Principles of language learning and teaching Jorge Flores Language Acquisition

Language, Learning and Teaching • SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Language

•Is a set of arbitrary symbols that enable people to communicate

Learning

•Acquiring or getting of knowledge of subject or skill by study, experience or instruction

Teaching

•Showing or helping someone to learn how to do something giving instructions, guiding in the study or providing knowledge

First language acquisition

ISSUES IN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

THEORIES OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Semantically and

Variability

SemanticallyLearners discover phonological, lexical, semantic system of language

VariabilityStages that learners learn unconsciously and after time they can difference them example ( verb tenses)

Age and acquisiton

Neurological considerationsChild is neurological assigning functions little by little to one side of the brain or the other , of course languageThe significance of accentThe acquisition of authentic control of phonology of foreign language supports the notion of a critical period

Most of the evidence indicate that people beyond the age of puberty do not acquire what has come to be called authentic pronunciation of the second language

The critical period hypothesisAGE PERIOD DEVELOPMENTAL ADVANCE

19 to 24 months Possess 10 to 20 consonants + sufficient phonetic ability to learn many new words.

25 to 36 months Continued growth in phonetic inventory, along with vocabulary and syntax.Stuttering is often first noticed atabout this age

3 to 4 years Almost all vowels are mastered by this age, along with a number of consonants.

4 to 6 years Closing in on phonemic mastery, with the exception of fricative (noise) sounds. Teeth fall.

6 to 9 years Phonemic mastery typically completed, but refinements in speech production continue.

9+ years Speech development is complete, but developmental changes can be observed(E.G., Voice change in adolescence)

Human Learning GAGNE (1965-:58-59) IDENTIFICO EIGH TYPES OF LEARNING

Rogers’s Humanistic psychologyIs not traditionally thought of as a “ learning” psychologist, has more of an affective focus than a cognitive one, so it is view as a constructive nature learning. Roger studies the whole “person” as a emotional, physical and cognitive being .

Personality FactorsPersonality Factors• The Affective domain.- refers to emotion side of human behavior • Self-esteem.- attitudes that individuals hold towards themselves • Inhibition.- a mental state or condition in which the varieties of expression and behavior of an individual become restricted

• Risk-Taking.- students impulse to try or guess something that they are not sure • Anxiety.- a state of uneasiness or tension caused by apprehension of possible future misfortune, danger, etc.

• Empathy.- putting yourself into someone else’s shoes • Extroversion-introversion .- extroversion is the extent to which a persons has a deep-seated need to receive ego enhancement, self-steem ,etc. Introversion is the extent to which a person derives a sense of wholeness and fulfillment apart from a reflection of this self from other people.

MYERES-BRIGGS CHARACTER TYPE

•Extroversion-Introversion •Sensing-Intuition•Thinking-Feeling •Judging-Perceiving

MOTIVATION• From a behavioristic perspective.- motivation is seen in very matter of fact terms. It is quite simply the anticipation of reward

• In cognitive terms. Motivation places much more emphasis on the individual’s decisions and the degree of effort they will exert in that respect

• A constructivist view of motivation places even further emphasis as social context as well as individual personal choices

• Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.- intrinsic is when people engage in the activities for their own sake and extrinsic on the other hand, are carried out in anticipation of a reward from outside and beyond

the self.

Sociocultural Factors

Stereotypes.- assigns group

characteristics to individuals purely

on the basis of their cultural

membership

Attitudes.- form a part of one’s

perception of self, of others, and of the

culture in which one is living

Second culture acquisition.- involve

the acquisition of second identity

Social distance.- refers to the cognitive and affective proximity

of two cultures that come into contact

within an individual and consist of some

parameters (dominance, integration,

cohesiveness, congruence,

permanence)

Culture in the classroom .-

culture learning in the classroom can help students turn such an experience

into one of the increased cultural

and self-awareness.

Sociocultural

Language is a part od of a

culture, and a culture is a

part of a language

Culture might be defined as

the ideas, customs,

skills, arts, and tools that characterize a given group of

people in a given period

of time.

Cross-linguistic influence and learner language

Metalinguistic awareness refers to the ability to objectify language as a process as well as an artifact. The concept of metalinguistic awareness is helpful to explaining the execution and transfer of linguistic knowledge across languages

Student engagement occurs when "students make a psychological investment in learning. They try hard to learn what school offers

Bi-literacydescribes children’s literate competencies in two languages, to whatever degree, developed either simultaneously or successively

Bilingual identity

when learner identify easily another language Intralingua errors : within one language, is a

factor in second language

Interlingual errors: across two or more languages

From the CAH to CLI ( cross-linguistic influence). – The weak version of CAH remands the croos-linguistics influence which suggest that we all recognize the significant role that prior experience plays in any learning act, and that the native language as prior must not be overlooked.

