Second language acquisition and contactinduced language change in the history of the Chinese language

The present study investigates the relationships among motivational factors, cultural correlates and second language proficiency. The participants, from both Western and Asian backgrounds, were learning Chinese at university level in the People’s Republic of China. 115 students (35 Western students and 80 Asian students) ranging from beginning to advanced levels of proficiency were surveyed. The results of the study indicated that the degree of integrativeness into Chinese culture and motivation was significantly and positively related to Chinese language proficiency, while language anxiety was significantly and negatively correlated to such proficiency. However instrumental orientation was found to have no statistically significant relationship with such proficiency. Multiple regression analysis indicated that integrativeness and gender were major variables predicting Chinese language proficiency. Significant differences between Western and Asian student groups were found in terms of motivational variables and Chinese language proficiency. Compared with the Asian student group, the Western student group tended to perform better in spoken Chinese proficiency as evaluated by their teachers and seemed to have higher levels of motivation and integrativeness but lower levels of instrumental orientation and language anxiety. Recommendations are made to enhance motivation and second language acquisition.

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The Development of Metropolitan Languages in Post-Colonial Contexts: Language Contact and Language Change and the Case of Portuguese in Maputo

Nordic Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s0332586500003383 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 183-213

Author(s):

Christopher Stroud

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Contact ◽

Language Change ◽

Social Contexts ◽

Speech Community ◽

Post Colonial ◽

Contact Linguistics ◽

The Social

This article explores briefly some phenomena of potential indigenization of the Portuguese spoken in Mozambique. Data for the study has been taken from work that is currently underway in Maputo, Mozambique, that was originally initiated to investigate contact varieties of Portuguese and to probe their educational implications. Speech samples comprise formal interviews and non-formal encounters from a socio-demographically representative sample of informants. The article first provides an inventory of some non-standard European Portuguese variants that are found in this data, and subsequently focusses upon a discussion of what contribution different linguistic processes make to indigenization, specifically the role played by processes of second language acquisition in a context of massive and diffuse language contact and change. Special attention is also paid to the social contexts in which different manifestations of language contact are found, and the importance of linguistic ideology for the form that language contact takes in particular cases is explored. The article concludes with the suggestion that the salient characteristics of types of non-native speech community such as Maputo require a reconceptualization of models and methods of contact linguistics and second language acquisition, and that this in turn carries implications for the terms of reference and analysis to which indigenization need be related.

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Second Language Acquisition as a Discipline: A Historical Perspective

Journal of NELTA Gandaki ◽

10.3126/jong.v2i0.26603 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. 55-64

Author(s):

Nabaraj Neupane

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Foreign Language ◽

First Language ◽

Developmental Phase ◽

History Of ◽

Diachronic Study ◽

Background Phase ◽

Separate Discipline

Second language acquisition (SLA) generates and tests the theories concerning the acquisition of languages other than first language (L1) in different contexts. Even if SLA is a nascent discipline, its history is remarkable and helpful to seek the answers to the questions that researchers are raising in the field of second language or foreign language. Based on this context, this article aims to recount the history of the burgeoning discipline that heavily draws from numerous disciplines like linguistics, psychology, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and so on. To achieve the objective, document analysis method has been used. The analysis and interpretation of the available documents exhibit that the traces of SLA were observed in the studies that address the issue of language transfer. Specifically, the diachronic study proves that the development of the discipline has undergone three evolving phases like background, formative, and developmental. The background phase caters for behaviourism, contrastive analysis hypothesis, and the attacks on the fundamental premises of behaviourism. The formative phase deals with Chomsky’s revolutionary steps, error analysis, interlanguane theory, morpheme order studies, and the Krashen’s monitor model that opened up the avenues for further studies of SLA. The developmental phase recounts various studies that have consolidated SLA as a separate discipline.

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I English Language

The Year s Work in English Studies ◽

10.1093/ywes/maz004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 98 (1) ◽

pp. 1-166

Author(s):

Viktorija Kostadinova ◽

Nuria Yáñez-Bouza ◽

Gea Dreschler ◽

Sune Gregersen ◽

Beáta Gyuris ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

English Language ◽

Lexical Semantics ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Section 8 ◽

History Of

Abstract This chapter has fourteen sections: 1. General; 2. History of English Linguistics; 3. Phonetics and Phonology (not covered this year); 4. Morphology; 5. Syntax; 6. Semantics; 7. Lexicography, Lexicology, and Lexical Semantics; 8. Onomastics; 9. Dialectology and Sociolinguistics; 10. New Englishes and Creolistics; 11. Second Language Acquisition. 12. English as a Lingua Franca; 13. Pragmatics and Discourse. 14. Stylistics. Section 1 is by Viktorija Kostadinova; section 2 is by Nuria Yáñez-Bouza; sections 4 and 5 are by Gea Dreschler and Sune Gregersen; section 6 is by Beáta Gyuris; section 7 is by Kathryn Allan; section 8 is by Maggie Scott; section 9 is by Lieselotte Anderwald; section 10 is by Sven Leuckert; section 11 is by Tihana Kraš; section 12 is by Tian Gan, Ida Parise, Sum Pok Ting, Juliana Souza da Silva and Alessia Cogo; section 13 is by Beke Hansen; section 14 is by Jessica Norledge.

