Second Language Learning

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• identify, select and draw upon a wide range of reference resources, printed and electronic;
• use information technology appropriately to support oral presentations and produce written reports
• develop and maintain a personal bibliography;
• analyse authentic data and communicate your analysis orally, in discussion and in formal presentations;
• Plan and produce an extended academic paper, using current primary research literature;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• carry out small scale analyses of child language and second language learner data, from a variety of theoretical perspectives
• compare and evaluate current theories of first and second language acquisition
• review and evaluate empirical research in the field, and assess how far it confirms/ disconfirms particular learning theories
• evaluate language instruction in the light of developments in language learning theory.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the major theoretical perspectives on second language acquisition, and be able to compare and contrast them;
• different approaches to the empirical analysis of learner language, from a variety of theoretical perspectives;
• the implications of different theoretical positions for classroom language learning and teaching.
• key theoretical constructs in language learning theory;

First language acquisition, including bilingual acquisition and language development in exceptional circumstances (e.g. deaf children, William Syndrome children etc.)

Second language acquisition, giving particular focus to the following issues:

• Similarities and differences between first and second language acquisition
• the role of the first language in the second language acquisition process
• the role played by Universal Grammar
• the role played by cognitive mechanisms
• the role played by social factors
• the role played by individual differences
• variability and incompleteness
• the acquisition of grammar and of vocabulary.

Teaching methods include

• Tutor led seminars;
• Student led workshops;
• Virtual learning environment (Blackboard site);
• Individual tutorials to support assignment/ project planning.

Learning activities include

• Extensive reading of assigned texts, in preparation for weekly seminars
• Analysis of data and presentation of analyses, in workshop sessions
• Individual assembly of bibliography and private study, in preparation for major written assignment.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.