Cognició, comunicació i competència lingüística
|
8037-31380 -Cognició, comunicació i competència lingüística (Cognition, Communication and Language Competence) Estudi: Màster en Lingüística Teòrica i Aplicada
Goals The course is devoted to the discussion of linguistic and cognitive factors in language acquisition in different situations and contexts (L1, L2, 2L1 in child language acquisition, adult language acquisition, etc.). Apart from the conditions imposed by the language system internally (interfaces), there are other factors which affect linguistic development (variables such as age, proficiency level, working memory and other cognitive abilities, crosslingüistic influence, etc.). The main goal of the course is to gain an understanding of the nature of language acquisition processes and factors and to relate them to general theories of language acquisition identifying cognitive and linguistic variations. We will analyze learners' linguistic productions and relate them to their stage of language development, proficiency level and cognitive factors.
Contents 1. Basic concepts of L1 and L2 acquisition. Assumptions about (S)LA. Early approaches to (S)LA 2. Bilingual acquisition 3. Crosslinguistic influence 5. Age and the critical period 4. Parameter setting approach and the end state 6. Language acquisition at interfaces 7. Language processing and language competence
Assessment
1) Classroom participation and presentation: 40 % (10 + 30) 2) Project proposal: 60 % 1) The course is structured as discussions based on readings in each topic area. Students are evaluated on paper presentation, participation, leading discussions, etc. 2) Students are expected to write a 4-6 page detailed design of an empirical research study. There is no need to carry it out; what is expected is the capacity to; (a) choose and justify a timely area of inquiry and identify a phenomenon to analyze; (b) present the theoretical background to the study; (c) establish research questions and hypotheses; (d) develop an adequate methodological design, that is identify the sample, propose the instruments for data collection and describe a model of analysis; and (e) conclude with your own ideas.
Textbooks Gass, S. & L. Selinker (2013) Second Language Acquisition. An Introductory Course, London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 2nd edition. Meisel, J. (2011) First and Second Language Acquisition. Parallels and Differences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Montrul, S. (2004) The Acquisition of Spanish Morphosyntax. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Van Patten, B. & A. G. Benati (2010) Key terms in second language acquisition. London-New York: Continuum-
|