Contrastive analysis hypotheses (CAH) .- clamed that the principal barrier to second language acquisition is the interference of the first language system with the second language system.

Markedness and Universal Grammar

Marked items are more difficult to

acquire tan unmarked. Example: an- marked

a- unmarked

Rules acquired by children learning

their firs language are presumed to be

universal.

Markednees theory try to explain why

there seems to be a certain order of acquisition of morpheme in

English.

Marked structures are acquired in

later tan unmarked structures

Markednees theory and UG perspectives provide a more sophisticated understanding of difficulty in learning second language

• Those areas of the L2 which differ from the L1 and that are more marked than in the L1 will be difficult to acquire.

• relative degree of difficulty of the areas of the L2 which are more marked than the in L1 will correspond to the relative degree of markedness.

• Those areas of the L2 which are different from the L1 but are not more marked than the L1 will not be difficult to acquire. 

Learner Language • In recent years researchers and teachers have

come more and more to understand that second language learning is a process of the creative construction of a system

• In which learners are consciously testing hypotheses about the target language from number of possible sources of knowledge:

• Knowledge of the native language, limited knowledge of the target language itself, knowledge of the communicative functions of language, knowledge about language in general, and knowledge about life, human beings and the universe.

Interlingual transfer (External)

Intralingual transfer (Internal)

Context of learning

Communication

strategies

Source of errors

Mistakes Errors

Stages of Learner Language Development

(I) RANDOM- Learners have a preconceived notion that there is some systematic order to things & make a wild guess as an

experimental front.- Can lead to inconsistencies though (John cans sing vs. John can singing).

(II) EMERGENT

The learner is more consistent in learning the language rules.- Backsliding concept: - U - Shaped learning concept:

(III) SYSTEMIC

- The learner is able to manifest more consistency in producing the L2 since it resembles the target language’s system.

A: Many fish are in the lake. These fish are serving in the restaurants near the lake.

B: (Laughs) The fish are serving?

A: (Laughs) Oh no, the fish are being served in the restaurants!

(IV) STABILIZATION

- The learner produces less errors & has mastered the system to the point of fluency.

- - Learners can self correct their errors!

FossilizationEncountered in a learner’s language various erroneous features

This phenomenon is most saliently manifested phonologically in ‘foreign accents’ in the speech of those who have learned a L2 after puberty (

The relatively permanent incorporation of incorrect linguistic forms into a person’s second language competence has been referred to as FOSSILIZATION.

It is a normal and natural stage for many learners and should not be viewed as some sort of terminal illness.

• Should errors be treated? How they should be treated? When?

• Fossilization may be the result of too many green lights when there should have been some yellow or red lights.

• Vigil and Oller (1976) provided feedback about these questions with the following model:

Error Treatment…

Affective/Cognitive Feedback for Error Treatment…

Communicative Competence

Linguistic

Sociolinguistic

Discourse

Strategic

• Linguistic competence is knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a language. Linguistic competence asks: What words do I use? How do I put them into phrases and sentences?

• Sociolinguistic competence is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating.

• Discourse competence is knowing how to

interpret the larger context and how to construct longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole.

• Strategic competence is knowing how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns, how to work around gaps in one’s knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the language and in the context.

Theories of Second Language Acquisition Stages Second language acquisition

refers to any language other than one’s mother tongue: the stages mentioned here describe the processes in gaining the language

Having L1 will obstruct in the acquisition of L2, however it will become a fundamental tool for the developmental processes in the target language.

Stage I: Silent Stage

Stage II: Early Production

Stage III: Emergence of Speech

Stage IV: Intermediate ability

Stage V: Advanced fluency

Stage I: Silent Stage

It forms from about ten hours to six months Not yet speaking, but able to respond to

new words and pronunciation. Stage that should be focused in gaining

words, meaning and pronunciations Language shock – rejection of words for not

knowing their meaning Not speaking – though self-talking

Stage II: Early Production

• Lasts for about six months

• 1000 active words

• Speaking of few words and simple phrases

• Mispronunciations are common

Stage III: Emergence of Speech

• Learners achieving what has

been described in previous

stages will begin to speak in

this stage

• Improving pronunciation

• Steps toward reading and

writing

• Mistakes in the grammatical

structuring

• Motivate students to grater

usage of words

Stage IV: Intermediate Ability

1 year of length after the speech emergence

Complex sentences and use of newly acquired language

They will be able to opine, discuss, and Beginning to think in the 2nd language

Stage V: Advanced Fluency

It may take a couple of years to gain complete proficiency and absorb into their minds

Fluent conversation and clear thinking in 2nd language

Development of separate vocabulary and confidence of expressing one self by means of one’s second language