A tentative analysis of the initial development of english syntax in UFSC students

LITERA T U R A CORRESPONDENTE

A TENTATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE INITIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH SYNTAX IN UFSC STUDENTS

TESE SUBMETIDA

à UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE S ANTA CATARINA PARA A OBTENÇÃO DE GRAU DE MESTRE E M LETRAS

Esta Tese foi julgada adequada para a obtenção do título de

MESTRE EM LETRAS

Especialidade Lxngua Inglesa e Literatura Corres pondente e aprovada em sua forma final pelo Programa de Pós- Graduação.

Arturo Ugalde, M.S.

Hilário., p,ohn, Dr. Coordenador do Curso

-Aprese n t a d a perante a Comissão Examinadora compos ta dos Professores:

Arturo Ugalde, M.S. - Presidente

Hilário I. Bohn, Dr.

filhos Paulo

Livia Lilian

à Fundação Universidade Federal do Piauí

à CAPES

Aos Professores do Curso de Pós-Graduação

LI ( first language ) L2 ( second language ) 2nd ( second language ) MT ( mother tongue ) TL ( target language ) IL ( interlanguage ) E A ( error analysis ) Cl ( composition 1 ) C2 ( composition 2 ) C3 ( composition 3 ) Tl ( test 1 ) T2 ( test 2 ) T3 ( test . 3 ) A ( article ) Ag. ( agreement ) O ( omission ) W.C. ( w r o n g choice ) S. ( subject ) v. ( verb ) W.F. ( w r o n g form ) I .F . ( incorrect form ) W.O. ( w o r d order )

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

LANGUAGE MODELS AND PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

BACKGROUND IN EFL 3

1.0. Language Models 4

1.1. A réévaluation of "grammatical competence and

communicative competence" 6

1.2. The P s ycholinguistic Background 12

1.2.1, First Language Acquisition 17

1.2.2, Foreign Language Accruisition 19

1.2.3. Similarities and differences between

acquisition of Ll and TL 26

1.3. Conclusions 31

SYNTAX, SYNTACTIC PROBLEMS AND E RROR ANALYSIS 34 2.0. The role of syntax in foreign language acquisition 35

2.1. Encoding / Decoding 37

2.2. Sentence level and Textual level 40

2.3. Syntactic problems in foreign language acquisition 45 2.4. Error Analysis hypothesis: different perspectives 50

2.4.1. An appraisal of Richards' model 50

2.4.2, An appraisal of Developmental Error Analysis 58 2.5. Errors role in foreign language acquisition 59

2.5.1. Causes 62

2.5.2. Classification 62

2.5.3. Significance 69

2.6. Conclusions 70

3.2. The Corpus under analysis 75

3.2.1. Initial Stage 77

3.2.2. Middle Stage 79

3.2.3. Final Stage 80

3.3. Procedural Stages 83

3.4. Statistical Results and Comments 84

3.5. Conclusions 128

H Y POTHETICAL SOURCES OF ERRORS 131

4.0. M ethod of Analysis 132

4.1. Results and Comments 134

4.2. Students Strategies in the use of syntactic

categories 147

4.3. Implications of the use of strategies 155

4.4. Conclusions 159

METHOD O L O G I C A L IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS 162 5.0. Introduction 5.1. Syntactic development 5.2. Error Perspectives 5.3. Teaching Implications 5.3.1. Teacher's role 5.3.2. Student's role 5.3.3. Techniques of correction 5.4, Remedial Work 5.5. Conclusions j CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX 162 162 164 165 166 167 168 17.1 186 189 190 199

A B S T R A C T

This dissertation proposes the analysis of problems that often affect the foreign language learner achievement at the sentence structure level, especially in his initial syntactic development.

The work presents two approaches: one theoretical and the other practical. The theoretical approach emphasizes the importance of linguistic models in the study of sentence structure and a réévaluation of the psycho l i n g u i s t i c perspec tive. The practical aspect is centred around the analysis of errors taken from the w r itten work of a group of thirteen students from the Federal University of Santa Catarina in their first level of English studies. The observations are made during a semester and divided into three stages w i t h a total of thirty class hours in each stage. The m a t erial analysed comprises six compositions and three tests.

The most frequent errors found in the material analysed are in the areas of article usage, the use of the subject pronoun, verb forms and agreement of the subject w i t h

I its verb. 1

After evaluating the results of this research we conclude that syntax constitutes a serious problem in the acquisition of a foreign language, and that the problems

I

m anifested in the s t u d e n t s ’ syntactic development may be overcome if both teacher and student are w i lling to remedy the difficulties found.

Esta dissertação se propõe analisar os problemas que freqüentemente afetam o nível frasal do estudante de lin gua estrangeira, especialmente em seu desenvolvimento sintãti co inicial.

O trabalho apresenta duas abordagens: uma teórica e a outra, prática. A abordagem teórica enfatiza a importância

dos modelos linguísticos no estudo da estrutura da sentença e uma reavaliação da p e rspectiva psicolinguística. A prática ê centrada na análise de erros de trabalhos escritos de u m gru po de treze alunos da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina em sua p r i m e i r a fase de estudos do Inglês. As observações são feitas durante um semestre e divididas em três estágios com um total de trinta horas aula para cada estágio. 0 mate rial analisado compreende seis composições e três testes.

