1 Learning a first language 1
Milestones and patterns in development 1
Early childhood bilingualism 3
Developmental sequences 4
Summary 9
Theoretical approaches to explaining first language learning 9
Behaviourism：Say what I say 9
Activity: Analysing children’s speech 10
Innatism: It’s all in your mind 15
The interactionist position: A little help from my friends 22
Summary 25
2 Theoretical approaches to explaining second language learning 31
Activity: Learner profiles 32
Behaviourism 35
Innatism 36
Universal Grammar 36
Krashen’s ‘monitor model’ 38
Recent psychological theories 41
Information processing 41
The interactionist position 42
Connectionism 42
Summary 45
3 Factors affecting second language learning 49
Activity: Characteristics of the‘good language learner’ 49
Research on learner characteristics 51
Intelligence 52
Aptitude 53
Personality 54
Motivation and attitudes 56
Learner preferences 58
Learner beliefs 59
Age of acquisition 60
Activity: Comparing child, adolescent, and adult language learners 66
Summary 68
4 Learner language 71
The concept of learner language 72
Activity: The Great Toy Robbery 74
Developmental sequences 76
Grammatical morphemes 76
Negation 77
Questions 78
Activity: More about questions 80
Activity: Learners’questions 80
Relative clauses 83
Reference to past 84
Movement through developmental sequences 85
New ways of looking at first language influence 85
Summary 87
5 Observing second language teaching 91
Comparing instructional and natural settings for language learning 91
Activity: Natural and instructional settings 91
Activity: Classroom comparisons: teacher-student interactions 96
Classroom observation schemes 101
Activity: Observing the kinds of questions you ask your students 102
Feedback in the classroom 103
Activity: Analysing classroom interaction 106
Summary of transcripts 113
Activity: Observing how you respond to students’errors 113
Summary 115
6 Second language learning in the classroom 117
Five proposals for classroom teaching 117
1 Get it right from the beginning 118
2 Say what you mean and mean what you say 122
3 Just listen…and read 128
4 Teach what is teachable 135
5 Get it right in the end 141
The implications of classroom research for teaching 149
Summary 152
7 Popular ideas about language learning: Facts and opinions 161
1 Languages are learned mainly through imitation 161
2 Parents usually correct young children when they make grammatical errors 162
3 People with high IQs are good language learners 163
4 The most important factor in second language acquisition success is motivation 163
5 The earlier a second language is introduced in school programs, the greater the likelihood of success 164
7 Teachers should present grammatical rules one at a time 165
6 Most of the mistakes which second language learners make are due to interference from their first language 165
8 Teachers should teach simple structures before complex ones 166
9 Learners’errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent bad habits 167
10 Teachers should use materials that expose students only to language structures they have already been taught 168
11 When learners are allowed to interact freely they learn each others’mistakes 168
12 Students learn what they are taught 169
Conclusion 169
Glossary 171
Bibliography 180
Index 190