231156 Introduction to Second Language Acquisition (S) (WiSe 2013/2014)

The course will introduce students to what is known about how languages are learned. We will first look briefly at the stages children go through in acquiring their first language and review the major theories which attempt to account for this remarkable achievement. We will then consider what makes a language learner successful, looking at factors such as intelligence, aptitude and age. We will then reflect on the idea of language learner language. We will also look at how the theories of first language acquisition are reflected in the multitude of second language acquisition theories, briefly touching on some of the cognitive and sociocultural theories of language learning. In the middle of the semester, we will analyse different classroom settings, language error, different types of error feedback and teacher questions. As the course draws to a close we will consider the implications of what we have learned for language teaching in schools, examining six different approaches of teaching English as a foreign language.

Requirements for participation, required level

It is recommended that this course be taken after Linguistics 1 & 2 in BM3 for students of the Studienmodell 2011.

Bibliography

Students are required to buy the course book:
Lightbown, P. and Spada, N. (2013). How Languages are Learned. (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.