Os erros mais freqüentes no material analisado se encontram nas áreas do artigo, pronome sujeito, formas ver bais e concordância do sujeito com o verbo.

Após avaliar os resultados da pesquisa, concluimos que a sintaxe constitui sério p r o blema na aquisição de uma língua estrangeira, e que os problemas manifestos no desenvol vimento sintático dos alunos podem ser superados se o profes sor e aluno em conjunto decidirem recuperar as dificuldades e n c o n t r a d a s .

I N T R O D U C T I O N

In the last t w enty years the d e v e l o p m e n t of linguistic studies has achieved wide dimensions and the lines of theoreti cal postulations as well as the termin o l o g y have c ontributed to ward complicating the clearness of a global v ision for the non specialist and t h e 'language teacher. With the intention of sharing ray experience in teaching u n d e r g r a d u a t e students , I took advantage of most of the b i b l i o g r a p h y selected for this research and included i t i n the first t heoretical chapters. P robably some readers will consider that the two chapters should be reduced in length for a theoretical discussion. But I find the material w o r t h w h i l e reading as it is. I hope that it will help other language teachers w h o often deal w i t h problems simi lar to the ones p r e s ented here.

The acquisition of syntax is u s ually an important step in the development of linguistic competence in a foreign lan auage. Teachers constantly deal w i t h these problems in the classroom. These problems often surface both in oral and. w r itten form. Students, in general, are unware of the di?fi_ culties involved in syntactic development. As a consequence of their lack of awareness, they go t h rough a series of courses repeating the same kind of mistakes.

This study is a tentative analysis of some of the most common errors in E n glish Syntax made by the b e g i n n i n g B r a z ilian student. For this purpose, we have o r g a n i z e d this research in

~ . h ~ T r l i o v i n o wa y :

cholinguistic backg r o u n d in EFL and their incidence in foreign language teaching, together w i t h insights about the most cur rent trends in language acquisition problems. In Chapter II the study of Syntax, Syntactic Problems and Error Analysis presents views about the role of syntax in the p erspective of language use and the criteria for an adequate approach in E rror Analysis to account for syntactic difficulties. In Chapter III we have the scope of the Research w h i c h provides a hierar c h i c a l selection of errors through the a pplication of Error Analysis and a typology of errors on the basis of frequency. C h apter IV presents the hypothetical sources of Errors. Chapter V includes some metho d o l o g i c a l implications of the findings and an evalu ation of the research in the scope of its p e d a g o g i c a l implica t i o n s .

One crucial p r o c edure aspect in this r e s earch relates to the selected corpus. The data relative to the students' d i fficulties are o b t ained from w r i t t e n p e r f o r m a n c e through the analysis of compositions and tests. Vie justify this choice by the facility of d e t e cting errors in w r i t t e n production. Oral material is very hard to w o r k w i t h b e cause t r a n s c r i p t i o n s pro vide an additional c o m p l i c a t i o n of subjective i n t e rpretation when the v o c a lized versions are unclear. The data w e r e ob tained d uring three major stages of the learning experience. These three stages will show the initial or starting point of the syllabus, the intermediate stage of its development, and the final point of the learning process after one academic term of fifteen weeks.

The present r e s earch is an attempt to shed some light on one of very basic problems of f o r e i g n 'language acquisition, wh i c h is the initial develo p m e n t of b a s i c structures in B r a z ilian students.

C H A P T E R I

LANGUAGE M O DELS A N D P S Y C H O L I N G U I S T I C BACKGR O U N D IN EFL

This chapter is concerned w i t h Language Models and P s y c h o l i n q u i s t i c Backgr o u n d in EFL. It includes an analysis of different m odels of language and their incidence in foreign language learning. The appéarance and d e v e l o p m e n t of language m odels have c ontributed to the achiev e m e n t Of n e w p e rspectives in the field of language acquisition. As a result of this c onstant d e v e l o p m e n t some concepts have recei v e d a n e w dimen sion such as "competence" and "performance". Intending to con c entrate on these concepts we w i l l m a k e a brief study of the r é é valuation of their importance and c o n t r i b u t i o n to language acquisition, following up w i t h some important aspects con cerning language functions for c o m m unicative purposes.

In the P s y c h o l i n q u i s t i c B a c k g r o u n d we deal espec i a l l y w i t h the p r o b l e m of language acquisition, stressing both native and foreign languages. Finally, we compare the a c q u i s i t i o n of LI and TL in order to o b s erve some similarities and differ e n c e s in the process of acquisition.

Language has to do w i t h m e n t a l o perations in the con structing of sentences. This implies not o n l y the internal rules for sentence formation but also the inclusion of., the speaker's intention for u s i n g the uttera n c e s in a p propriate contexts. This r e ality is reflected in the formal and the p ragmatic aspects of the system. The commun i c a t i v e intentions

of the speaker can be realized in the appropriate language form.

From another perspective, A p plied Linguists try to make a synthesis of diffe r e n t d isciplines such as language learning, language a cquisition and language teaching, inte grating them w i t h the general aspects of language descri p t i o n provided by language models.

1.0. LANGUAGE MODELS

Lingu i s t i c models are in constant development. The models d e v e loped by linguists b efore the appear a n c e of transfor mational theory w e r e partly circum s c r i b e d by p h o n o l o g i c a l and m o r p h o l o g i c a l problems. In spite of their limitations these m o dels have, throug h o u t the years, contri b u t e d toward clari

fying some important questions in the field.

