the conceptualization of second language acquisition

Different linguistics approaches have explored the basic question about SLA with either an internal or an external focus of attention. In this chapter, the internal focus is brought up to date with the discussion of Universal Grammar (UG), what constitutes the language faculty of the mind. Universal Grammar (UG) continues the tradition which Chomsky introduced in his earlier work that has two concepts of two central importances: (1) Linguistic competence and (2) The logical problem of language learning; what could be learned from the input knowledge. Noam Chomsky’s theories have always been evolved. In 1950s he claimed that a component of the human mind, physically represented in the brain and part of the biological endowment of the species (language faculty). In 1981, UG has been conceptualized as a set of principles which contain parameters.

Systemic Linguistics, Functional Typology, Function-to-Form Mapping and Information Organization are approaches which involved an external focus on the function of language that emerge in the course of Second Language Acquisition.

Systemic Linguistics was developed by M.A.K Halliday, in1950s is a model for analyzing language in terms of the interrelated system of choices that are available for expressing meaning. There are some application of Halliday’s model: (1) “SLA is largely a matter of learning new linguistic forms to fulfill the same functions [as already acquired and used in L1] within a different social milieu”; (2) the study of SLA is related to social contexts of learning and use.

Functional Typology is a model which comparing elements of languages in order to predict or explain transfer from L1 to L2. Functional tends to refer to extralinguistic factors or elements outside language, such as perceptual salience, ease of cognitive processing, physical constraints (e.g. the shape of the human vocal tract), and communicative needs.

The basic principles of Function-to-Form Mapping is that acquisition of both L1 and L2 involves a process of grammaticalization in which a grammatical function (such as the expression of past time) is first conveyed by shared extralinguistic knowledge and interferencing based on the context of discourse, then by lexical word (yesterday), and only later by a grammatical marker (such as the suffix –ed).

Information Organization focuses on utterance structure, or “the way in which learnera put their words together” (Klein and Perdue 1993:3). It includes describing the structures of interlanguage, discovering what organizational principles guide learners’ production at various stages of development and analyzing how these principles interact with one another.