TUTORAIL ACTIVITIES/QUESTIONS for Chapter 9

1. Discuss the difference between the two terms acquisition and learning.

2. Read the following remark about motivation and discuss whether it can fully account for the motivation of school children learning English as a foreign language in the Chinese context.
…the successful learner of a second language must be psychologically prepared to adopt various aspects of behavior which characterize members of another linguistic-cultural group. The learner's ethnocentric tendencies and his attitudes toward the member of the other group are believed to determine how successful he will be, relatively, in learning the new language. His motivation to learn is thought to be determined by his attitudes toward the other group in particular and toward foreign people in general and his orientation toward the learning task itself. The orientation is said to be instrumental in form if the purpose of language study reflected the more utilitarian value of linguistic achievement, such as getting ahead in one’s occupation. In contrast, the orientation is integrative if the student wishes to lean more about the other cultural community because he is interested in it in an open-minded way, to the point of eventually being accepted as a member of that other group (Gardner and Lambert 1972:3).

3. Identify the error in the following sentences and then tell whether it is an instance of overgeneralization, cross-association or interference. (答案)

a) It is not a sensitive thing to do that.
b) The teacher suggested us to have a class meeting.
c) Although he is very tired, but he goes on with his writing.
d) They have bought some new furnitures.
e) It is unnormal that the light flashes all the time.
f) --- You aren't going today, are you?
　 --- Yes, I am not.
g) Who bringed the dictionary today?
h) He hoped me to do it.

4. Discuss the characteristics of interlanguage and their implications for language teaching, especially for the teacher's treatment of learners' errors.

5. Compare Krashen's model with Gass' model and discuss the differences between the two models.

MINI-PROJECTS

1. Compare the occurrences of errors of plural -s and the third person singular -s in your students’ English compositions and write a paper explaining the difference.

2. Observe the English conversations of different groups of learners of English (say, beginners, intermediate learners and advanced learners), paying attention to the use of he and she. Write a paper reporting your findings and discussing whether what you find supports Krashen’s hypothesis of acquisition- learning distinction.