The first attempts m a d e b y De Saussure to d e l imit the scope of language d e s c r i p t i o n were of great importance for future developments. Gradually, linguists p e r c eived the impor tance of i n c orporating other perspe c t i v e s concerning language w hich came from r e lated sciences, such as psychology. (This was the case of Behaviorism, w h i c h p r o v i d e d some insights for structural d e s c r i p t i o n ) . After Chomsky's p u b l i c a t i o n of 'Syn tactic S t r u c t u r e s ' the appearance of transf o r m a t i o n a l gener ative grammar r e p r e s e n t e d a revol u t i o n in the aims of l i n g u i £ tic study: Chomsky's model (TG Theory) gave special emphasis on p s y chological studies. He argued that the m a i n c o ncern of lin guistic theory should be the competence of the speaker.

5

-Competence is defined as the

s p e a k e r - h e a r e r 's knowledge of his language which is the prime con cern of linguistic theory.

He accepted the independence of grammar upon m e a n i n g and was more interested in form than in meaning.

I think, that we are f orced to con elude that g rammar is autonomous and independent of m e a n i n g 3 and that probab il is ti c models give no p ar t ic ul ar insight into some o f the basic problems o f syntactic

(2) structure.

But t r ansformational grammar fitted w i t h the same con cept of structural linguistics, giving e x t r a o r d i n a r y importance to the study of language structure. Further linguistic d e v e l o p m ents w h i c h gave m a j o r importance to m e a n i n g led to a r e a £ praisal of the Chomskian model. One of the first concrete manife s t a t i o n s of the n e w proposals; is found in H y m e s 1 article

"On Communicative Competence". Hymes felt the neces s i t y of redefining competence and performance. A c c o r d i n g to Chomsky, competence was due to simple gramm a t i c a l knowledge. Hymes also v iewed competence as the ability to use the language. For him this ability involved far more than g rammatical knowledge. Ac cording to Hymes, competence circumscribes concepts of appropri_ ateness and acceptability, notions that in Chomsky w e r e associ^ ated w i t h performance. This c o m municative competence is con

(1) C ho m sk y 3 N.. Aspects o f the Theory o f S y n t a x 3 M.I.T. P r e s s 3 1965,: 3

(2) A l l e n 3 J.P.B.. and B u r e n 3 Paul Van x C h o m s k y „•______ Se l ected R e a d i n g s 3 Oxford University P r e s s 3 L o n d o n 3 1970: 21

trasted with the more n arrow notion of grammatical competence.

Attention to the social dimension is thus not r e st ri ct ed to occa_ sions on which social factors seem to interfere with or restrict the

grammatical. The engagement of

language in social life has a posi_ ti v e3 productive aspect. There are rules o f use without which the rules o f grammar w o ul d be useless. Just as rules of syntax can con_ trol aspects of p h o n o l o g y 3 and just as semantic rules perhaps con trol aspects of s yn t ax 3 so rules of speech acts enter as a control ling factor for linguistic form as

\

V

(

)

a w h o l e .

Èoth p s y c h o l o g y and p h i l o s o p h y have been concerned with linguistic models. Coulthard (1976) asserts that w h i l e a whole g eneration of linguists was d e voted to form (the relation between m e a nings and sounds b e i n g n e c e s s a r y to set up various levels of d e s c r i p t i o n such as syntax and morphology, p h o n ology and phonetics, lexis and semantics) some p h ilosophers w e r e con cerned with the analysis of i l l o ccutionary acts, that is, the intention of the speaker in c o m munication and the judgements that a speaker of a language can make concer n i n g sentences. These circumstances led to a reappraisal of the notions of

" c o m p e t e n c e ” and "performance".

1.1. A R E EVALUATION OF "GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE" AND "COMMUNICA TIVE COMPETENCE".

(3) Hym e s 3 D. The Communicative Approach jo Language Teaching 3 Oxford University P r e s s 3 1-9 T9: IS.

7

-In a réévaluation of De S a u s s u r e ' s famous dichotomy, "langue-parole" Chomsky d e v e loped two notions: linguistic com petence and linguistic performance. L i n g u i s t i c competence is concerned w i t h the knowledge of language structure that is im plicit in the speaker w h e n he uses language. This knowledge makes it possible for the produc t i o n and u n d e r s t a n d i n g of an infinite set of sentences. Lingui s t i c p e r f o r m a n c e is concerned with actual use of language.

Hymes regards competence in general terms as the ca p abilities of a p e rson and assumes that it is d e p e ndent upon both knowledge and use. For him knowledge comprises the four p arameters of commun i c a t i o n w h i c h are 'whether or not something is formally possible'; 'feasibility'; appropriateness, to context' and 'accepted usage'. A b ility for use m a y also be related to the four p arameters and it indicates individual dif ferences with regard to ability to use knowledge, to interpret,

(4

to differentiate, etc.

The first param e t e r is e quivalent to C h o m s k y 's notion of competence as simple grammatical knowledge. It indicates when a structure is g rammatical or ungrammatical. The second parameter is concerned w i t h p s h y chological factors such as m e mory limitation, the third suggests the r e q uired sense of re lation to contextual features, and the fourth indicates the ways in which things are possible, feasible, and appropriate in order to produce and interpret cultural behavior.