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Motivation in pidgin and creole genesis

Language Dynamics and Change ◽

10.1163/22105832-00902005 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 238-264

Author(s):

Mikael Parkvall

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Change ◽

Specific Language ◽

Almost All

Abstract Almost all creolists see creole formation as a case of (failed) second language acquisition. I argue that there are good reasons to distinguish between second language acquisition and pidginisation/creolisation, and that little is gained by equating the two. While learners have an extant language as their target, pidginisers typically aim to communicate (in any which way) rather than to acquire a specific language. In this sense, pidginisation represents, if not “conscious language change”, at least “conscious language creation”.

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AHISTORICITY REVISITED

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263198003052 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 407-421 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Susan Gass ◽

Catherine Fleck ◽

Nevin Leder ◽

Ildiko Svetics

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Scientific Progress ◽

Pertinent Literature ◽

The Past ◽

Scientific Disciplines ◽

Logical Point ◽

History Of ◽

Second Language Acquisition Theory

In our reply to Margaret Thomas's article “Programmatic ahistoricity in second language acquisition theory,” we first review pertinent literature, concluding that historical awareness is evident in SLA, though it is not as far-reaching as Thomas would like it to be. We then argue that the attitude of most scholars in SLA toward the past is reasonable given that no significant work in SLA from antiquity has been discovered—by Thomas or anyone else—and that if such work exists Thomas has the burden to bring it to light before declaring the field guilty of ahistoricity. We consider various ways to define the field of SLA, arguing that it should be defined theoretically first, and historically second. We claim that the point at which SLA separated itself from language teaching is a logical point from which to date the beginnings of SLA as a true discipline. We consider and reject Thomas's comparison of SLA and its history to various other scientific disciplines and their histories, arguing that these disciplines have true milestones to point to in the distant past, whereas SLA does not. Although we agree with Thomas that a general awareness of the history of philosophy and science is beneficial for scholars in all fields, we make a sharp division between that history and the history of SLA proper. We conclude by arguing that respect for the field of SLA can come only through sound scientific progress, not by appeals to history.

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Motivational and cultural correlates of second language acquisition

Australian Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/aral.31.2.04yu ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 17.1-17.22 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Baohua Yu ◽

David A. Watkins

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Chinese Culture ◽

Chinese Language ◽

Language Anxiety ◽

Student Group ◽

Asian Student ◽

Student Groups

The present study investigates the relationships among motivational factors, cultural correlates and second language proficiency. The participants, from both Western and Asian backgrounds, were learning Chinese at university level in the People’s Republic of China. 115 students (35 Western students and 80 Asian students) ranging from beginning to advanced levels of proficiency were surveyed.The results of the study indicated that the degree of integrativeness into Chinese culture and motivation was significantly and positively related to Chinese language proficiency, while language anxiety was significantly and negatively correlated to such proficiency. However instrumental orientation was found to have no statistically significant relationship with such proficiency. Multiple regression analysis indicated that integrativeness and gender were major variables predicting Chinese language proficiency. Significant differences between Western and Asian student groups were found in terms of motivational variables and Chinese language proficiency. Compared with the Asian student group, the Western student group tended to perform better in spoken Chinese proficiency as evaluated by their teachers and seemed to have higher levels of motivation and integrativeness but lower levels of instrumental orientation and language anxiety. Recommendations are made to enhance motivation and second language acquisition.

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Unique Applications of Multi-Agent Models in Uncovering Language Learning Processes

Applications of Complex Adaptive Systems ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-962-5.ch006 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 142-173

Author(s):

Teresa Satterfield

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Change ◽

Learning Processes ◽

Multi Scale ◽

Artificial Societies ◽

Multi Agent ◽

Language Emergence

Multi-scale “artificial societies” are constructed to examine competing first- and second-language acquisition-based theories of creole language emergence. Sociohistorical conditions and psycholinguistic capacities are integrated into the model as agents (slaves and slave-owners) interact. Linguistic transmissions are tracked, and grammar constructions are charted. The study demonstrates how a CAS approach offers clear indications for computational solutions to questions of language change and formation.

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