¡Descarga CHAPTER 14 SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION/LEARNING y más Apuntes en PDF de Lingüística solo en Docsity!
CHAPTER 14
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION/LEARNING
Some children grow up in a social environment where more than one language is used and are able to acquire a second language in circumstances similar to those of first language acquisition. Those fortunate individuals are bilingual. However, most of us are not exposed to a second language until much later and our ability to use a second language, even after years of study, rarely marches ability in our first language.
Second language learning
Acquisition and learning
The term acquisition is used to refer to the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally communicative situations with others who know the language. Acquisition normally takes place without a teacher.
The term learning , however, applies to a more conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the features of a language, such as pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, typically in an institutional setting, with teachers
Acquisition barriers
For most people, the experience with an L2 is fundamentally different from their L experience and it is hardly conducive to acquisition. They usually encounter the L during their teenage or adult years, in a few hours each week of school time with a lot of other things going on. They also have developed an unconscious commitment to the sounds and structures of an already known language that has been in use for most of their daily communicative requirements for many years. Despite the fact that insufficient time, there are some individuals who seem to be able to overcome the difficulties and develop an ability to use the L2 quite effectively, though not usually sounding like a native speaker.
However, very few adults seem to reach native-like proficiency in using an L2. There are individuals who can achieve great expertise in the written language, but not the spoken language.
The age factor
This type of observation is sometimes taken as evidence that, after the critical period for language acquisition has passed, around the time of puberty, it becomes very difficult to acquire another language fully. We might think of this process in terms of our inherent capacity for language being strongly taken over by features of the L1, with a resulting loss of flexibility or openness to receive the features of another language.
It has been demonstrated that students in their early teens are quicker and more effective L2 learners in the classroom than seven-years-olds. It may be, of course, that the effective learning of an L2 requires a combination of factors. The optimum age for learning may be during the years from about ten to sixteen when the flexibility of our
inherit capacity for language has not been completely lost, and the maturation of cognitive skills allows a more effective analysis of the regular features of the L2 being learned.
Affective factors
Yet even during this proposed optimum age for L2 learning, there may exist an acquisition barrier of quite a different kind. Teenagers are typically much more self- conscious than younger children. If there is a strong element of unwillingness or embarrassment in attempting to produce the different sounds of another language, then it may override whatever physical and cognitive abilities there are. If this self- consciousness is accompanied by a lack of empathy with the other culture, then the subtle effects of not really wanting to sound like a Russian or a German or an American may strongly inhibit the learning process.
This type of emotional reaction may also be caused by dull textbooks, unpleasant classroom surroundings or an exhausting schedule of study and/or work. All these negative feelings or experiences are affective factors that can create a barrier to acquisition. In contrast, learners who have other personality traits, such as self- confidence, low anxiety and a positive self-image, seem better able to overcome difficulties encountered in the learning space.
Children are generally less constrained by affective factors. Adults can sometimes overcome their inhibitions too. In one intriguing study, a group of adult L2 learners volunteered to have their self-consciousness levels reduced by having their alcohol levels gradually increased. The pronunciation of the L2 noticeably improved, but afer a certain number of drinks, pronunciations deteriorated rapidly.
Focus on teaching methods
The need for instruction in other languages has led to a variety of educational approaches and methods aimed at fostering L2 learning. William Caxton produced a book of Right good lernyng for to lerne shortly frenssh and englyssh. He was not the first to compile exercise material for L2 learners and his phrase-book format with customary greetings has many modern counterparts. More recent approaches designed to promote L2 learning have tended to reflect different theoretical views on how an L might best be learned.
The grammar-translation method
The most traditional approach is to treat L2 learning in the same way as any other academic subject. Vocabulary lists and sets of grammar rules are used to define the target of learning, memorization is encouraged and written language rather than spoken language is emphasized. This method has its roots in the traditional teaching of Latin and is described as the grammar-translation method.
The audiolingual method
A very different approach emphasizing the spoken language, became popular in the middle of the twentieth century. It involved a systematic presentation of the structures of the L2, moving from the simple to the more complex, in the form of drills that the
fossilize. It will naturally develop and become a more effective means of L communication given appropriate conditions.
Motivation
The motivation to learn is important. Many learners have an instrumental motivation. That is, they want to learn the L2 in order to achieve some other goal, such as completing a school graduation requirement or being able to read scientific publications, but they are not really planning on engaging in much social interaction with the L2. In contrast, those learners with an integrative motivation want to learn the L2 for social purposes, in order to take part in the social life of a community using that language and to become an accepted member of that community.
Those who experience some success in L2 communication are among the most motivated to learn. So, motivation may be as much a result of success as a cause. A language-learning situation that provides support and encourages students to try to use whatever L2 skills they have in order to communicate successfully must consequently be more helpful than one that dwells on errors, corrections and a failure to be perfectly accurate. The learner who is willing to guess, risks making mistakes, and tries to communicate in the L2 will tend, given the opportunity to be more successful.
Input and output
The term input is used as in L1 acquisition to describe the language that the learner is exposed to. To be beneficial for L2 learning, that input has to be comprehensible, because we can’t process what we do not understand. Input can be made comprehensible by being simpler in structure and vocabulary, as in the variety of speech called foreigner talk.
As the learner’s interlanguage develops, there is a need for more interaction and the kind of ‘’negotiated input’’ that arises in conversation. Negotiated input is L2 material that the learner can acquire in interaction through requests for clarification while active attention is being focused on what is said.
The opportunity to produce comprehensible output in meaningful interaction seems to be another important element in the learner’s development of L2 ability, yet it is one of the most difficult things to provide in large L2 classes.
Task-based learning
One solution has been to create different types of tasks and activities in which learners have to interact with each other, usually in small groups or pairs, to exchange information or solve problems. The assumption in using tasks is that students will improve their ability, specially their fluency. Despite fears that learners will simply learn each other’s mistakes, the results of such task-based learning provide overwhelming evidence of more and better L2 use by more learners. The goal of such activities is not that the learners will know more about the L2, but that they will develop communicative competence in the L2.
Applied linguistics
We have to appeal to ideas not only from linguistic analysis, but from other fields such as communication studies, education, psychology and sociology. This large-scale endeavor is often described as applied linguistics. Unlike theoretical linguistics, which often seems to have a primary focus on phonology, syntax and semantics, often discussed in very abstract terms; applied linguistics is concerned with practical issues involving language and its role in everyday life. Because it represents an attempt to deal with a large range of real-world issues involving language, applied linguistics has created connections with fields as diverse as anthropology, neurolinguistics, social psychology and sign language studies.
