Summary_PLLT_chapter 2 - part 2

 

Part 2 -

 

Issues in first language acquisition

1. Competence and Performance

1. Definition

• one’s underlying knowledge of a system, event, or fact
• the nonobservable ability
• one’s underlying knowledge of the system of a language

(its rule of grammar, vocabulary, all the pieces of language, and how those pieces fit together) 

1. Performance

• the actual doing of something: walking, singing, dancing
• overtly observable and concrete manifestation, or realization of competence
• actual production(speaking, writing) or the comprehension(listening and reading)

1. The problem of inferring competence
2. Chomsky(1965)

• the abilities of an “idealized” speaker-hearer who does not display performance variables

1. A theory of language = A theory of competence

1. Criticisms

• The only option for linguists is to study language in use

1. Tarone(1988)

• Performance variables are connected to heterogenous competence(=abilities that are in the process of being formed)

1. Comprehension and Production

1. Definition

1. Comprehension: Listening, Reading
2. Production: Speaking, Writing

      2)    Issues

1. Comprehension =/ Competence, Production =/ Performance

• Human beings have the competence both to understand and to produce language
• We also perform acts of listening and reading just as surely as we perform acts of speaking and writing.

1. The superiority of comprehension over production

• Children seem to understand “more” than they actually produce.

1. The distinction between production competence and comprehension competence

• A theory of language must include some accounting of these two categories.
• In fact, linguistic competence no doubt has multiple modes, well beyond the typical 4 skills. 

1. Nature or Nurture?

1. Nature?

     ⇔ little scientific, genetic evidence

1. Nurture?
2. Derek Bickerton(1981)

1. Universals

1. Definition

-> Evidence: universal linguistic categories

1. Principles and Parameters

 

Principles	Parameters
- Invariable characteristics of human language that apply to all languages universally e.g.) Assigning meaning to word order	- Parameters vary across the languages. e.g.) Variations in word order         (S-V-O, S-O-V)

 

• The child’s initial state consists of a set of universal principles.
• The child’s task of language learning is manageable because of innate universal principles.

1. Systematicity and Variability

1. Systematicity
2. Variability

1. Language and Thought

1. Research on the relationship between language and cognition

1. The behavioral view

• Cognition is too unobservable to be studied by the scientific method.

1. Jean Piaget(1972)

• Language is dependent upon and springs from cognitive development.

1. Vygotsky(1978)

• Social interaction, through language, is a prerequisite to cognitive development.

1. Whorf

• Each language imposes on its speaker a particular “worldview”

1. Conclusion

1. Imitation

1. Surface-structure imitation
2. Deep-structure imitation
3. Conclusion

1. Practice and Frequency

1. Practice
2. Frequency

(Evidence: what questions, certain common household items and persons)

1. The acquisition is not attributable to the frequency.

(Evidence: telegraphic speech)

1. Input

1. Grammaticality of input
2. Adult and peer input

1. Discourse

1.  The importance of interaction

• How to initiate a conversation
• How to respond to another’s initiating utterance
• The literal and intended meaning of utterances

1. Much remains to be studied

• How do children learn discourse rules?
• What are the key features children attend to?
• How do they detect intended meaning?

 

Reference)

- Brown, H. D.(2014). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (6th Edition), Pearson (지정도서)

- 고려대학교 교육대학원 영어교육 전공 영어교과교육론 서원화 교수님 (2022년 가을학기)