Name : Safitri Dyah Utami
SRN : 2201411058
Class : 103-104
MID-TERM TEST
1.
What is
second language acquisition?
Second
language acquisition is the study of how people learn any language after
getting their first language (mother tongue), it involves the language system
and learning process.
2.
What is
the difference between ‘second’ and ‘foreign’ language?
The
defining factor between second language and foreign language is the language
environment outside of the classroom.
Second
language means that the language learner is exposed to the target language
outside of the classroom in a variety of settings. They can use the second
language in daily communication. For example, students who come from Indonesia
to New York to learn English are learning in a second language environment.
Foreign
language means that the learner will rarely have opportunity for use the target
language outside of the classroom. For example, a student who is studying
English while living in Indonesia would be studying a foreign language.
3.
What
are the goals of SLA?
The
goals of SLA are to describe how second language are acquired by learners and
to explain the process which make a learner different in mastering second
language better than other learners.
4.
Give an
example of a ‘naturalistic’ learner. Why?
Naturalistic
learner acquires second language naturally as a result of living in environment
which the language is differ from their mother tongue. They learn second
language because they get input from their environment, not from taking any
language course before. They are very in tune with the environment so that they
acquire second language by using it as the communication tool in their daily
life.
5.
What is
the difference between ‘mistakes’ and ‘errors’?
Mistakes
reflect occasional lapses in performance. It happens when learners fail to
perform the correct structure/knowledge that they know. For example, when
someone wants to tell about his/her past experience, he/she has to use verbs in
past form. However, he/she is not consistent use the past form, sometimes
he/she still uses the present form. So, it can be called as mistakes.
While,
errors reflect gaps in a learner’s knowledge. It happens because learners do
not really know what the correct structure. For example, someone uses the
present form consistently when telling past experience. It happens because
he/she do not know any knowledge about it (do not know the past form of the
verbs). So, it can be called as errors.
6.
Explain
and give one example of ‘overgeneralization’.
Overgeneralization
is errors which made by learners because they influence by the easy form of
language to learn and process. They have learned a general concept, but do not
yet understand its exceptions. For example, learners tend to use “eated” as
past form in place of “ate”. Another example is learners tend to use “thinked” in
place of “thought”.
7.
Explain
two learning theories: Behaviorist and Mentalist. What are the implications of
these learning theories for language teachers?
Behaviorist
is proposed by B.F. Skinner, says that we acquire language through external
stimuli and experience. So we can say that language learning involves habit
formation (stimulus-response connection). While, mentalist is a theory
associated with Noam Chomsky, says that language is innate. We are born with
the mental capacity to work out the grammar and syntax of a language.
The
implications of these learning theories for language teachers are: behaviorist
learning theory cannot adequately account for language teachers to teach L2
learners, because learning is not just a response to the external stimuli. While
in the mentalist learning theory teachers can use this theory for making their
students acquire the second language by maximally using the human’s ability in
predisposition.
8.
Consider
the following data:
A: I like your shoes (expressing
compliments)
B: Thank you
How
can you explain the B’s response in terms of the acquisition of discourse
rules?
Social
factors effect second language acquisition but not directly. When we learn a
language we don’t only learn it but we also learn its culture, social life,
history. However there are social rules which native speakers obey when they
communicate but L2 learner sometimes speak by taking into consideration the
rules of his native language and he or she can change grammar rules, he or she
can understand his speech because the meaning is convenient, but he or she can
see that he makes an error because his speech doesn’t obey the grammar rules.
These discourse rules can be transferred from L1 to L2 by communication.
