical and computational linguistics; hence, there is no reason for treating them as "second class citizens" other than pre-theoretical assumptions about what should fall under the purview of grammar. Finally, we suggest that grammar formalisms covering such phenomena would provide a better foundation not just for linguistic analysis of face-to-face interaction, but also for sister disciplines, such as research on spoken dialogue systems and/or psychological work on language acquisition

Statistical Knowledge and Learning in Phonology

This thesis deals with the theory of the phonetic component of grammar in a formal probabilistic inference framework: (1) it has been recognized since the beginning of generative phonology that some language-specific phonetic implementation is actually context-dependent, and thus it can be said that there are gradient "phonetic processes" in grammar in addition to categorical "phonological processes." However, no explicit theory has been developed to characterize these processes. Meanwhile, (2) it is understood that language acquisition and perception are both really informed guesswork: the result of both types of inference can be reasonably thought to be a less-than-perfect committment, with multiple candidate grammars or parses considered and each associated with some degree of credence. Previous research has used probability theory to formalize these inferences in implemented computational models, especially in phonetics and phonology. In this role, computational models serve to demonstrate the existence of working learning/per- ception/parsing systems assuming a faithful implementation of one particular theory of human language, and are not intended to adjudicate whether that theory is correct. The current thesis (1) develops a theory of the phonetic component of grammar and how it relates to the greater phonological system and (2) uses a formal Bayesian treatment of learning to evaluate this theory of the phonological architecture and for making predictions about how the resulting grammars will be organized. The coarse description of the consequence for linguistic theory is that the processes we think of as "allophonic" are actually language-specific, gradient phonetic processes, assigned to the phonetic component of grammar; strict allophones have no representation in the output of the categorical phonological grammar

From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches

This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured.Third revised and extended editio