Name of Curriculum: Second Language Acquisition
Teaching Hours: 16
Introduction of Curriculum:

This course aims at introducing students to the issues concerning second language acquisition. We will begin with the question of how a young child acquires his or her native language. The primary focus is on grammatical development, that is, how the child develops the systems of rules- phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic--which comprise the grammar of his or her language. Many aspects of child language data--what children perceive, say, and comprehend in the course of development--and data analysis, as well as theories of language development, will be discussed and evaluated. With an overall understanding of how first language is acquired, the attention is turned to second language acquisition. Students are first introduced to the methodologies and the types of data analysis employed in second language acquisition research. The characteristics of second language acquisition will be detailed and contrasted with the process of first language acquisition. Substantive findings on interlanguage studies and instructed second language acquisition will constitute the major part of discussion. Individual differences, learning strategies are then introduced especially in the field of Chinese acquisition.Finally, students are introduced to theories in second language acquisition and possible explanations for differential success among second language learners.