Some key terms…

Learning English as a Second • Language

• First language
Language • Second Language
• Second Language learning
Introduction to the course What is language?
• Looks at learning of English as a second language in Indian contexts • Language – a medium of communication (personal/semi-formal/
• Historical context and current status formal)
• Indian English as a variety • Dissemination of knowledge
• Learning English – strategies and skills and sub-skills • Entertainment/ recreation
What does it consist of? What is first language?
Primarily speech – writing systems • First language/ mother tongue (L1)
• Sounds • Dominant regional language
• Words • Language vs dialect
• Sentences/ structures • Bi-/Multilingualism
• Meaning
• Pragmatics
Second language
• Human language vs animal communication systems • Second language – any language learnt after L1
• Human language – systematicity and complexity • Are there Third/ Fourth/ Fifth languages?
• School curriculum – First, Second, Third languages
• English as a second language in Indian contexts
What is language learning?
• Two terms: Acquisition – learning • In the year 1613 Jahangir, the Moghul emperor permitted the
• Using a language English to establish a factory permanently at Surat. By 1619,
the British had factories at Surat, Agra, Ahmadabad and
• What is L1 acquisition? Broach, and Masulipatam. (Majumdar, Raychaudhuri, & Dutta,
• How do we decide if someone has acquired a language? 629–632 cited in Auddy 2020: p.33).
• English as a lingua franca in India • It was in the seventeenth century that the first English school in
• Colonial roots – English vs other Indian languages – English in India was established in 1642 in Madras, presently Chennai.
media/ popular culture – English in higher education and jobs • Francis Ephrem de Nevers, a French priest, opened the school
• John Miller’s ‘The Tutor or a New English & Bengali Work, Well
Adapted to Teach the Natives English’ in 1797 – the first
textbook
• Nurullah and Naik, English education was looked upon by many • Raja Rammohan Roy’s letter opposing establishment of Sanskrit
as a ‘royal road to a black-coated profession with a decent college – 1823
income and an important status in society’ ( History of • Macaulay’s Minutes - 1835
Education , 78 cited in Auddey 2020:p.34).
Macaulay’s Minutes
• British politicians aimed at establishing the English taste and • ‘We must at present do our best to form a class who may be
lifestyle, which would lead to the creation of demand for British interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a
consumer goods (according to some historians) class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in
• In the nineteenth century especially for people like Raja taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.’ (Macaulay 1835)
Rammohan Roy, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Keshab Sen,
Bankimchandra Chatterjee, and Krupabai Satthianadhan -
English a doorway to rationality and modern science.
 • Jaithirth R ao, Chairman and CEO of an IT firm, says in a
Macaulay’s Minutes column in the Indian Express, 26 May 2005
• Macaulay was ‘the most important founding father of India’.
• “…a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole • English language just like the Indian monsoons: ‘It may not
native literature of India and Arabia” touch everyone, but its influence touches everyone.
• Without Macaulay’s gift, “so many of us would be lesser
individuals”
• Calls English speaking Indians “proud Macaulay-putras’
Macaulay’s Minutes
• Education Commission in 1950 - English ‘divided the people • English – official language of Education in 1837
into two nations, the few who govern and the many who are • Early Indian English writers - Michael Madhusudan Dutt, C V
governed, the one unable to talk the language of the other, and Boriah, etc.
mutually uncomprehending, which is a negation of democracy’
(chap. 9: 316).
Wood’s Despatch 1854 English as a second language
• Three universities established in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras 1857 • Educated Indians used English to fight the British
• English was a medium of instruction and also a subject of study • English became one of the Indian languages
• In contrast, in Oxford University only from 1894 and Cambridge • Nehru’s famous speech in English
University 1911 (earlier only Greek and Latin literature and English
was considered ‘a vernacular’)
• English gradually became the language of education, commerce, and
the administration
• Language of prestige/ language of power and money
• Language of print media – language of freedom movement
• Slowly emerged as lingua franca
• But largely ‘urban-centric’ – education at the lower levels suffered
neglect
 • After independence ‘Angrezi Hatao’
• English equated with British
• Symbol of slavery
• C. Rajagopalachari – “English language Goddess Saraswati’s gift to
India”
• But the alternative?
