Vorlesung
Wintersemester 22/23
Introduction to Second Language Acquisition
Abstract:
This course offers an introduction at the advanced undergraduate/beginning graduate level to the study of language acquisition, in particular Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The course surveys the major approaches to SLA, their goals, research methodology, and major findings, emphasizing the interdisciplinary link to linguistic modeling and cognition.
Instructor: Detmar Meurers
Office: Room 155, Keplerstraße 2
Email: dm@sfs.uni-tuebingen.de
Office hours: Tuesdays 10:00–12:00 (typically held online, please arrange slot by email beforehand)
Course meets: Fridays, 8:30-10 in lecture room 0.01, Wilhelmstr. 19
Language: The course is taught in English.
Nature of course: This is a lecture course, i.e., students are expected to regularly come to the lecture, ask questions, actively participate in the discussion, and thoroughly read the announced reading material before class.
The reading material is announced during the course. The main text book we will follow is: Lourdes Ortega (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Hodder Education. Students should obtain a copy of the book during the first week of the class. Options include the Lehrbuchsammlung of the university library (UB).
Grading and Credits: Regular participation in the class is expected. Grading is based on the final exam in the last week of the semester. After successful completion, a paper Schein is issued, which can be counted for:
3 CP in Kognitionswissenschaft (Modul Linguistik und Philosophie bzw. neues Modul MKOGW5 Language and Cognition)
3 CP in MA Schulpsychologie (in “Wahlpflichtbereich” Modul 4)
3 CP in MA Empirische Bildungsforschung und Pädagogische Psychologie
(in den Modudulen III.1/2 “grundlagenorientierte/berufsorientierte Vertiefung”)
3 CP in MA English Linguistics (“work group/practical”)
3 CP in MA Romanische Sprachwissenschaft (“Modul Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaften”)
3 CP in BA Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
very old Prüfungsordnung: “Vorlesung mit Klausur”
old Prüfungsordnung: Hauptfach “Wahlpflichmodul I”, Nebenfach: “Wahlpflichtmodul III”
new Prüfungsordnung: Module “Language Use”, Project
3 CP in BA ISCL
(“Ergänzungsveranstaltung” or “PS frei wählbar”, with additional project or term paper
in Hauptseminar 6 CP (= 90hrs of extra work), old Prüfungsordnung 8 CP (= 150hr extra
work))
3 CP in MA ISCL as “Hauptseminar” for the Ergänzungsbereich (based on the written
exam)
(very rarely, with additional project or term paper: 6 CP)
3 CP as a key qualification course (“Schlüsselqualifikation”), unless enrolled in a program requiring this course
4 CP for Erasmus exchange students, requiring an additional research paper summary for the extra 1 CP.
Final exam: held in class in the last session of the semester, Friday, February 10.
Syllabus (this file):
html-Version (http://purl.org/dm/22/ws/sla)
pdf-Version (http://purl.org/dm/22/ws/sla/syllabus.pdf)
Moodle page: https://moodle.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de/course/view.php?id=2929
Academic conduct and misconduct: Research is driven by discussion and free exchange of ideas, motivations, and perspectives. So you are encouraged to work in groups, discuss, and exchange ideas. At the same time, the foundation of the free exchange of ideas is that everyone is open about where they obtained which information. Concretely, this means you are expected to always make explicit when you’ve worked on something as a team – and keep in mind that being part of a team always means sharing the work. For any text you write, you always have to provide explicit references for any ideas or passages you reuse from somewhere else. Note that this includes text “found” on the web, where you should cite the url of the web site in case no more official publication is available.
Topics:
Language learning in early childhood
Second Language Learning Overview
Crosslinguistic Influences
Linguistic Environment
Cognitive Foundations
Interface of Language Learning and Computational Linguistics
Last update: February 9, 2023