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How Does the Mother Tongue Affect Second Language Acquisition?

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How Does the Mother Tongue Affect Second Language Acquisition? SOCIAL SCIENCES How does the mother tongue affect second language acquisition? Learning a new language can be a great learners develop LW & HG: When a learner acquires a new (known as the inflectional morpheme such as the English past challenge; here, Professor Lydia White and interlanguage tense –ed, which occurs on regular verbs like Dr Heather Goad discuss their innovative work grammar); my ‘dance’, ‘jump’, ‘laugh’, its phonological shape, main focus has its morphological status, the role it plays in towards understanding the obstacles second been on syntax and syntax and its meaning must all be acquired. language learners often face morphology and the The focus of our explanation of learners’ interplay of linguistic difficulties relates to how several of these universals with components fit together. We argue that, rather Can you discuss how you became interested mother tongue influence (L1 transfer) on the than having problems with the morphology in linguistics? development of the interlanguage. as such, learners may have difficulties determining how to combine the morphological LW & HG: Linguistics involves the HG: My research has mostly focused form of the inflection with the verb to which investigation of universal and language- on phonological theory with the goal of it attaches. If the L1 prosodic representation specific patterns in language, in an attempt trying to determine the role that linguistic for inflection is inappropriate for the L2, there to reach an understanding of the abstract representations play in explaining the will be no suitable position for the past tense grammatical system that underlies the similarities and differences between morpheme in the interlanguage grammar. unconscious knowledge of language that grammatical systems across languages. I also native speakers have. A linguistic grammar apply this approach to first language acquisition To what extent has your work with L2 learners is a rule-governed system, encompassing in an attempt to interpret unexpected of English contributed towards new research phonology (sound and rhythmic structure), phonological patterns that children often on other languages such as French, Korean morphology (word structure), syntax display in their speech. and Spanish? (sentence structure) and semantics (meaning). For both of us, it was an interest LW & HG: Our joint interest in second language LW & HG: Crucially, our theory makes in structure and formal systems studied phonology arose when we were discussing predictions for any L1-L2 combination, in high school that led us to linguistics (in well-known problems that L2 learners have depending on how similar or different the Lydia’s case Latin grammar, in Heather’s with inflectional morphology. We realised that two languages are in the way they prosodify case mathematics). phonology and, in particular, prosody – the inflectional morphology and/or function words. shapes of syllables and larger rhythmic units Our own research initially focused on the L2 More specifically, what inspired you to study – might provide an explanation where other acquisition of English by Mandarin speakers phonology in the context of second language accounts have failed. (past tense, third person singular agreement) (L2) learners? and by Turkish speakers (tense, agreement, How would a deeper understanding of plurals, articles). Since then, work with LW: My research investigates the unconscious L2 phonology help explain difficulties in current and former students has added other linguistic system that second language (L2) acquiring the L2? combinations, including English-speaking 1 INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION The prosodic transfer hypothesis learners of French (object clitic pronouns), Linguists at McGill University in Canada are investigating the French-speaking learners of Spanish (plurals) and French-, Spanish- and Korean-speaking relationship between syntax, morphology and prosody in the learners of English (tense, agreement, plurals). acquisition of a second language. Their results may impact How might this research help the teaching of future teaching practices languages in the classroom? ANYONE WHO HAS acquired or attempted For example, studies have demonstrated LW & HG: There are a number of phenomena to acquire a second language (L2) knows how that many L2 learners have difficulty in that we have accounted for in terms of difficult it can be. The outcome of language differentiating between uninflected and prosodic transfer, where classroom learning has been shown to be dependent inflected forms in their speech, such as the applications may result. For example, in our on a number of interrelated factors. A difference between ‘jump’ and its past tense work on how Turkish speakers treat English consideration of the relationship between form, ‘jumped’, instead using the uninflected articles, we have found that some learners different grammatical components, such as form in past tense contexts (in other words, resort to stressing articles because it allows phonology, morphology and syntax, may help omitting the inflection). them to analyse articles in terms of their explain both the successes and the difficulties L1 prosodic representations. However, this that individuals experience when acquiring TRANSFERABLE SKILLS sounds unnatural and prevents them from an L2. So, how exactly does a learner’s learning how to integrate an unstressed article understanding of their L1 affect L2 with the following noun, as required by the L2. A key factor explored by researchers working acquisition? And, more to the point, what Apparently, when English articles are taught on L2 acquisition is the way in which a discrepancies in L2 use can we expect to see in language classrooms in Turkey, stressed person’s first language (L1) impinges on if this is the case? forms are emphasised. This is presumably L2 learning. Although languages have because Turkish is a language with only different rules and grammatical structures, These are the questions being investigated one article (indefinite), which is not used in L2 learners have been found to transfer by two researchers at McGill University in exactly the same contexts as in English. One rules from their native language to the new Montreal. Professor Lydia White and Dr implication of our research is that teachers language. This process may prove successful Heather Goad are experts in the field of should, instead, teach – and themselves when the L2 is similar to the L1, but may linguistics, and for the past few years they produce – the unstressed forms. Naturalistic otherwise prevent learners from reaching have been working together to describe and input – as opposed to citation forms (the native-like proficiency in another language. account for the linguistic competence of forms that words take when produced in L2 learners. In particular, their joint work isolation) – is critical for learners to establish In particular, linguistic properties like focuses on the interaction between universal the appropriate prosodic representations for inflection – a change in the form of a word to linguistic principles and transferable function words in an L2, and consequently the express a grammatical function or attribute properties of the mother tongue grammar appropriate pronunciation. – can adversely affect language acquisition. in shaping a learner’s approach to their new www.internationalinnovation.com 2 language. “We are very interested in how the because Mandarin does not have past tense TOWARDS AN EXPLANATION OF SECOND first language phonological system impinges, morphology. Better performance on irregular LANGUAGE LEARNER ERRORS in subtle ways, on other components of the verbs (‘leave’/’left’, for example, or ‘have’/’had’) OBJECTIVE interlanguage grammar,” White explains. can be expected because these forms can, To demonstrate how a deeper understanding of second in fact, be accommodated by the L1 prosodic language learner (L2) phonology can help to explain GRAMMATICAL COMPONENTS representation. Finally, we can expect that L2 acquisition problems traditionally thought of as The research programme and approach to the articles may be stressed when they should be involving other aspects of grammar (such as syntax problem of language acquisition being pursued unstressed or replaced with other stressed and morphology). by White and Goad are novel and forward- determiners – ‘that’ or ‘one’ instead of ‘the’ thinking. Grammar has many components: or ‘a’. KEY COLLABORATORS phonology, morphology, syntax, to name but a Dr Gavin Austin, University of Southern few. The traditional path has been to consider EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION Queensland, Australia these aspects separately, and this approach has Through extensive experimental work, the Professor Joyce Bruhn de Garavito, University of been taken in much of the research published Canadian linguists have confirmed these Western Ontario, Canada to date on L2 acquisition. Even those papers expectations, demonstrating that the prosodic that take multiple components of the grammar transfer hypothesis is an effective predictor of Professor Roumyana Slabakova, University of into consideration have commonly looked only L2 performance. What is more, subsequent Southampton, UK at interactions between syntax and morphology, research has shown that the errors may Dr Jeffrey Steele, University of Toronto, Canada semantics or discourse. go beyond spoken production – the work of students in Goad and White’s research team Dr Karsten Steinhauer, McGill University, Canada suggests that the
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