Chapter 2 The role of the first language

1.?Introduction

(1)?The role of L1

①?影響方面：foreign accents, vocabulary, grammar

②?Popular belief: L1’s negative role in SLA

1)?SLA as a “restructuring process”

overcoming the effects of L1

slowly replacing the features of the L1 that intrude into the L2

2)?based on theory of general learning

③?Review on the popular belief

1)?supported:

a.?constant warfare between L1 and SLA (two language systems)

b.?during the moment of cognition and the period of storing newly learnt ideas in memory

2)?rejected:

interference does not constitute a major strategy

(2)?Structure of this chapter:

the evolution of “the notion of interference”

①?origins: behaviorist learning theory

②?development: Contrastive Analysis hypothesis & theoretical and empirical attack on the hypothesis

2.?Behaviorist learning theory

(1)?Habits

①?definition: the association of a particular response with a particular stimulus (S-R; 刺激-反應(yīng)聯(lián)結(jié)）(regular)

1)?behavior: S-R(根據(jù)刺激作出反應(yīng)）

2)?different S → different R：

haphazard (unpredictable) or regular

②?characteristics

1)?observable: mental processes was denied

2)?automatic:

a.?performed spontaneously without awareness

b.?difficult to eradicate (unless environment changes led to the extinction of the stimuli upon which they were built 除非刺激消失)

③?habit formation

1)?when a particular stimulus become regularly linked with a particular response

2)?theories:

a.?classical behaviorism of Watson (經(jīng)典性條件作用說）

a)?the stimulus will “elicit”?the response

b)?sufficient and frequent occurrence of the stimulus → the response become practiced and automatic

b.?neo-behaviorism of Skinner（操作性條件作用說）

a)?a particular response may be resulted from multiple stimulus

b)?consequences of the response (the behavior that followed a response) can reinforce and strengthen S-R association

c)?the learning of a habit

i.?imitation: the learner copies the stimulus behavior sufficiently often for it to become automatic

ii.?reinforcement: the response of the learner is rewarded or punished depending on whether it is appropriate or otherwise, until only appropriate responses are given.

④?Apply theories of habit formation to language learning

1)?imitation and reinforcement →

identify the S-R associations that constitute the habits of the language

2)?L1 and L2 acquisition →

break the task down into S-R links

to practice them systematically and to master them one at a time

⑤?Conclusion(理論意義)

1)?provide a theoretical account for L1’s intrusion into SLA: old habits get in the way of learning new habits

2)?offer a general picture of SLA as habit formation and explain why the L2 learner make errors

(2)?Errors

①?Error formation: Transfer

1)?transfer will take place from the first to the second language

2)?negative transfer

a.?when: L1 and L2 share a meaning but express it differently

b.?error resulted from interference (transfer realization devices of L1 to L2) because of proactive inhibition

c.?proactive inhibition 前攝抑制: previous learning prevents or inhibits the learning of new habits

d.?learning a L2:

developing new habits (L2 and L1’s S-R links are different)

=overcoming proactive inhibition

3)?positive transfer

a.?when: the first and second language habits are the same

b.?no errors will occur

c.?leaning a L2

?to discover that the realization devices are the same in the two languages

4)?conclusion

a.?differences of L1 and L2→learning difficulty→errors

b.?similarities of L1 and L2 →rapid and easy learning

②?Views on errors

1)?Errors are undesirable

a.?evidence of non-learning, not wrong learning

b.?failure to overcome proactive inhibition

c.?if being tolerated, errors could become habits

2)?Errors should be avoided

a.?error prediction

a)?compare L1 and L2

b)?identify the differences of L1 and L2

c)?predict areas of potential error

b.?classroom practice

a)?directed on the problem areas

b)?helping the learner overcome negative transfer of L1