• India – multicultural, multilinguistic, multi-religious, multi-ethnic
• British left India in 1947 • Several commissions and committees post-independence
• But ‘Brown Sahibs’ took over • All emphasize that mother tongue should be the medium of
• Constitution was written in English instruction; Hindi should be the dominant federal language; but
English should be studied in high schools and universities
• Railways, telecommunications and postal services – mostly English
• Bureaucracy - English
NEP 2020
• Mother tongue to be the medium of instruction till Class 5 • “English is the world’s way of communicating internationally and
• Three language formula – at least two languages should be native to interculturally just as the Christian calendar is the world’s way of
India tracing time, just as the Arabic numbers are the world’s way of
counting…” (Huntingdon, 1996:6 cited in Krishnaswamy &
• English is a language; it is not a test of your intelligence Krishnaswamy 2018: 153)
• English a global/ international language; language of internet; • English – language of IT
language of books/ papers; language of jobs; language of aviation; • Major software companies in the US
language of media/ movies
• Nearly 80% of all websites in English; ¾ of world’s communication in
• 52% of the students expected their job prospects to be excellent if the English
medium of instruction was English vis-.-vis 7% for Hindi and 28% for
Kannada (cf. Sridhar 1982: 144 cited in Sedlatschek 2009: 23). • China has a policy on learning English
• ‘English tsunami’
• India - ‘English advantage’ • Indianisation of English and Englishization of Indian languages
• “We are grateful to the British for ruling India and teaching us English,
a fact the Chinese are repenting now” (Pramod Mahajan, The Hindu
Jan 6, 2002 cited in Krishnaswamy & Krishnaswamy 2017: 157)
Official status - now
• Many Englishes? Indian English as a variety • English is the official language of four Union states (Manipur,
• English language – stripped of culture/ class/ race Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura) and of eight Union territories
• Earlier English speaking – imitating British – using cutlery, wearing suit • 22 Officially recognized languages – Eighth schedule of constitution –
etc. not English
• But no longer • Associate official language
• Earlier English was supposed to expire as an official language in 1965
• Anti-Hindi agitations in Tamilnadu 1965
• But amended act in 1963/ 1967 – English continued
 • “thanking you in anticipation”
• Drums beating
• Hook-swinging festival
Indianization of English
“Dear Sir, • Several words from Indian languages have been borrowed into
I am arrive by passenger train at Ahmedpore station and my belly is too English
much swelling with jack-fruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing • Curry, coolie, pundit, juggernaut, jute, toddy (17-18 th century)
the nuisance, that guard making whistle blow train to go off and I am • Avatar, ahimsa, mantra, bandh
running with lotah in one hand and Dhotie in the next when I am fall
over and expose all my shookings to man, female, woman on • Oxford dictionary lists about 1000 words of Indian origin – some up to
platform… If passenger go to make dung, that dam guard no wait train 2000
five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine
on that guard for public sake.”
(letter cited in Krishnaswamy & Krishnaswamy 2017: 165)
Only in Indian English Englishization of Indian languages
• Footpath, curd, pass out (=graduate), picture (=movie), would be • More than a thousand English words are in everyday use
(=fiancé/ fiancée) • Bulb, switch, motor, car, lorry, bus, auto, train, pump, court, school,
• Speed money (=bribe), eve-teasing (=street sexual harassment) college, bank, post office, TV, computer
• Timepass (=pastime)
• Upgradation (=upgrading)
• Delink (=disconnect), upliftment
• Enthu, funda, senti
• Incharge (=one who is in-charge)
Code mixing
• …want + that (=want somebody to do something) • … this is a total downer, considering the baap of action flicks is
• Overuse of definite article ‘the’ (e.g. acknowledge receiving this letter associated with it. John Woo saab goes haywire with weird motorcycle
and acknowledge the receipt of this letter.) chases and leaps in the air that defy gravity. Slow motion zindabad!
• Count-uncountable distinction (Sedlatschek 2009: 56)
Aircrafts, equipments, softwares
A pant, a trouser
• Overuse of present continuous tense
• Researchers have detected what they say are snapshots of an
imminent invasion of northern India by Hinglish that is set to shrink
populations of monolingual Hindi and bilingual Hindi-and-English
speakers.
• A study that examined dialogue on the Hindi reality television show
Bigg Boss and everyday language practices has suggested that
speakers of Hinglish, the hybridised version of Hindi peppered with
English vocabulary, could out-number speakers fluent in either one or
both languages.
• Telegraph, Jan 17, 2016
 • Human language vs animal communication systems
• Human language – systematic, complex, symbolic and social
Learning English as an L2
Linguistic factors
What is language? What does it consist of?