Halli d a y is, perhaps, the most influential linguist

w h o has placed emphasis on m e a n i n g and use. In his paper 'To wards a sociological semantics' he is concerned w i t h the w a y linguistics can be used to help the sociologist in his study of social phenomena. Fie argues that if we regard language in rela tion to the context in w h i c h it is used, we learn something about the w a y language operates as a system. He says,

The more we are able to relate the options in grammatical systems to meaning potencial in the social contexts' and behavioural setting s 3 the more insight we shall gain into the nature of the language s ystem3 since it is in the service of such contexts and settings that language has evolved.

Hallidav is concerned w i t h three levels of analysis and the relati o n s h i p b e t w e e n them, w h i c h are: the behavioural-, the semantic and the grammatical. The level of b e h avior pro poses to the individual several choices of action and this level is termed 'behaviour potencial'. T hese choices can be expressed by a person in speaking or w r i t i n g something. In performing something orally or in w r i t i n g he is faced w i t h a set of choices on the level of semantics. In selecting what he wants, he is faced w i t h more choices at the g rammatical level w hich contribute toward p o i n t i n g out several ways in w h i c h the

language system provides for the expre s s i o n of his meaning*

The acquisition of grammar m u s t be u n d e r s t o o d psycho

(5) H alii day 3 M.A.K., in Brumfit C.J.. and K. Johnson "Towards a Sociological Semantics" The Communicative Approach to Language Tea:ching3 Oxford University P r e s s , 1979: 38.

9

-logically as enabling the learner to unders t a n d u tterances w h i c h would be called acceptable in the "native" sense. W h e n one ac quires a language one does not only need to k n o w h o w to compre hend sentences but also how to use sentences appropriately in order to achieve communication. To comprehend and compose sen tences the speaker needs knowledge of the rules of the language. When this knowledge is e x p r essed by the use of sentences then judgement can be made of correct E n g l i s h usage. The use is rec ognized as the meani n g f u l realization of communicative behavior.

The achievement of language usage requires two : abili_ ties. One is known as the ability to choose w h i c h form of sen terice is appropriate for a partic u l a r linguistic context. The other is the ability to know which function is fulfilled by a sentence in a communicative situation. The n otion of appropri ateness must be applied to the form and function of sentence as instance of use. A c c o r d i n g to Hymes (1971) appropriateness in eludes "whether and to what extent something is in some context suitable" .

When we p r oject this p r o b l e m of the acquisition of grammar to the language classroom, we m a y see that these princi^ pies should be v a l i d l y applied w h e n consid e r i n g the types of k nowledge that a language learner m u s t possess in order to a chieve c o m municative competence. T raditional language teaching is severely c riticized because it insists on the n e c e s s i t y of

(6) H y m e s 3 D . . ’Sociolinguistics and the ethnography of speaking 't in A r d e n e r 3 E. (ed.) Social Anthr op ol og y and L i n g u i s t ic s 3 Association o f Social A n th ro pologists Mono_

em phasizing correctness and the rules of the grammar. It assumes that a language is a linguistic concept. Little importance is given to the contextual use of language. M a n y educators have expressed d i s s a tisfaction w i t h the results of teaching . based •principally on the concepts of pattern drill and m e c h a n i c a l ma n ipulation of language structures. They argue that students do not automa t i c a l l y make the t ransition from structures learned in pattern drills to realistic language communication.

In the last decade, studies in sociolinguistics and p s y c h o l i nguistics have shown the importance of context in the l a n guage-teaching and l a nguage-learning process. The w o r k s of Gregory and Joos (1967) have sensitized us to the need for teaching appropriate language. Other linguists and psycho linguists have stimulated us toward m a k i n g an accurate examina tion of the notions concerning the nature of language and h o w it should be learned. Thus, as can be seen, appropriateness has received a great deal of attention in recent years. It has been broadly c onsidered in terms of a c c e ptability from formal to informal language, and it has involved choices of structure and vocabulary.

The teaching of languages should be c o n c erned with 'correctness' and 'appropriateness'. Learners also make mis takes in the use of the code. The teacher should be concerned

]

with teaching the learner not just to p r oduce g r a m m a t i c a l l y ac ceptable strings of words, but also to use language for: some communicative purpose.

By analogy w i t h the language a cquisition process in the mother-tongue, we k n o w that it takes quite a long time for a child to learn to control linguistic features appropriately. He

11

-begins by using simple words and as he increases his v o c a b u l a r y he broadens his experiences in m a n i p u l a t i n g the language for communicative purposes. Later on, he acquires k n o w ledge of the rules of grammar w h i c h enables h i m to improve his language. For this reason, we should not expect of foreigners that they be able to use language a p p r opriately and w i t h the same skill and control as the n ative speaker does. A foreign language learner needs to go t h rough v a r i e d and extensive experience be fore he becomes an expert in the selection of a ppropriate gram m a tical features.

When we reevaluate "grammatical competence" and "communicative competence" we need to keep in m i n d some impor tant aspects w h i c h are concerned w i t h this matter. Grammatical competence has to do w i t h correctness of forms or the k n o w ledge of how to form correct u t t e r a n c e s . For anyone to be able to u nders t a n d verbal c o m m u n i c a t i o n he needs to internalize rules that relate sounds to m e a n i n g or one w o r d to another. Communi cative competence has to do w i t h the speaker's ability to use the language approp r i a t e l y in order to communicate his inten tions and respond to someone's inquiries. G rammatical compe tence and communicative competence require- both c o m p rehension and production. E ither comprehension as p r o d u c t i o n can be either partial or complete. One can unders t a n d and produce correct forms in the target language e ither partially, or al most completely. Competence is the sum of two aspects: gram matical competence and communicative competence, and these two aspects have a receptive level and a produc t i v e level. One can see this in the samples given as illustration taken from the students compositions and tests in the chapter r e s erved for the

research.

