UCL - German Linguistics: Cognitive Theories of Second Language Acquisition

[GERM2813]

[30h] 5 credits

This two-yearly course is taught in 2010-2011, 2012-2013,...

Teacher(s): Joachim Sabel

Language: D

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

At the end of the course, the students should:
have developed knowledge of the principles and foundations of explanatory, cognitive linguistics.
have acquired central concepts of applied and theoretical linguistics.
have developed the ability to transfer theoretical linguistic knowledge of second language acquisition into the domain of language teaching.
have developed his ability in linguistic argumentation.
be able to present competently one of the topics of this course.

Main themes

The study of different theoretical concepts with respect to second language acquisition exemplified with German as a second language.

Content and teaching methods

Study of problems concering German grammar (syntax and morphology): Acquisition of word order in German. Study of problems concerning linguistic theory. The topics are: the idea of principles and parameters in grammatical theory; the nature of specific parameter settings in a language, parameterisation in synchrony and diachrony; parameters and (universal) principles in acquisition of first (native) and second language acquisition; differences between acquisition of German as native and as a second language; acquisition of verb positions in French and German (in first and second language acquisition); the critical period hypothesis;
differences between grammatical principles (UG) and the language acquisition device (LAD);
acquisition of foreign languages with respect to parameter setting, acquisition in terms of rules or by analogy.

The course requires the student's active participation in discussions, in reading scientific texts. Furthermore, every student has to give a short presentation on "cognitive theories of second language acquisition" at the end of the course.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Pré-requis. Introduction to linguistics.

Evaluation. Presentation of one of the topics of the course and a written exam.

Support. 1. scientific articles/chapters in books, 2. a written guideline " how to present a linguistic work ", 3. the students get aid with the workout of their presentations (content, structuring, ).