• Language – a medium of communication (personal/semi-formal/ Primarily speech – writing systems
formal) • Sounds
• Dissemination of knowledge • Words
• Entertainment/ recreation • Sentences/ structures
• Meaning
• Pragmatics
Lexicon (vocabulary) morphology (word structure)
• •word meaning • • parts of words that have meaning (morphemes)
• • pronunciation (and spelling for written languages) • • inflections that carry grammatical information (like number or
• • grammatical category (part of speech) • tense)
• • possible occurrence in combination with other words and in • • prefixes and suffixes that may be added to change the
idioms meaning of words or their grammatical category
Phonology (sound system) syntax (grammar)
• • speech sounds that make a difference in meaning (phonemes) • • word order
• • possible sequences of consonants and vowels (syllable • • agreement between sentence elements (as number
structure) agreement between subject and verb)
• • intonation patterns (stress, pitch, and duration), and perhaps • • ways to form questions, to negate assertions, and to focus or
tone in words structure information within sentences
• • rhythmic patterns (pauses and stops)
discourse What is first language?
• • ways to connect sentences, and to organize information • First language/ mother tongue (L1)
across sentence boundaries • Dominant regional language
• • structures for telling stories, engaging in conversations, etc. • Language vs dialect
• • scripts for interacting and for events • Early learning of more than one language
Second language
• Which of these has been the most difficult for you? Why? • Second language – any language learnt after L1
• English as a second language in Indian contexts
• For specific purposes – education, job, communication in multilingual
contexts
 Behaviourist theory
• Language learning = habit formation
• Stimulus – Response
Learning L1/ mother tongue • Positive – Negative reinforcement
Agree or disagree?
• Children acquire their first language mainly through imitation.
• Parents correct children when they make grammatical mistakes.
• Similarly learning a language dependent on repetition and practice • But language learning more complex!
Imitation and practice
Peter (24 months) playing with a dump truck
Lightbown & Spada, 2013, p.15
Defrosted - *frossed
Lightbown & Spada, 2013, p.
 Understanding grammar rules
• Do children copy adults or actually learn rules?
• Berko (1958) showed children pictures of fictitious
creatures he called ‘Wugs’. At first, the child was
shown a picture of one creature and told ‘this is a
Wug’. Then, they were shown a picture of two Wugs,
and the children were asked to complete the
sentence ‘Now there are two…’.
• Children aged 3 and 4 replied ‘Wugs’.
• However, children between the ages of 2 and a half
and 5 often OVERGENERALISE’ with plurals, so we
hear things like ’sheeps’ and mouses’.
Wug Test
• Children can understand and create novel utterances; they are not • 'wug test' developed by Jean Berka Gleason (1958)
limited to repeating what they have heard, and indeed the utterances • 'Here is a wug. Now there are two of them. There are two _______ '
that children produce are often systematically different from those of or 'Here is a man who knows how to bod. Yesterday he did the same
the adults around them. thing. Yesterday, he ________'.
• Children often overgeneralise • In nearly all cases, children's language development follows a
• E.g. ’sheeps’ and mouses’. predictable sequence. However, there is a great deal of variation in
the age at which children reach a given milestone. Furthermore, each
child's development is usually characterized by gradual acquisition of
particular abilities.
• Rule formation and Overgeneralisation • Roger Brown
• A child used ‘moon’ to refer to – • Adam, Sarah, Eve
• Moon • Natural order for acquisition of L1 English
• Cake
• Round marks on windows
• Writing in books
• Letter ‘O’ in a book
(Clark, 2016, p.96)
Acquisition of grammatical markers
• Brown (1973)
• 1) –ing
• 2) plural ‘-s’
• 3) possessive ‘-s’
• 4) the, a
• 5) past tense –ed
• 6) third person singular verb ending – s (eg): he
sings
• 7) auxiliary verb ‘be’ (eg): I am dancing
Correcting errors
CHILD: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we
• Does correction work? patted them.
ADULT: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits.
CHILD: Yes.
ADULT: What did you say she did?
CHILD: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted
them.
ADULT: Did you say she held them tightly?
CHILD: No, she holded them loosely.
 Role of L1
• In L1 contexts, children are focused on meaning • Does L1 help in learning L2 or is it a hindrance?
• They do not ‘learn’ grammar rules • Influence of L1 more prominent on pronunciation
• But they know how to make sentences and can also understand what • Use of vocabulary and structures from L1
is correct and what is incorrect
English as a second language in India
• Historical reasons • Zoo – जू
• Language of higher education/ jobs • “your good name”
• Social mobility • “don’t be angry on me”
• English – medium of instruction in private schools • “give a test” and “take a test”
• Many states English introduced from Class 1 in government schools
Contrastive Analysis Drawbacks of CA
• Language learning – habit formation by making stimulus response • Many learner errors could not be predicted
connection • Positive transfer did not occur as predicted
• So learning L2 is learning new habits • Language came to be seen in terms of structured rules instead of
• Already existing L1 interferes habits.
