Language and Language Acquisition
Domain 1: Language and Language Acquisition
This domain tests how languages are structured, acquired, and used in school. Expect questions on phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics; first- and second-language acquisition theories; and the difference between social and academic language.
Core concepts
- Communicative competence (Canale and Swain): grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence. A student who knows past-tense rules may still fail to use them appropriately with a teacher.
- Krashen's monitor model: acquisition vs. learning, comprehensible input (i + 1), affective filter. Treat it as an influential framework, not a complete account.
- Cummins's BICS/CALP: conversational fluency develops in roughly 1–3 years; academic language proficiency often takes 5–7 years. BICS can mask CALP gaps.
- Interlanguage and transfer: learners build an internal rule system; L1 influence can help (cognates) or interfere (word order).
- Stages of SLA: silent/receptive period, early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, advanced fluency. These are approximate, not fixed gates.
Worked example
A newcomer says, 'I goed to the store yesterday.' The learner has acquired regular past-tense -ed and overgeneralizes it to an irregular verb. This is overgeneralization, evidence of rule construction, not careless error. The teacher recasts: 'You went to the store yesterday.' The error is developmental; heavy explicit correction is less useful than frequent, meaningful exposure and focused recasts.
Traps
- Equating quiet behavior with low ability; the silent period is normal.
- Treating BICS as proof that a student no longer needs language support.
- Confusing learning styles with language proficiency.
- Assuming all L1 transfer is interference; cognates and rhetorical knowledge can transfer positively.