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First and second language acquisition
First and second language acquisition
children second language acquisition
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Introduction
Through the years, language teachers, psychologists and others have had varying ideas of how languages are learned. Second language acquisition has multiple models, including cognitive based models, sociocultural models, and models regarding input and interaction. In this paper, my goal is to take one prominent model of SLA, the interactionist model, and determine how this model actually plays out in the classroom. I seek to answer the following questions: How does interaction support the development of interlanguage as shown in SLA research? And what does this imply about teaching practice. The discussion of these questions will follow from an analysis of four articles on interaction research. First, I will discuss an article called “Talking, tuning in and noticing: exploring the benefits of output in task-based peer interaction” by Philp & Iwashita (2013). Then I will discuss Iwashita’s work, “Negative Feedback and Positive Evidence in Task-Based Interaction” (2003). I will move on to the work of Mackey and Silver, “Interactional tasks and English L2 learning by immigrant children in Singapore” (2005). Finally, I will analyze McDonough’s work from 2005 on “Learner-learner interaction during pair and small group activities in a Thai EFL context.” Through these articles I will gain more information on how to answer my chief questions.
Before diving into the research, let us briefly investigate what the interactionist view of SLA is, and how it differs from other views of SLA. Long (1981, 1983, 1996) proposed that interaction is crucial to SLA. One key idea in Long’s perspective on SLA is negotiation for meaning. When interlocutors struggle to understand one another during a difficult language task, they modify their...
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...rs and parents for background information.
Works Cited
Iwashita, N. (2003). Negative Feedback and Positive Evidence in Task-Based Interaction: Differential Effects on L2 Development. Studies In Second Language Acquisition, 25(1), 1-36. doi:10.1017/S0272263103000019
Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. M. (2014). How languages are learned (4th ed.). Oxford [england: Oxford University Press. [Kindle Edition]
Mackey, A., & Silver, R. E. (2005). Interactional tasks and English L2 learning by immigrant children in Singapore. System, 33(2), 239-260.
McDonough, K. (2004). Learner-learner interaction during pair and small group activities in a Thai EFL context. System, 32,207-224.
Philp, J., & Iwashita, N. (2013). Talking, tuning in and noticing: exploring the benefits of output in task-based peer interaction. Language Awareness, 22(4), 353-370. doi:10.1080/09658416.2012.758128
Other environmental inputs have been proven many times to also influence the learning of a language. An educated and socially skilled parent will address their child linguistically differently than a parent who is less educated and has scarcer social skills. Naigles and Hoff-Ginsberg (1998) established this fact in a study that examined the degree to which the nature of verb input accounts for the order in which children learn verbs. They used a joint sample of speech from 57 m...
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English Language Learners range from Newcomers learning survival English and developing foundational literacy skills to Long-Term English Learners who have had 6 years or more of their education in English yet continue have significant language gaps. These students may speak English with little or no accent and still lack the vocabulary, grammar and grade level literacy to be successful in school. English language learners may remain silent in the classroom as they adjust to a new school, environment, and culture unless he is a native language comrade to interact with. The English language learners are concerned about decoding verbal and non- verbal communication as well as understanding the social culture framework of the school. Most of the time English language learners are observing during instruction, trying to repeat words used by others, memorizing simple phrases and sentences, tired by midday or be frustrated attending long lectures unaccompanied by visual and gestures, relying on first language translation used peer translation or bilingual dictionary, as the students begin to learner they become more involved in the classroom, they can respond non-verbally to commands, statements, and questions in simple form. As their oral comprehension increases, they begin to use simple word and phrases and may use English spontaneously. They can understand short conversation on a simple topic when reading students can understand a narrative text and authentic materials, although they will be below
Over the course of time the topic of language has been a catalyst for many discussions and debates as to if it is learned throughout one's life, or is it a hard copy instinct the one is born with. Many scientists and writers in the humanities field have their own opinions as to what they believe about language and its plight in human society. One writer challenges many of our educators and scholars today by expressing his thoughts on the instinct to understand, learn, and speak language.
The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis- Krashen believed that learning and acquiring a second language are two different processes. The theory suggests that new linguistic information is obtained by the learner subconsciously (Macaro, 2010), much like the acquisition of the native language, whereas learning language is more of a conscious understanding of the language. Krashen advocated that language is more readily acquired when it is used to transmit messages in natural form of communication rather than when it is explicitly (Crochunis, Erdey, & Swedlow, 2002). We conclude that if second language learners are provided opportunities to produce the targeted language in authentic interactions with peers and teachers, this would positively influence the acquisition of the targeted language. Therefore, it could be said that language teachers should focus more attention on the meaning being communicated than on form, like obeying grammatical
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According to the interaction hypothesis, Secondary Language Acquisition occurs through communication breakdown and negotiation of meaning where learners ask for clarification and confirming comprehension (Long 1983). Negotiation empowers learners to provide each other with comprehensible input, to have feedback on their contribution and to restructure utterances to make meaning clear. In addition, negotiation is found helpful in acquiring new vocabulary and encourage learners to bring their inter-language into line with target language (Pica 1997).
Regarding the immense significance of speaking to the learners, teachers have tried to employ unusual techniques and teaching procedures to assist learners master this skill, one of which is task-based language teaching (TBLT). Various investigators stress the significance of task-based approaches over communicative instruction in which teachers and learners feel freer to discover their own practices to exploit communicative effectiveness (Gass& Crookes, 1993; cited in Skehan, 1996). Task-based L2 performance is an attractive subject in itself and requires more experiential examination, but as tasks are extensively employed in language teaching methods and also language examination, knowing more about their efficacy could have convenient worth (Tavakoli& Foster, 2008).
According to the behaviourist theories, language learning was a question of habit formation, and this could be supported or prevented by existing habits. Therefore, the difficulty in dominating certain structures in a second language (L2) depended on the difference between the learners ' mother language (L1) and the language they were trying to learn.
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.
Language acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language with natural communication while children are acquiring the foreign language. Children usually concerned with message which they are conveying and understand not with the form of utterances. These utterances are initiated by the acquired systems and the fluency of language is based on what we have ‘picked up’ through active communication. Both formal knowledge and conscious learning of the second language learning may be alternate to the output of the system, sometimes before and sometimes after the
In this review, I will look at the Theory of learning about language acquisition and how children acquire their first or second language. The reason why this fields of education interest me is because we are now living in a diverse society where by English is no longer the central language in the school in UK. On the basis of National Data collected via School Census, British Council says that “almost one in six pupils speak English as an additional language” (British Council, 2016). The rate of children with EAL is continues to increasing in UK from Europe and Asia. Based on the literature I am reading how, where and why child will be acquiring knowledge and this process is complex (Clark, 2016).
According to (Wisniewski, 2007), second language learning process differs from first language acquisition, with the latter taking place usually from infancy in a community using a specific language and affected mainly by neurological developments in the brain (McCain, 2000) while the former taking place usually in schools or later in life and affected by age and associated characteristics (McCain, 2000).
... learning. In conclusion, because of so many varying factors, both the processes and outcomes of child first language acquisition and adult second language acquisition are extremely different, and are only connected by a common goal.