• L1 – the major cause for lack of success in learning the L2. • Learning was seen not as imitation but as active rule formation
• The habits established in childhood interfere with the establishment
of a different set of habits.
• Contrastive analysis - compares L1 and L2 to identify potential errors
• A comparison of the sound, morphological, syntactic, and the cultural
systems of two languages
• The ultimate goal is to predict what areas will be easy or difficult for
Error Analysis
learners.
 A: I go New York. • Learner language is independent of L1 or L2, and the
state of learner knowledge is seen as transitional
B: You’re going to New York? competence on the path of SLA.
A: What?
• Errors are a sign that the learner is (perhaps
B: You will go to New York? unconsciously) exploring the new system rather than
A: Yes. just experiencing “interference” from old habits.
B: When? • Larry Selinker introduced the term ‘Interlanguage’ (IL)
A: 1972 • intermediate states (or interim grammars) of a
learner’s language as it moves toward the target L2.
B: Oh, you went to New York in 1972.
A: Yes, I go 1972.
(Brown 2006: p.228)
Error analysis
• Pit Corder
• two main error types within an error analysis framework: interlingual
• L2 learners’ errors not as “bad habits” to be and intralingual.
eradicated, but as sources of insight into the learning
processes. • Interlingual errors are those which can be attributed to the NL (i.e.,
they involve cross-linguistic comparisons).
• Errors provide evidence of the system of language
which a learner is using at any particular point in the • Intralingual errors are those that are due to the language being
course of L2 development, and of the strategies or learned, independent of the NL
procedures the learner is using in his “discovery of the
language.” In a sense, errors are windows into the
language learner’s mind.
 • Since the meaning of ‘reality shows’ is clear, means to
IL sample show reality of our life. Sometimes, it helps to know
about people just by seeing his attitude, personality
• Identify errors in these sentences and analyse them. but this is harmful when we judge on the basis of
reality shows that I have seen this earlier in a show
• Topic: Do reality shows on TV do more harm than good? that there was a person who is just like this person
with this attitude & killed the other person.
• Yes, I agree this statement because reality shows on TV do more harm • Sometimes, because of reality shows, the fight starts between
than good. husband and wife and they blame each other. Now wife keep an eye
on her husband just like she saw in the reality shows.
• We have to understand that this is only a show, which do not harm if English L1 Morpheme Example English L2
you don’t take this show in your life. 1 Progressive -ing He is talking. 3
2 Plural -s There are two cats. 4
• …we felt that this can be happen to us also
3 Past irregular We ate. 7
4 Possessive -s The child’s toy 8
5 Articles a/the The cat/A sunny day 1
6 Past regular -ed They talked. 6
7 Third person -s He sings. 9
8 Copula be He’s tall. 2
9 Auxiliary be She’s singing. 5
Krashen’s theory
• Is learning L2 similar to learning L1? • Second languages are acquired “by understanding messages, or by
receiving ‘comprehensible input’ ”
 • L2 acquisition similar to L1 acquisition
• L2 acquisition happens when learners are exposed to
“comprehensible input”
• SL learner will build up competence via listening,
• comprehensible input – i+1
by understanding
• i= the current level of learner’s language
• The input provided should be just one level above the • speaking ability emerges on its own after enough
current level of proficiency of learner competence has been developed
• If input too complex – learners will find it difficult, • SL learners commit errors naturally
cannot process
• If input too simple – learners will not find it interesting
and will not help in any way
Silent period Silent Period – Case Study
• In L2 acquisition – a period in which learners may not produce any • Boydell (as reported in Fourcin 1975)
target language • “Like every child, I was born without language. Unfortunately, I was
• But comprehension will be happening also born with cerebral palsy which, in my case, means that although
• Learners should not be forced to produce target language from early my intelligence is unimpaired, I have a very severe speech defect and
on no use in my hands and arms. So, to start with, I acquired an
understanding of language by listening to those around me. Later,
thanks to my mother’s tireless, patient work I began learning to read
and so because familiar with written, as well as spoken, language.
