LEARNING TO LANGUAGE LEARNING
Wallace,J.(1991) Training Foreign Language Teachers. Cambridge University Press
By: Dolly Ramos G
ACQUISITION & LEARNING Acquisition:
It refers to the spontaneous , unconscious and incidental process of internalization that result from natural language use
Learning: to acquire the knowledge
of something through the conscious and formal study
ACQUISITION & LEARNING
Pick up the lg naturally
Implicit knowledge Formal teaching is
not necessary Using lg for real
communication
Formal teaching is necessay
Knowing about the lg
Knowledge of the rules
ACQUISTION LEARNING
DIFFERENCES
Innate Exposed all the
time No emotional
barrier Natural motivation No interlanguage
Learned Not used all the
time Might be
emotional barrier Less motivation Reliance on L1
First Language Second Language
FIRST, SECOND AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Concern on children’s learning The main charateristics of Foreign
lg Learning Amount of timeType F or S Responsibility of the teacher
LEARNING THE FIRST LANGUAGE
READING Age 5 L1 incompletely developed Age 5-6 Literacy skill is on process SPEAKING & WRITING Age 7
Narrative & Extended discourse Reference to characters
Age 11& 15 (not fully developed) Relative Clauses & pronouns
Logical understanding Co-ordinators
language
LINGUISTIC DOMAINS (P,M,S,L, conversation & discourse) largely independent Child’s early experience(family)
Narative & discourse Vocabulary
Teacher Consider: Childrens’ individual differences and lg
strengths
LEARNING THE FIRST LANGUAGE
LEARNING A SECOND LANGUAGE Children learn faster than adults. (Hypothesis) Critical Period Hypothesis
Children learning is more effectively before puberty (mechanisim assited the L1)
Lightbown & Spada (1999) Against the Hypothesis Factor needs
Motivation native- profiency SL Context communicative-goal FL
THE INFLUENCE OF L1 ON L2
Competion Model Bates & Whinney(1989) Explain how L1 learning affects L2 &FL
L1 Reliable or Unreliable
Babies (particular cues) transfer to SL Learning the whole & the parts
7-8 age. Sound and rythm 12-14 age. Word order
AGE AND LANGUAGE FIRST
Who has less prolonged attention? How would a lesson influence a childs lg
development? Does conversation develop
independently from extended discourse? How can our L1 affect language
learning?
IS YOUNGER REALLY BETTER
Catherine Snow & Marian Hoefnagel (1978)
X= beginning Y = end TASK CHILD ADOLESCE
NTADULT
PRONUNCIATIONAUDITORY DISC MORPHOLOGY SENTENCE REPET SENTENCE TRANSL SSENTENCE JUST/ VOCAB TESTSTORY COMPREHSTORY TELLING
IS YOUNGER REALLY BETTER
Catherine Snow & Marian Hoefnagel (1978)TASK CHILD ADOLESCE
NTADULT
PRONUNC Y Y XAUDITORY DISC XYMORPHOLOGY XYSENTENCE REPET XYSENTENCE TRANSL XYSSENTENCE JUST/ XYVOCAB TEST XYSTORY COMPREH Y XSTORY TELLING Y X
ADVANTAGES TO STARTING YOUNG WITH FOREIGN LG
ADVANTAGES Early starters develop & maintain SOME
areas fo the lg skill Listening comprehension pronunciation Language development
DISAVANTAGES grammar slower Cognitive development
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
“…is a way of comparing languages in order to determine potential errors for the ultimate purpose of isolating what needs to be learned and what does not need to be learned in a second language learning situation..” Gass & Selinker, p72
THANK YOU See you next Monday do not forget your
to study and read
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS (CAH)
" The most efficient materials are those that are based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner. " Fries (1945)
"...those elements that are similar to his native language will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult." Lado (1957)
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS ASSUMPTIONS (1)
1- Errors are accounted for by considering differences between L1 and L2
2- The greater the differences, the more errors will occur
3- Focus on dissimilarities in learning; similarities require little new learning
4- Difficulty and ease in predicted by differences and similarities between L1 and L2
CAH: Two positions
A priori or strong view: comparison between languages will predict learning outcomes
A posterior or weak view: comparison between languages will help explain learning outcomes, especially errors.
Second Language Acquisition
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TYPES OF ERRORS: INTERLINGUAL & INTRALINGUAL
Interlingual – based on cross-linguistic comparisons
Intralingual – based on language being learned