bad
Criticism
1. Imitation and practice alone can‟t explain some of the forms created by the children. 2. It can‟t account for the normal language development of children who rarely imitate and practice. 3. It can‟t explain the more complex grammatical structures of the language.

e.g.(Peter is playing with a dump truck while two adults, John and Cathy , look on) Peter: Get more. Cathy: You‟re gonna put more wheels in the dump truck? Peter: Dump truck fell down. Dump truck.
3. four steps for a child to acquire his/her L1:
imitation→reinforcement→repetition→habituati on 模仿 强化 重复 成形
positive negative good habit habit positive reinforcement: praise or reward negative reinforcement: corrections good habit: correct perforing linguistic in the mind of the newborn baby. 2. Language learning is the result of imitation, practice, feedback on success, and habit formation 3. The quality and quantity of the language which the child hears, as well as the consistency of the reinforcement offered by others in the environment, should have an effect on the child‟s success in the language learning.
3) The cognitive approach
1. viewpoint: Children’s language development relies on their understanding of the world or cognition. 2. its difference from the nativist approach 3. Case study
Definition
It can be defined as the way in which people learn a language other than their mother tongue, inside or outside of a classroom. Second language acquisition is closely related to the fields of linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and education. Second can refer to the learning of a third or fourth language in addition to the mother tongue.
The differences between learning and acquisition:
language acquisition
In communicative settings Subconscious process Acquired competence Implicit knowledge Procedural knowledge
Language Aquisition
First language Acquisition
Theories in L1A
1. behaviorist learning theory (popular in the 1950s and 60s) 2. the nativist approach 3. the cognitive approach 4. the functional approach
2) The nativist approach
1. viewpoint: Children’s ability to learn a language is innate. 2. innate hypothesis: ↑ 3. Language Acquisition Device (LAD) characteristics of LAD Universal grammar (UG) 4. Chomsky’s term for the abstract principles that comprise a child’s innate knowledge of language and that guide LA
negative transfer and interference? 4. What is the difference between an error and a mistake? What is Error analysis? How to classify the errors? What are the causes of errors? 5. What is interlanguage? What is its main feature?
6.Weakness of the nativist approach: · hard to find out the nature of LAD · difficult to observe LAD 7. Contributions of the nativist approach: It regards children’s language as a reasonable system rather than something full of errors.
language learning
In schools Conscious process Knowledge of rules Explicit knowledge Declarative knowledge
Second language Acquisition
1. What is SLA? 2. What is the development of SLA? 3. What is contrastive analysis? What is
4) The functional approach
1. to probe LA not from the angle of language structure , but from the angle of language communication. 2. viewpoint: Children can learn a language successfully for the reason that they realize language could help do things. case study:
1. Contrastive Analysis （CA）
Researchers systematically compare the first language and the target language. Lado was the first to provide a comprehensive theoretical treatment and to suggest a systematic set of technical procedures for the contrastive study of languages. Lado claimed that "those elements which are similar to [the learner's] native language will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be
History of SLA studies:1940s—1970s )
Contrastive analysis (comparison of L1 & L2)
Error analysis (analysis of learner errors) Interlanguage (analysis of learner language)
1.1 Transfer
“Transfer is influence that the learner’s L1 exerts on the acquisition of an L2”. Positive transfer (facilitation) : language learning consists mostly of the projection of the system of the first language to the system of the second language. Thus, language learning will be successful when the two languages happen to be similar. (Lado) Negative transfer (interference): Language learning will be unsuccessful when the second language happens to be very different. Lado (1957)