Technische Universität Braunschweig
Fachbereich für Geistes- und Erziehungswissenschaften
Englisches Seminar - Abteilung Englische Sprache und ihre Didaktik

Learning Strategies in First and Second Language Acquisition

Matthias Gebhardt

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ... 1

2. Learning Strategies ... 2

2.1. Formulaic Speech ... 3
2.2. From Formulaic Speech to Creative Speech ... 5
2.3. Creative Speech ... 6
2.3.1. Establishing Rules ... 6
2.3.1.1. Hypothesis Formation ... 7
2.3.1.2. Hypothesis Testing ... 9
2.3.2. Automatizing Process ... 10

3. Learning Strategies and First Language Acquisition ... 11

3.1. Theories of Language Acquisition ... 11
3.1.1. Behaviourism ... 12
3.1.2. Nativism ... 13
3.1.3. Cognitivism ... 14
3.2. Formulaic Speech ... 15
3.3. Creative Speech ... 16
3.3.1. Hypothesis Formation ... 16
3.3.2. Hypothesis testing ... 19

4. Concerning Research Data ... 20

4.1. Items to look for ... 21
4.1.1. Formulaic speech ... 21
4.1.2. Creative Speech ... 21
4.2. Data Representing Learning Strategies ... 23
4.2.1. Pattern imitation ... 24
4.2.2. Overgeneralization ... 24
4.2.3. Extralingual inferencing ... 26
4.2.4. Metalingual hypothesis testing ... 27

5. Conclusion ... 28

6. Bibliography ... 29

6.1. Electronic Resources ... 29

1. Introduction

Language itself as a means of communication as well as a carrier for thoughts, ideas and art is one of the factors that determine us as human beings. It distinguishes humans from animals and gives us the opportunity to pass along knowledge and memories. At the same time language is one of the most complex things our human brain has to master. It consists of a general concept of language, specific words and rules to use them. Moreover, language – in most cases – has to make sense in a specific context, otherwise it cannot be understood. Furthermore, the articulation of sounds and their reception is another highly complex process.

As speaking and listening is so complicated it has to be learned from the early childhood on by every single person. At a certain age children begin to feel the need to communicate their wishes and insights they already gathered from this totally new world – at least from their point of view. This is what we call first language acquisition. Another area of language learning is the one of second language acquisition. This term describes the learning of a new language that is different from the mother tongue, i.e. the language that was learned in first language acquisition. It is also used when a person learns his third or fourth language to distinguish between the language learned as a native tongue and the one(s) learned as (a) foreign language(s).

In both areas people somehow learn to communicate in a new way. Babies switch from pointing or crying to speaking and children or adults switch from using one language to using another. Here the question arises how they do it. Do they just learn some vocabulary by heart? Do they imitate other people′s utterances and hope that they convey the meaning they hoped for? Today we know, that learning a language means using various learning strategies. These strategies are the topic of this paper. They are going to be presented to the reader first within the scope of second language acquisition. Later on I want to give some thoughts to whether the learning strategies described before may apply to first language acquisition as well. Finally some data on children′s utterances shall be used to consolidate the previous considerations on learning strategies in first language acquisition.

2. Learning Strategies

Before saying anything about learning strategies it is necessary to take a look at what learning itself is. Normally thought of as simply sitting down, trying to put as much knowledge into one′s head as possible, the act of learning is quite underestimated. As it is a much more complex process, I want to provide some helpful information on language learning and its product – L(2) knowledge – before discussing the learning strategies in detail.

As we all know, the production of language depends on the facts whether the speaker knows what to say and how to say it, including vocabulary as well as grammar and, on a further level, pragmatic competence. The first type of L2 knowledge is called declarative knowledge which means that the learner knows what to say. It “consists of internalized L2 rules and memorized chunks of language“ (Ellis 1986, 164). The second type of L2 knowledge, which is called procedural knowledge, is the “knowing how“, meaning that the learner has employed a set of procedures and strategies to process data from the L2 for acquisition and use. This procedural knowledge is split up into social and cognitive components. The first one refers to the behavioural way of learning. The second component comprises different mental processes of internalizing and automatizing new L2 knowledge as well as using additional knowledge to communicate in the L2. Thus procedural knowledge itself is divided into learning the L2 and using the L2. Ellis continues to further distinguish subcategories of using L2 but I want to stop here as we arrived at the stage which is the most relevant for this paper: learning the L2.
When it comes to learning, the most important factor determining whether a person is able to learn is the shaping of the input. If comprehensible for the learner he may turn it into intake and acquire new knowledge for himself. As we also observed, learning aims at different kinds of achievable knowledge. Either by imitation (social procedural knowledge) or by elaboration (cognitive procedural knowledge) the learner may arrive at a stage where he builds up rules for the L2. Following the line of cognitive procedural knowledge I now want to examine the learning strategies known to be used in L2 acquisition.

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