1.2. THE PSYCH O L I N G U I S T I C

BACKGROUND-In the previous section of this d i s s e r t a t i o n we dis cussed the importance of linguistic models. Language models try to e x p lain the code and the situations connected w i t h the use of the code. Psycho l o g i c a l models, in the acquis i t i o n of the code, deal w i t h skills of compre h e n s i o n and production.

P s y c h o l inguistics appeared as an attempt to e x p lain psych o l o g i c a l theories conce r n i n g the a cquisition of language. The first most important theory to appear was the behavi o r i s t i c position, supported by Skinner, w h o s e empirical tendencies dom inated half of the twentieth century. This theory, w h i c h is basic a l l y e x p r essed in Skinner's "Verbal Behavior", regarded language acquisition as the formation of habits, or as the re suit of the individual's learning of a large number of elements in order to m a n i p u l a t e these elements in a fast and automatic way. This was possible through the sequencial process of

s t imulus-response r e - i n f o r c e m e n t .

The first attack on B e h a v i o r i s m was made b y Chomsky in his well d o c u m e n t e d "Review of B. F. Skinner's V e rbal Be h a v i o r " , 1959, in w h i c h he claimed that language is not simply a set of "habits" and its use is very d i f f erent from animal communication. Chomsky's convictions of the differ e n c e b e tween h uman beings and animals made him adopt the m e n t a l i s t i c theory w h i c h reinforces the existence of a faculty of language innate to the child w h i c h facilitates the acquis i t i o n of his m o t h e r - tongue.

13

-Further analysis of these questions throughout the d evelo p m e n t of psycho l i n g u i s t i c studies have shown t h a t ; in r ealistic terms language acquisition cannot be regarded w i t h i n either of these extreme positions.

Combalb, Helec and Hiley (1977), after exami n i n g the hypotheses concerning language a cquisition concluded that n e ither the b e h a v i o r i s t i c nor the m e n t a l i s t i c approach satis fies absolutely our e x p ectations concer n i n g language acquisi_ tion.

The b e h a v i o r i s t i c approach does not account for the fact revealed through recent p s y c h o l i n g u i s t i c studies that only one part of the individual's verbal b e h avior is a ssimilated to the automatic b e h a v i o r from w h i c h every c reativity is excluded, the rest remaining for the order of p r o b l e m - s o l v i n g and for the creative m a n i p u l a t i o n of knowledge acquired. The men talistic approach does not account for the fact that part of an individual's verbal behavior is r e f l e x - b e h a v i o r . It does: not consider either the fact that individuals elaborate their own grammars of a language in different ways according to the conditions to w h i c h they are exposed.

The implication of these facts in terms of language teaching, as the result of a research by C o mbalb et al, in a course for beginners, is that teachers need to be attentive to the two approaches ~ the b e h a v i o r i s t i c and m e n t a l i s t i c - and also be alert to the fact that for the acqui s i t i o n of c o m p rehen sion, the m e n t a l i s t i c model is dominant, while for the acquisi tion of expression, both models are repres e n t e d in equal parts. A n other consid e r a t i o n is related to the technique of repeti t i o n

as essential to the first stage of acquis i t i o n of the rules of the sentence (behavioristic approach) and the p r o d u c t i o n of sentences involving errors as essential for the p r ocess of grammatical a c quisition (mentalistic a p p r o a c h ) .

Adult learners do not like to acquire a n e w b e h a v i o r wi t h o u t a complete expla n a t i o n of the m e c h a n i s m s involved in the new situation. These mechan i s m s can be regarded as a theo retical descri p t i o n of behavior, and they are useful to conduct each stage of learning w i t h i n a general scheme and to solve problems of learning difficulties.

Combalb, et al, propose as an alternative the dif ferentialistic approach w h i c h emphasizes w i t h i n language acqui^ sition the ability of compre h e n s i o n {receptive skills) dis associated from the ability of expres s i o n (productive skill),

Diller provides a good d e s c r i p t i o n of language acqui sition. Language acquisition, he states, is not a conditioning process in which a p erson says some things in certain situa tions. Most likely

it is a process in which the learner actively goes about trying to organize his percep t io n o f the w or l d in terms o f linguistic con_ cepts.

(7) D i ll e r, Conrad K a r l ; Generative Grammar, Structural Lin guisties and Language T e a c h i ng , Newbury House P u b

15

-Corder (1973) states that learning a new language is not a q u e stion of acquiring a new set of names for the same things; it is not just the learning of automatic devices, the internalizing of a bilingual dictionary. Language l e a r n i n g consists of a c q u iring command of a language on a level w h i c h is adequate for the communicative purposes of the individual. Thus, the learner is o b l iged to u n d e r s t a n d and be understood. By doing so, his perfor m a n c e will be acceptable to the other m e mbers of the speech community.

