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
- Instructor: Dr. Jiangling Zhou
- Email: jiangling.zhou[at]cuhk.edu.hk
- Office hours: By appointment
- Teaching Assistant: Yige Chen
- Email: yigechen[at]link.cuhk.edu.hk
- Office hours: By appointment
- Teaching Assistant: Ziyan Meng
- Email: ziyan[at]link.cuhk.edu.hk
- Office hours: By appointment
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
Week | Date | Topic | Readings | Materials | Events |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6/9 | Introduction | Lecture: Saville-Troike & Barto (2017) Ch.1. Introducing SLA | [Tutorial Handout] [Tutorial Slides] | |
2 | 13/9 | Foundations of SLA | Lecture: 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 |
3 | 20/9 | Linguistic approaches I | Lecture: 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] | |
4 | 27/9 | Linguistic approaches II | Lecture: 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] | |
5 | 4/10 | No class | |||
6 | 11/10 | Cognitive approaches I | Lecture: Saville-Troike & Barto (2017) Ch.4. The psychology of SLA Tutorial: Leung & Williams (2011) Implicit learning of form-meaning mappings | [Tutorial Handout] [Tutorial Slides] | |
7 | 18/10 | Cognitive approaches II | Lecture: 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 | ||
8 | 25/10 | Input, interaction and output | Lecture: 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 | ||
9 | 1/11 | Individual differences in SLA | Lecture: 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] | |
10 | 8/11 | Learning and teaching in L2s | Lecture: 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 | |
11 | 15/11 | SLA research I | Lecture: 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 | |
12 | 22/11 | SLA research II | Lecture: 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 | |
13 | 29/11 | Workshop | Lecture: 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 |