Aims

The student will:
- develop knowledge of the principles and foundations of explanatory, cognitive linguistics
- acquire central concepts of applied and theoretical linguistics
- develop the ability to transfer theoretical linguistic knowledge of second language acquisition into the domain of language teaching
- will learn and develop his ability in linguistic argumentation
- become 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, …).

Other credits in programs