Ausubel, et al (1968) approach linguistics and p s £ chological views of language acquisition in these terms:

From a linguistic point of v i e w language comprehen sion requires the k n o w ledge of 'inflecting words', to combine words into sentences, and the syntactic code consists in:

(I) connecting words (prepositions3 c o n j u n ct i on s ) ; (2) designative words (articles3 demonstrative ad

jectives; (Z) inflections indi

eating n u m b e r 3 gender, person, case, tense, mode, and mood; and

(4) w or d- or de r rules adding rela tional m e an in g t o connected dis

(

)

c o u r s e .

From a psych o l o g i c a l point of view, the rules of syn tax have the function of r e l ating ideas and the p u r p o s e of

(8) A u s u b e l , David; Novak Joseph D; Hanesian Helen Educational Psychology A Cognitive View, Second E d i t i o n 3 Bolt Rihart and Winston, 1968: 69.

genera t i n g and u n d e r s t a n d i n g n e w ideas. Two important problems are related to grammar. One is concerned w i t h the cognitive processes involved in g enerating and u n d e r s t a n d i n g sentences, and the other is concerned w i t h d i s c o v e r i n g h o w children learn to use a p p r opriately diffe r e n t syntactic categories. In the case of our research, the subjects w e r e adults and not children, although the processes of a cquisition b e t w e e n LI and T L are similar. W h e n words in a g r o u p are a p p r o p r i a t e l y inflected and combined according to the rules, the result is satisfactory because it not only shows grammatical correction, but also communicates the idea that the speaker or w r i t e r wants to con v e y .

Ausubel, et al., reinforce their former comments by regarding three important ways in w h i c h language contributes toward concept formation and problem-solving.

First the representational prop erties o f words facilitate the

transformational processes in

volved in thought. S e co n d t ve r balization of the emerging subverbal products o f these opera_ ti o ns 3 prior to naming t h em s re fines and enhances their meanings and thereby increases their trans^ fer power. L a s t 3 the kinds o f c on cepts individuals learn in a par_ ticular culture are profoundly in f lu enced by the vocabulary and structure of the language to which they are e x posed in that cut

(9) t u r e .

17

-According to the ideas presented, the p ostulates of first language a cquisition are applicable in h e l p i n g foreign language learners to discover and d e velop concepts and princi pies they could not discover alone. This Is possi b l e because humans have the capacity to d i s cover and to verbalize ideas. With this p e r s p e c t i v e In m i n d we will take into account two types of language acquisition processes; that of the first and that of a foreign language acquisition. It should be stressed in advance that in the comments about foreign language w e will notice the use of the term L2. This term is used in this w o r k to refer to the foreign language learning instead of second language acquisition. As E n g l i s h is not a second language in Brazil the comments and research w e r e b a s e d on a foreign lan g u a g e .

1.2.1. FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUIS I T I O N

The child in tne a c quisition of his first language

\y

-must iearn what language is in itself. A c c o r d i n g to H a l liday a child learning his first language is learning how to mean. In this phase the emphasis is on the semantic rather than the syn tactic aspect of language. W h e n adults use language w i t h small children they do so by m o d i f y i n g the language to include commu n icative strategies w h i c h differ from their own experience in the m a n a g e m e n t of language. For this reason, language ad dressed to children is often referred to as b e i n g in a simpli

fied register.

W i lkins (1974) asserts that in child language acqui sition, the first thing to be regarded should be the q u a n t i t y

of language in w h i c h the child is involved. The child's contact with the language is observed in different forms. In one, the language is d i r ected to him by o t h e r people. In another the language is p r o duced in his presence but not addressed .to,, him. It is also important to notice that the language heard by the child is not made up of perfect samples of grammatical speech. Lastly, there is the language that the child h i mself produces. Thus, w h e n the child makes an error he does so, because he does not k n o w h o w the rules of the g r a mmar operate. However, w i t h i n a short period of time he will discover his limitations and become alerted to the fact that he has made a mistake. It takes some time for errors to disap p e a r in a child's language. In general, these persist in spite of correction. They d i m inish and disappear w h e n the child is capable of m a s t e r i n g the grammar of the language.

The child, in the a cquisition of his native language, learns how interactions are made. He learns certain basic assumptions w h i c h are significant for communication. One of these relates to w h e t h e r w h a t the speaker says is relev a n t to what has been said before. Another is that m e a n i n g s are not explicitly stated in sentences but have to be inferred. Later the child is e x posed to simple narrative sentences and he is taught during school h o w to write experiments.

C h i ldren apply some strategies in order to learn the systems of grammar, n amely phonology, syntax and semantics. This is done by b r e aking each system down’ into the smallest combinable parts and by develo p i n g rules for combining the parts. This task is p e r f ormed in their first years of life. This basic process continues to be improved and the p r o d u c t i o n

19

-of sounds and words increases considerably. The develo p m e n t of rules for combining the parts is carried out in a very method i c a l way. First, the most general rules are h y p o t h e s i z e d and later on these rules are r estricted to other sets of sen tences.

M c N eill (1966) states that in the study of first lan guage acquisition, the child, by the age of t hree-and-a half, has achieved linguistic competence. However, as he explains, grammatical rules are discov e r e d by the child t h rough the indue tive process. This means that a child does not repeat a grammatical form that is not already in his repertoire as evidenced by his own spontaneous utterances.

