Taking into account the students’ background, I developed this lesson to help them comprehend the targeted grammatical features (gerunds and infinitives) and make them able to use those features in communication with others. The students, as mentioned in the lesson plan, take this class in the evening, which means that they most likely work during the day and probably need to communicate using the language in their work settings. Therefore, it is important to give as many opportunities as possible for the students to use the targeted features in interactive activities, such as interviews and group works. I expect these activities to not only promote negotiation of meaning that is useful for language learning (Long, 1996), but also push them to produce comprehensible output, which also facilitates learning (Swain, 1993). Consequently, with communicative goal as the main focus, writing activity in the class is set to a minimum. Students will use writing as a means to assist their speaking activities (e.g. writing interview questions, writing partners’ responses, and writing their preferences, etc.). This, however, does not mean that writing is a less important form of communication. The students probably also need writing in their working environment, so it becomes important to teach them how to use the targeted features in written communication. Therefore, to keep it balance, writing is given as homework and to make it relevant to the objective, the students will be asked to write a short email, which is one example of the way people write to communicate in the real life. The lesson is designed to give implicit exposure of grammatical features to the students. In some sections of the lesson (e.g. warming up activity and transi... ... middle of paper ... ...mmar: An empirical study. Applied Linguistics, 13(2), 168-184. Hernandez, T. (2011). Re-examining the role of explicit instruction and input flood on the acquisition of Spanish discourse markers. Language Teaching Research, 15(2), 159-182. Long, M. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In W.Ritchie and T.Bhatia (eds.) Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (San Diego, CA: Academic Press), 413-68. Norris, J., & Ortega, L. (2000). Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis. Language Learning, 50, 417-528. Scheffler, P., & Cinciaa, M. (2011). Explicit grammar rules and L2 acquisition. ELT Journal, 65(1), 13-23. Swain, M. (1993). The output hypothesis: Just speaking and writing aren't enough. The Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue Canadienne Des Langues Vivantes, 50(1), 158-164.
The first principle Professor Ellis talks about is, “instruction needs to ensure that learners develop a rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and a rule base competence.” Here is where Professor Ellis talked about the Natives who use larger number of formulaic expression more than SLA. He also went on to explain how rote learned materials were internaliz...
ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics Washington DC. (1992). Myths and Misconceptions about Second Language Learning. ERIC Digest. <http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed350885.html>
There are many theories on how a person acquires a language. One can see that technology has influenced the way we input information as well as how we gather data based on these Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories. For example, today’s technology has helped us study the way the human brain works, and this is what our theories of SLA are based on. So it is evident that many of the SLA theories are based on the way the human brain works and how it develops. Moving on, this case study is based on two Spanish speakers who are English Language Learners (ELL) and how they were led to determine the SLA on the subject of their speech. The two Spanish speakers that are analyzed during this investigation are Elizabeth, a five-year old girl, and
Johnson, J. S., & Newport, E. L. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of instructional state on the acquisition of english as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 60-99.
Schütz, Ricardo. (2007, July 2). Stephen Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition. Sk.com. Retrieved April 9, 2014 from http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html.
Knowing effective strategies for teaching ELL students grammar is important. Research shows that instructional strategies for ELL students consist of SIOP, learning through listening, and learning through speaking. There are many students in classrooms that are ELL learners and that number will likely continue to grow. These effective instructional techniques will improve the learning of grammar for ELL students. It is important that we reach each and every student in our classroom, so being aware of the student needs and how to help them develop in the future is imperative. Not only are these strategies beneficial to English language learners it is also helpful for the regular classroom students.
On the other hand, teachers prefer using L1 for a more effective approach to teaching grammar and checking students’ understanding. Macaro (1997) commented that teachers often lack enthusiasm in using the target language for grammar explanation. Many students have difficulty in learning grammar, especially for those whose L1 system is entirely different from the TL. L1 can be more efficient, particularly when a teacher wants to discuss the learning contract with students, or tries to explore the needs of his/her students, especially those in the lower level (Harmer, 2007). Evidence provided by Harmer (2007) also indicates that the classroom environment can be enhanced through the use of L1 to establish a positive social relationship with students, which ultimately leads to a more effective teaching process.
Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. Google Books. Retrieved April 14, 2011, from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fhnbMj597-4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=second
Long, M, H. & Doughty, C, J. ( Eds.).(2009). The Handbook of Language Teaching. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Crème, P., & Lea, Mary R. (2008). [PDF format]. Writing at University (3rd edition.), McGraw Hill Education. Retrieved from www.kantakji.com/fiqh/Research/ti134.pdf.
This theory goes on to explain that the developmental stages of learning a language are universal to all humans and that the amount grammar people gain knowledge of is mostly undetermined by linguistic life experience. These hypotheses that the theory of Universal Grammar make are proven by the explanation of impoverished data, which outlines that despite the grammatical and linguistic errors, unstructured and incomplete sentences that children hear from a young age each child still adopts the correct syntactic rules of their language because of their innate template. Moreover, the hypothesis of innateness is further proven with the fact that most speakers of any given language realize when a sentence is ungrammatical, even if they do not know the reason for this (Fromkin et al. 2014, pp.304-308). As well as this, research has shown that infants instinctively know the sounds of human language and respond to the
Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. M. (2006). How languages are learned (3rd ed.). Oxford [england: Oxford University Press.
...006). Current issues in the teaching of grammar: An SLA perspective. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 83-107.
Wolter. B. (2001). Comparing the L1 and L2 Mental Lexicon. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 23:41-69.
Steven Krashen developed 5 theories of Second Language Development. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis states that people acquire language naturally, without any formal training, simply through their interactions with others (Freeman and Freeman p.62). Language learning, however, is a more complex process which requires instruction. Both of these processes are necessary for a person to acquire a second language. Implications for teaching include creating authentic social interaction time with peers in the classroom, collaboration with peers, modeling appropriate language use and using repetition (Vose).