LING3204 Second Language Acquisition (Fall 2022)

Undergraduate course, Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2022

Meeting Time and Location

  • Lecture: Tuesday 13:30-15:15, Lee Shau Kee Building 308
  • Tutorial: Tuesday 15:30-16:15, Lee Shau Kee Building 308

Teaching Staff

Course Syllabus

Assessment Scheme

  • Presentation (20%): Starting from the third tutorial, a group of 3-4 students will conduct a 15-min joint presentation of a research paper (provided by the instructor) on SLA to the class, prepare 2 discussion questions and lead the discussion in each of the tutorials.
  • Quiz (30%): A close-book written quiz will be administered in class to help consolidate students’ understanding of important concepts of SLA and L2 data analysis.
  • Term project (50%): Students will design an empirical research project investigating an issue in L2 acquisition individually.
    • Abstract (10%): max. 350 words, excl. references
    • Proposal (40%): max. 3,000 words, excl. references and appendices
  • Attendance at lectures and tutorials is required. 5% will be deducted from the final score in cases where students miss three or more lectures/tutorials without a legitimate reason.

Course Schedule

WeekDateTopicReadingsMaterialsEvents
16/9IntroductionLecture: Saville-Troike & Barto (2017) Ch.1. Introducing SLA[Tutorial Handout]
[Tutorial Slides]
 
213/9Foundations of SLALecture: Saville-Troike & Barto (2017) Ch.2. Foundations of SLA
Tutorial: Gass & Ard (1984) Second language acquisition and the ontology of language universals (section 3.3 on relative clauses, pp.42-49)
[Tutorial Handout]
[Tutorial Slides]
Group Presentation Signup due 12/9 11:59 pm
320/9Linguistic approaches ILecture: Saville-Troike & Barto (2017) Ch.3. The linguistics of SLA
Tutorial: Yuan & Zhao (2011) Asymmetric syntactic and thematic reconfigurations in English speakers’ L2 Chinese resultative compound constructions
[Tutorial Handout]
[Tutorial Slides]
 
427/9Linguistic approaches IILecture: White (2018) Ch.4 Formal linguistics and second language acquisition
Tutorial: Yuan (2010) Domain-wide or variable-dependent vulnerability of the semantics-syntax interface in L2 acquisition?
[Tutorial Handout]
[Tutorial Slides]
 
54/10No class   
611/10Cognitive approaches ILecture: Saville-Troike & Barto (2017) Ch.4. The psychology of SLA
Tutorial: Leung & Williams (2011) Implicit learning of form-meaning mappings
[Tutorial Handout]
[Tutorial Slides]
 
718/10Cognitive approaches IILecture: Wulff & N. Ellis (2018) Ch.3 Usage-based approaches to second language acquisition
Tutorial: Zhao & Fan (2021) Modeling input factors in second language acquisition of the English article construction
  
825/10Input, interaction and outputLecture: Saville-Troike & Barto (2017) Ch.5. Social contexts of SLA; VanPatten, Smith & Benati (2020) Ch.3. What are the roles of input and output?
Tutorial: Serratrice & De Cat (2020) Individual differences in the production of referential expressions
  
91/11Individual differences in SLALecture: Lightbown & Spada (2013) Ch.3. Individual differences in second language learning
Tutorial: Birdsong & Molis (2001) On the evidence for maturational constraints in Second-Language Acquisition
[Attendance Questions]
[Note on Conditional Probability]
 
108/11Learning and teaching in L2sLecture: Lightbown & Spada (2013) Ch.6. Second language learning in the classroom
Tutorial: Bryfonski & Ma (2020) Effects of implicit versus explicit corrective feedback on Mandarin tone acquisition in a SCMC learning environment
 Quiz
1115/11SLA research ILecture: Mackey & Gass (2015) Ch.1. Introduction to research; Felser (2005) Experimental psycholinguistic approaches to second language acquisition
Tutorial: Grüter et al. (2020) How classifiers facilitate predictive processing in L1 and L2 Chinese
 Project consultation I
1222/11SLA research IILecture: Mackey & Gass (2015) Ch.3. Common data collection measures; Zhao (2011) A tree in the wood: A review of research on L2 Chinese acquisition
Tutorial: Xiang & Yuan (2020) Definiteness constraint on subjects in L2 and L3 Mandarin grammars
 Abstract due 11:59 pm
1329/11WorkshopLecture: Zhou, Mai & Yip (2021) Bi-directional cross-linguistic influence in object realization in Cantonese-English bilingual children
Tutorial: Chan, Chen, Matthews & Yip (2017) Comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in a trilingual acquisition context
 Project consultation II
Term paper due 16/12 11:59 pm