Sociolinguistics and the Second Language Learner

Changes in the language (for example, difference pronunciation and word choices) associated with certain geographical areas.

• Geographical variation

• Sociolinguistic variation

• Strategic competence

Written and/or spoken language to which the learner is exposed.

• Intake

• Input

• Interlanguage

Theory that postulated that behaviour (including learning) took place as a child responded to stimuli in the environment. The positive responses were rewarded to form a habit.

• Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

• Audiolingual Method

• Behaviourism

Learner language that contains influences from the first language and examples of target-like features.

• Interlanguage

• Intake

• Input

Related to the choices a speaker makes when selecting the forms necessary to convey a message that is appropriate in a given context.

• Grammatical competence

• Sociolinguistic variation

• Geographical variation

This hypothesis stated that linguists were able to predict the areas of difficulty for second language learners through a comparison of their first language to the second language.

• Interlanguage

• Morpheme Acquisition Studies

• Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

The ability to compensate when there are breakdowns in communication, for example, paraphrasing.

• Strategic competence

• Grammatical competence

• Communicative competence

The ability to interpret an utterance for its social meaning.

• Sociolinguistic competence

• Communicative competence

• Grammatical competence

The part of the input that is attended to and made available to the developing linguistic system.

• Intake

• Interlanguage

• Generative Grammar

Research that showed that certain morphemes in the English language were acquired by all children in the same order.

• Generative Grammars

• Morpheme Acquisition Studies

• Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis