Group 01

Class 6

Last class we discussed two important developments in theories of SLA. The first was Krashen's five-hypothesis model. In this, acquisition is seen as an unconscious natural process that will happen with or without intention when a) we receive a lot of comprehensible messages in the target language; b) our motivation and self-esteem are high; c) our anxiety is low. Learning, on the other hand, is a conscious process of memorizing and analyzing language rules. What we acquired, is used by the brain in real and fluent communication (spontaneous conversations), but what we learn can only be used for editing language samples when we have a focus on form and enough time to retrieve and apply the rules (i.e.: writing, planning a presentation, or taking a formal grammar test). These are the videos of S. Krashen himself explaining his theory and a graphic summary of the theory.


Click here to watch the second part.




Then, Brenda and Christian presented their seminar on cognitive models of SLA.These models have tried to apply the principles and theories of cognitive psychology to explain how humans learn language. From this perspective, there are no innatist, linguistic-exclusive mechanism for the processing and acquisition of language (contrary to Chomsky’s ideas). Language is input and the mind processes it the same way it processes images, non-linguistic sounds and whatever information in our environment. Moreover, we learn the skill of producing language in just the same way we develop any other skill. Language development is much more complex than responses to stimuli (contrary to behaviorist perspectives) for a number of internal systems and mechanisms are involved. In cognitive theory, learning is explained in terms of automatization  or proceduralization of skills and the concepts of attention and awareness help explain the difference between what is learned consciously and unconsciously. The main difference between these perspectives and Krashen’s is the idea that what is leaned explicitly and intentionally can become precedularized  and therefore be used automatically in fluent conversation and other linguistic and communicative tasks. 

Next class, Alejandra and Christine will present a second part of the cognitive perspective. In that presentation, we will focus on learning styles, learning strategies, anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity. The readings for this week are the article by Chamot (2004) and chapter 9 in Ortega's book.

See you next Tuesday.  

Class 5

 In our last class, we overviewed the behaviorist view of SLA and were introduced to the innatist viewby Karla and Lizeth's seminar. Here a couple of resources to complement last class:

The video we watched in class:



A mindmap on summarizing behaviorism:

Behaviorism from Carlos Mayora

For next class, we will go over Krashen's five hypotheses model, which we will use as a bridge between innatist approaches and cognitive approaches. Then, Brenda and Christian will guide us through different cognitive approaches. The readings for this week are

In the book by Ortega Understanding second language acquisition, chapter 5 deals with cognitive factors and theories.

In the book by Mitchell and Myles, book Second language learning theories, chapter 4 is on the topic.

Choose one of the two for your next reading report.


See you in class. 

Class 4

Last class, we started with the study of second language acquisition. Here's the class presentation with some of the main concepts discussed:

SLA: Introduction from Carlos Mayora

Then we had the seminar by Camilo and Christian who told us about first language acquisition, the comparison between this and SLA and some associated phenomena such as cross-linguistic influences and fossilization.

In our next class, we will do a workshop with activities related to last week seminar (remember that the sum of all in class workshops accounts for 20% of the grade). If you want to prepare for the seminar, review the class presentation and read Lightbown and Spada chapter. Then we will briefly view behaviorism as related to language acquisition and, finally, Karla and Lizeth will teach us about innatist approaches and theories of SLA. To prepare for the seminar, read either Mitchell and Myers (2004) chapter 3. For the reading report, you can choose between the chapter by Lightbown and Spada or the chapter 3 in Mitchell and Myles.

See you next Tuesday.

Class 3

 In our next class, we will introduce the field of second language acquisition. The assigned readings are Kumaravadivelu (2006b) chapter 1, Gass and Selinker (2008), chapter 1 and Mitchel and Myles (2004) chapter 1 (available at the photocopy center). The three chapters are introductory and the three provide definitions of central concepts and overviews of the field and you will notice overlap among them. Remember that for this week the reading reports will be mandatory and you have to turn in a report of one of those three chapters.

After that introduction, Camilo and Christian will deliver their seminar on the first topic, namely, First language acquisition, the comparison and contrast between first and second language acquisition and the influences of the first language on the second. The assigned chapters do not go much into this topic. So I suggest the rest of students to read also this chapter by Lightbown and Spada.

See you next Tuesday.

Class 2

In our first class, we overviewed the course programme, assigned the topics for the seminars, studied an introduction to applied linguistics and did a groupal activity. Here,s the slideshow if you want to review it:

Applied linguístics 1 from Carlos Mayora

And click here to see the distribution of the topics for the seminars and the dates.

In our next class, we will discuss your proposals from the in class activity, the little exercise in doing applied linguistics we started in class. After that we will discuss the relationship between applied linguistics and foreign language teaching. For this topic, you need to read in advance Schmitz (2010)
and Bartels (2005) )both in the reading list, actually, they had already been assigned for this week) and Kramsch (1995) which will be available in the copy center downstairs.

See you next class,

Carlos Mayora

Class 1.

This is a brief overview of what we will do in our upcoming next class, so you can prepare in advance. We will start with a look at the field of applied linguistics in general. The readings assigned for this week are

Markee (1990)
Davies and Elder (2004)
Schmitz (2010)
Bartels (2005)

You can download them from the course materials folder.

1. read the assigned readings and prepare to discuss in class the following questions.

• What are the different definitions of applied linguistics provided by the different authors?
• Is there general agreement over the definition of the discipline or are there still controversies?
• What does the distinction between applied linguistics and linguistics applied consists of?
• Other than language teaching, what problems are identified as within the range of action of applied linguistics?

2. Choose one of the articles/chapters, fill-in the reading report form and turn it in in class.  Although this one will not be counted for the final score, it could be good practice for the semester.

3. If you are not familiar with making graphic organizers, watch this video.




4. Be ready for the class discussion.