have a [y], as in German /crypmvn/ rühmen “to praise”, only if it has an [i],
as in German /crypmvn/ Riemen “strap”.natural order hypothesis n
the hypothesis that children acquiring their first language acquire linguistic
forms, rules, and items in a similar order. For example, in English children
acquire progressive -ing, plural -s, and active sentences before they acquire
third person -s on verbs, or passive sentences. This is said to show a natural
order of development. In second language and foreign language
learning grammatical forms may also appear in a natural order, though
this is not identical with the order of acquisition in first language
learning.
natural phonology n
a theory of phonology that stresses universal processes of phonology
that are motivated by the physiology of the speech organs and the acoustic
characteristics of speech sounds. Some examples of natural processes are
the neutralization of unstressed vowels (which occurs in English) and
the devoicing of final voiced stops (which occurs in German). These are
contrasted with “learned” conventional phonological rules of particular
languages, such as the alternation between / k / and / s / in the English words
electricand electricity, which have no phonetic motivation. The theory
suggests that learning to suppress a natural process when learning a new
language will be difficult (for example, in the case of a German learner of
English who must learn that final voiced stops are not devoiced), but when
the phonological rules of a new language are natural ones, there will be
little difficulty in learning them.
needs analysis n
also needs assessment
(in language teaching and language programme design) the process of
determining the needs for which a learner or group of learners requires a
language and arranging the needs according to priorities. Needs assessment
makes use of both subjective and objective information (e.g. data from
questionnaires, tests, interviews, observation) and seeks to obtain informa-
tion on:
athe situations in which a language will be used (including who it will be
used with)
bthe objectives and purposes for which the language is needed
c the types of communication that will be used (e.g. written, spoken,
formal, informal)
dthe level of proficiency that will be required.
needs analysis