• As my interests developed – particularly in the field of science, I read • When he was thirty, Boydell was provided with a foot-controlled
books and listened to educational programs on radio and, later, electric typewriter that he was able to use. Only nine days after
television which were at a level that was normal, or sometimes rather receiving the typewriter, he produced his first letter. According to
above, for my age. Also when people visited us ... I enjoyed listening Fourcin, it was “elegantly phrased”.
to the conversation even though I could only play a passive role and
could not take an active part in any discussion or argument.
• “As well as reading books and listening to radio and television to • How did he produce ‘elegantly phrased English’ all of a sudden?
continue my general education, I read the newspaper every day to • Krashen argues that this a case of comprehension continuing and
keep in touch with current events” (p. 264). presence of a silent period
 Negotiation factors
• Learning an L2 is different from learning mother tongue • Interaction - learner’s active involvement in such communicative
• Differences in age, motivation and other psychological factors, activities as clarification, confirmation, comprehension checks,
resources available, cognitive development requests, repairing, reacting, and turn-taking
• Mike Long – interaction hypothesis
• Shizuka: When will you get married?
• Akihito: When? I don’t know. Maybe . . . uh . . . After
thirty.
• Negotiation factors: interaction, output, • Shizuka: Thirty?
feedback • Akihito: Yeah, after thirty I’ll get marriage—I’ll get
married . . . (3 turns)
• Akihito: . . . then if I fall in lover with her, I’ll get
marriage with her. (11 turns)
• Akihito: And . . . uh . . . when I saw her. I liked to get
married with a Chinese girl because she’s so beautiful.
(Gass & Varonis 1989: 88)
• Learner is confused between two forms – get marriage and get • NS: Do you like California?
married • NNS: Huh?
• ‘Get married’ is supplied by the conversation partner • NS: Do you like Los Angeles?
• NNS: Uhm . . .
• NS: Do you like California?
• NNS: Oh! Yeah, I like it.
(Long 1983: 180)
• Confirmation checks (Is this what you mean?), comprehension • There is an indication of nonunderstanding (Huh? ), with the result
checks (Do you understand? Do you follow me? ) and clarification being a narrowing down of the topic (California → Los Angeles),
requests (What? Huh? ) followed by a final repetition of the original question.
• Conversational tactics provide the NNS with as much information as
possible
Pushed output
• Learners are “pushed” or “stretched” in their production as a • Learner does not know the word ‘magnifying glass’ initially
necessary part of making themselves understood. • NS indicates non-comprehension
• In doing so, they might modify a previous utterance or they might try • It forces the NNS to come up with the target expression
out forms that they had not used before.
• Merrill Swain – Output hypothesis
• NNS: And in hand in hand have a bigger glass to see.
• NS: It’s err. You mean, something in his hand? Types of feedback
• NNS: Like spectacle. For older person.
• NS: Mmmm, sorry I don’t follow, it’s what? • Explicit - stating that there is a problem
• NNS: In hand have he have has a glass for looking • Implicit - feedback during an interaction
through for make the print bigger to see, to see the
print, for magnify.
• NS: He has some glasses? • Negative evidence – information that a particular utterance is deviant
vis-à-vis target language norms
• NNS: Magnify glasses he has magnifying glass.
• NS: Oh aha I see a magnifying glass, right that’s a • Positive evidence – providing exposure to target elements in natural
good one, ok. contexts
(Mackey 2002)
 • S: One day, the fairy, sting the magic wand to
Cinderalla.
• T: Sorry?
• Implicit feedback: negotiation, recasts/prompts • S: One day, the fairy sting the magic wand to Cinderalla.
• T: OK.
• S: Cinde, ah, Cinderaella changed into, the beautiful
girl. (Laugh) Ah, and, the, Cin, Cinderella wen Cinderella
went to the palace by coach. The, the prince fall in love
at a first glance.
• T: Sorry?
• S: Ah, the prince fall in, falled falled in love Cinderella at
a first glance. And they dance, they danced . . . Ah, Cin,
Cinderella have, Cinderella have to go home.
(Takashima 1995, p. 77 cited in Gass & Selinker 2008:
334)
Pushed out - structure
• NNS: what angel doing in this situation? • Feedback may not bring in the change directly; but may be a catalyst
• NS: what angel doing? Huh? • First time the student makes no change, but as the storytelling
• NNS: what is angel doing? continues, the student self-corrects
NNS makes a mistake – later corrects self
• Recasts
• “A recast is a reformulation of an incorrect utterance that maintains
the original meaning of the utterance” (Gass & Selinker 2008: 334)
Example 1
• NNS: Why he want this house?
• NS: Why does he want this house?
Example 2
• NNS: What doctor say?
• NS: What is the doctor saying?
Gass & Selinker (2008: 334)