SLA : Chapter 4

Yayuk Fitriani - 2201410004

Social aspects of interlanguage

1. What are approches to incorporating a social angle on the study study of L2 acquisition?

a. The first views interlanguage as consisting of different ‘styles’ which learners call upon under different condition of language.

b. The second concerns how social factor determine the input that learner use to construct their interlanguage.

c. The third considerers how the social identities that learners negotiate in their interactions with native speaker.

2.      What is ‘Convergence’?

Convergence’ is the process by which speakers make their speech similar to their interlocutors’ speech. L2 acquisition can viewed as ‘long-term convergence’ towards native-speaker norms.

3.      What is ‘Divergence’?

Divergence is the process by which speakers make their speech different from their interlocutors’ speech. Frequent divergence can be considered to impede L2 acqiosition.

4.      What is ‘Investment’?

Investment is Learners’ commitment to learning an L2, which is viewed as related to the social identities they construct for themselves as learners.

5.      What are the three socio-cultural models of L2 acquisition?

1.      Interlanguage as a stylistic continuum
-stylistic continuum (Elaine Tarone)...Why learner language is variable, from a careful style to a vernacular style
-accomodation theory (Howard Gile)...How a learner’s social group influences the course of L2 acquisition.

2.      The acculturation model (John Schumann)
-Pidginization takes place when learners are unable or unwilling to adapt to a new culture because of the social distance and psychological distance from L2 group.

3.      Social identity and investment (Bonny Peirce)
-Learners have complex social identities. Investment is required in order to establish an identity.