The child passes through d i f f e r e n t stages in his p r o gress towards adult competence, and in each stage has a g rammatical system of his own that does not need to be ex plained by reference to the adult system. The child makes a series of h ypotheses about the structure of the language w h i c h he tests, preserves or abandons. This w o r k takes a certain amount of time in order to achieve the final adult grammar of competence in the language.

1.2.2. FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUIS I T I O N

C ompared to first language a c q u i s i t i o n the foreign language learner is more aware of learning a language and m o r e able to answer questions about w h a t he knows. He is actively involved in the learning process: he listens carefully and

checks what he says h i m s e l f ; he is anxious to p a rticipate and communicate w i t h another person. Thus, he is stimulated to practice the language he is acquiring.

All learning requires the use of practice. The study of a language depends in great part on practice. In learning a language there are numerous links to be acquired, and for this reason practice is essential in order to m a i n t a i n words and patterns readily available to us.

A c c o rding to V ivian Cook (1978), one important element in the learner's situation is the language he hears. In the acquisition of a foreign language the learner's p r imary need is d e rived from his communicative needs. Thus, : the l e a r n e r 's language is a consequence of his i n t e r a c t i o n s . The intention of the learner to communicate t h rough the language leads him to use it for communicative purpose.

An other approach m a d e by Guiora, B r annon arid Dull (1972) reveals that the person w h o already has d e v e l o p e d a r easonable command of the m o t h e r tongue brings to the learning of a foreign language a set of habits from his first linguistic code w h i c h may generate either assistance or confusion. This p r o b l e m is m a n i f e s t e d throughout this dissertation, in the produc t i o n of our subjects. However, further comment about this will be given in the next chapters.

On the other hand, Guiora, B r annon and Dull comment that a person in the stage of a c q u i r i n g a n e w language is cognitively m a ture enough to grasp more e asily the new factors of the unknown grammar. His m a t u r i t y and his previous experi

21

-ence facilitate the learning of the new code.

Ac c o rding to James' hypothesis a foreign language learner, from the b e g i n n i n g of his study, gives special atten tion to the sentences that he w a n t s to produce. He affirms that any L2 learner has a p r o p e n s i t y for constr u c t i n g his "interlingua" w h i c h is u s e d b y h i m in the context in w h i c h he is learning. James describes the learner's interlanguage in these terms

The learner of any L2 has a propensity to construct for him self this i nt e rl i n g ua , an act of linguistic creativity so natural that it w o u l d be u nrealistic to expect learners to circumvent it and p r o c e ed directly from his Ll to the native s p e a k e r rs version of the L2. A f ur ther reason for allowing the learner to construct the i n terlingua is that it is immediately usable by him in the context in which he is learning; his classmates have the Ll in common so will converge in tacit agreement on the form of the i n t e r l i n g u a . With this they will be able to communicate while they are learning3 while the conven tional a pp ro a ch , which prescribes the interlingua as a "corpus of

error" either stifles the

learner 's c om munication drives a lt o g e t h e r , or requires that the

linguistically mature student

becomes as a little c hi ld 3 prac ticing perfectly w e l l -f o rm ed

nativ e -s pe ak er 's s e nt en c es , which a r e s h o we v e r , often idealized and usually trivial. Accepting the i nt e rl in gu a, like accepting a child's non-st a nd ar d speech, avoids the necessity to halt the c ommunication process for the sake o f the learning process.

James' conception of interlanguage is later rein forced by Selinker (1972), Richards (1973) and Corder (1973). In the view of this framework the foreign language learner constructs his interlingua by comparing the features of the language he is acquiring w i t h the ones of his native tongue. This procedure is made n a t u rally in order to facilitate the learner's interaction w i t h o ther in the n e w language e n viron m e n t .

Usually the language simplified by the learner is very similar to the child's early speech and thus accepted by the native speaker. It is a w a y of e n a b l i n g the learner to communicate w h i l e he is learning. In this aspect w e . can notice similarity b e t w e e n the adult and the child's b e h avior in the a cquisition of a foreign language.

The study of interlingua p h e n o m e n a in language learning leads to a c o n c entration on the central processes of second language acquis i t i o n and to a study of the circum stances w h i c h give these processes significance.

(10) J a m e s , Carl 1970 in Selinker, Larry "Interlanguage" IRAL, Volume X/3, August 1972: 214.

23

-Interlingua features m a y be c h a r acterized by commu nication strategies. This happens w h e n the learner is e x posed to difficult c o m m unication in another language and has to ex press in that language w h a t he has assimilated. W h e n the learner isolates himself from interaction w i t h speakers of the target language, he has the t e n dency to simplify the syntax of the language w i t h the aim of t r a n s f o r m i n g the language into an instrument of his own intentions. Simpl i f i c a t i o n is one w a y w hich speakers of d i f f erent languages u t ilize to facilitate the learning and use of the language they w i s h to acquire.

S elinker (1972) agrees w i t h James concerning the n otion of interlanguage. He explains this term in the fol

lowing words:

... a separate linguistic system based on the observable output which results from a learner's a t te mp te d produ c ti on of a TL

( I D

The author suggests that studies m a d e in the psychol^ ogy of f o reign-language learning should b e g i n by regarding the p s y c h o l i n g u i s t i c processes w h i c h e s t a b l i s h the k n o w ledge of interlingual behaviour. These processes are: a) language transfer, b) transfer-of-training, c) strategies of foréign- language c o m munication and d) o v e r g e n e r a l i z a t i o n of Target language linguistic material.

L anguage transfer occurs w h e n the linguistic features which appear in the interlanguage are a result of the native language. T r a n s f e r - o f - t r a i n i n g occurs w h e n linguistic features are a result of items that can be identified in repeated training procedures. Strategies of foreign language communi cation are the result of w a y s e m p loyed b y the learner in order to communicate w i t h speakers of the target language. Overgen,< eralization of T arget Language linguistic m a t e r i a l is a result

of target language rules and semantic features.

Selinker also comments that interlanguage linguistic structures often persist in m o s t t arget language learners. T heir m a n i f e s t a t i o n is generally n o ticed in Interlanguage p roduc t i v e performance, in situations w h e r e the speaker is u nder conditions of anxiety or w h e n he faces a new experience in the language.

Other factors also influence and c h a racterize the learner's foreign language system w h i c h are: intralingual inter ference, m o d a l i t y of exposure and production, age, successions of approximative systems and unive r s a l h i e r a r c h y of difficulty. The term "Intralingual Interference" w a s coined b y Richards

(1973) w i t h the purpose of explai n i n g that the items p r o duced by the learner do not reflect the structure of the m o t h e r tongue, but rather g eneralizations b a s e d on his exposure to the target language.

Richard's research reviewed that "systematic intra lingual errors involve o v e rg e n e ra l i z at i on a ignorance o f rule

25

-(12)

semantic errors" . The result of these studies contr i b u t e d to the agreement that many intralingual errors represent the learning diffic u l t y in the target language. W h e n the learner acquires b a s i c rules in the target language, other sources of difficulties m a y be attributed to surface structure and contextual rules of the language. This confirms the tradi tional b e lief that "previous learning m a y influence later learning".

Language learning m a y vary according to the m o d a l i t y of exposure to the target language and the m o d a l i t y of production. N e m s e r (1971) believes that two d i f f e r e n t linguis tic systems may be internalized in the target language, de pending on the modality. As an example of m o d a l i t y w e have spelling, p r o n u n c i a t i o n and confusion b e t w e e n w r i t t e n and spoken styles.

Some scholars believe that age m a y affect the system of the second language learner. They claim that w h i l e adults have b etter m e m ories and greater ability to form n e w concepts, nevertheless, children are better imitators of speech sounds. Le n n eberg (1967) comments on the stages the child goes through w h e n he first begins to w a l k and that continue until puberty. However, adults in general are b e t t e r p r e p a r e d for language learning than children. This is due to several factors such as a b etter memory, a store of abstract concepts that can be used in learning, and the ability to form new concepts.

(12) R i c h a r d s 3 Jack C. Error Analysis Perspeatives o n Second Language A c q u i s i t i o n a L o n g m a n t 1973: 6.

Language learning is never identical and that is w h y the a c quisition of new lexical, phonol o g i c a l and syntactic items varies from one person to another. The rules that char a c t e r i z e the approximative system m a y cover data w h i c h has no source in either native or target language. Early studies have indicated that m a n y phonol o g i c a l replacements found in the speech of foreign language learners are unique to approxi mative systems. The learner hears and u n derstands standard English but produces a series of d e v iant structures. Here we can notice a d i s t i n c t i o n b e t w e e n his receptive competence, which imply the rules for u n d e r s t a n d i n g (decoding processes) and his produc t i v e competence, w h i c h involve rules for lan guage use (encoding processes).

The foreign language learner acts as if he were learning the first language. In attemp t i n g to u n d e r s t a n d the rules to w h i c h he is exposed, he develops hypotheses that do not c o r r e s p o n d to his m o t h e r - t o n g u e nor to the target . lan guage. Corder (1974) suggests three m a i n factors for.: the learner's hypotheses. First, the experience that the learner brings to f oreign-language learning. Second, the data to w h i c h the learner is exposed in all languages. Third, the learner's language-a c q u i s i t i o n strategies. He also asserts that those factors comprise the learner's interlanguage back ground, his previous experience, his repertoire and his profi c i e n c y in his own native language. The learner's strate gies include strategies for second language learning and strategies for communication.

27

-AND TL

First language acquisition is regarded as a natural learning situation in the sense that the strategies employed are determ i n e d by the learner and not imposed by a teacher. However, the circumstances in w h i c h first language acquisition takes place differ from those of foreign language learning. First language acqui s i t i o n takes place in an informal context.

Foreign language learning is, in general, accepted by linguists as a creative process, similar in m a n y ways to first language acquisition, in w h i c h the learner formulates, tests and m o d ifies h ypotheses b a s e d on experi e n c e w i t h the second language. They regard the role of input in language learning as fruitful for two reasons. First, they recognize the n e c e ssity of d e s c r i b i n g the phonological, syntactic, léxical and extra linguistic features of language addressed to second language learners. Secondly, they emphasize the need for studying the function of language input in foreign language learning.

The study of language input supplies the charac teristics of the language that teachers in general use for commun i c a t i o n w i t h second language learners. The importance of the teachers' language usage in the classroom is signifi cant because it shows different ways in w h i c h teachers m o d i f y their language w h e n they are commu n i c a t i n g in a foreign- lan g u a g e .

Some e x periments have b e e n made to v e r i f y the rela t i o nship b e t w e e n p r o d u c t i o n of second language structures and