Dear Students and Colleagues,
Welcome to our Second Language Acquisition blog. I decided to create this forum and invite you to post and comment after reading the class reflections written by the students of DePaul Second Language Acquisition course offered by Modern Languages, which I teach.
The true nature of the experiences that the participants in the course expressed in their weekly reflections which highlighted understanding and interaction with the material presented in the course, communication with others in class, and the ability to reflect and tie these experiences to personal learning and teaching was, in my opinion, exceptional and worth sharing.
I believe through establishing this forum and asking students and others to participate, we can create a public platform to discuss, share, learn, enjoy, network, and make learning relevant to our daily activities and experiences. I hope that this will continue to be a place where we can meet and keep track of each others' progress and learning.
Let us start with the basic and share our perceptions of what language teachers should know about SLA.
Hope to see you all here soon.
~Nesreen
Nesreen Akhtarkhavari, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor & Arabic Studies Director
DePaul University
Chicago, Illinois
14 comments:
We talked about what cognitive model of the second language acquisition. Those models are processing/ capacity, function, organization, automaticity, and information processing. It is about what goes in and what goes out. In order to acquire the major skills such as playing tennis, the major skill is the umbrella of the many sub-skills such as being able to throw a ball, run and swing a racket. The language acquisition is the same way. In order for us to speak, we need sub-skills like lexicon (ability to retrieve words), syntax (knowledge of how to make a sentence), pragmatic needs (ability to organize sentences coherently), and articulation (ability to pronounce correctly).
The language learning is the process of the language acquisition and the language acquisition is the product of it. We use our short term memory to input in our memory bank and that processed with our long term memory becomes new knowledge. This new knowledge is helped by scaffolding then becomes automatic. That is called restructuring. In this discussion, I was wondering how important the initial input is. In my own experience of learning English, I have inputted myself with wrong information. Because I didn’t realize until after it became a habit, I had hard time breaking the habit. I also notice often in Japanese language learner that they cannot write the characters in correct stroke orders. It may not be a big deal to the learners but I was always taught the importance of the neatness of the writing which comes from the correct stroke orders. As a teacher, I thought it is very important to make sure the information I teach need to be provided correctly especially something that need to become automaticity to the learner.
We also talked about the language is the physiological thing; It is created through stimulus to the brain and this may be why some of the learners have difficulties acquiring when they have limited contact with the target language. Their brain is not receiving enough stimuli. Therefore, as a teacher, it will be much effective to create as much opportunities with target language as possible for the students to have contact with stimulus in limited class time.
I believe that pedagogy is the most relevant discipline to second language acquisition because if educators can understand how second languages are learned, they will be more equipped to be able to cater to students' needs in the classroom. Language teachers should be aware of the cognitive processes that a language learner goes through when acquiring not only a second language, but any kind of information. Teachers should also be aware that children and adults are at different stages of cognitive development and these differences require alternate methods of teaching because these differences in cognitive processing will affect the manner in which the information is absorbed and learned. Teachers should understand the concept of a universal grammar so that they can use scaffolding strategies to elicit output from students. Since the goal of a language teacher is to have the student successfully learn a language, it would be wise for the teacher to keep up-to-date with second language acquisition research and theories, perhaps even experimenting with certain methods in the classroom, because as most of us would probably agree, there is no better reference than personal experience.
Chapter 10 Reflection
This chapter made me think of a major second language acquisition concern I have. First, in the discussion of what is involved in the learning, there are three points that are emphasized: grammar rules, vocabulary items, and rules of pronunciation. As mentioned in the chapter, a combination of the three of these themes can create conversation, which is then seen as a “natural extension of grammar acquisition.” Therefore, there is no extreme variation between the first language situations and the second language situations because the only thing needed to converse properly in the second language form is to state things in the same manner as a native speaker. This is SO not correct!
If all one had to do was form sentences exactly the same as a native speaker, that student still may not learn the language. The second language learner has not mastered the techniques needed to form a sentence in the language. Instead, he or she has only understood the extent that a native speaker understands. Following a native speaker does not make anyone a successful learner. There is a logistical language structuring process that needs to be constructed throughout the language learning steps. I do not believe that any of these steps should be left out of learning until the end of the language learning process, or worst of all ignored. To acquire a second language there is a pattern to comprehension, which includes learning the grammar and practicing its usage in a range of contexts. Then the vocabulary is intertwined into the grammar learning processes and these two language aspects grow together, sometimes inseparable from one another. The pronunciation part of a language, I believe, comes with time. Not only does one need to carefully listen and follow the language speaking patterns of a native speaker, the learner needs to be aware of the ways in which they have been forming the language and how this varies from other more native forms. All three of these items in language learning take time and practice to properly achieve—language learning cannot possibly just be focused on speaking the same way a native speaker does.
To give a quick example of this, I will speak of myself as a native English speaker. I can confidently say that the amount of sentence structuring and grammar and vocabulary that I know should not even qualify me to be considered a fluent speaker. However, I do know that this is common with many native speakers: we can understand, answer, form meaning from many contexts, interact on all levels, think, and form all (or most) grammar structures that we would ever need, all in our native language. This does not mean that we are suitable candidates for being the leaders to any second language acquisitionist! I have found a truly complex topic that is probably extremely controversial.—Great stuff!
econd Language Acquisition is a crucial aspect to teaching language. Without these studies of the ways in which people acquire language, language programs in schools would not be as developed as they are today. On the other hand there are language programs in schools, which do not relate any of their pedagogy to what we know about the acquisition of languages. When I began studying education at DePaul the topic of second language acquisition came up frequently in class. As I gained more information on the topic and began the course that specifically focused on SLA, a question that instantly arose in my mind was: If teachers have this enormous amount of research on SLA and the ways in which students learn best, why are so many language programs falling short in schools? After observing Spanish classes and reflecting on my previous experiences, I have seen teachers who do not base any of their teaching off the theories of SLA. Often times, they are teaching just to teach, not to assist students in learning and eventually producing the language. Our main goal as language educators is to supply students with the necessary information, continue building their knowledge of the language using scaffolding and teaching methods, which are directed to every type of learner. In result the students will be able to produce the language and communicate in the target language, which is essentially the main goal of language learning. Overall, this second language acquisition course has expanded my knowledge on this fundamental topic, which will always be an important and beneficial component of teaching a language.
--KRISTINA METROPULOS
What I find to be the main objective in acquiring a second language is enforcing the idea of true acquisition. This means being able to use the language in an appropriate setting and be able to communicate through it. Acquisition is different from just learning a language or being a linguist. True acquisition leads to language production. It is important to note this difference because as someone who will be educating others and teaching them a second language I need to emphasize their true acquisition of it and not just memorization of the rules and formation of the structure of the language. Another factor of second language acquisition I find interesting is avoidance. This is something I feel I often encounter as a second language learner. In situations when I am unable to think of how to say something, I pause and think of another way I can say it that will be comprehended in the initial way I intended. I think this is something all language learners deal with and it is something we always do unless we know a language completely and fluently.
--KRISTINA METROPULOS
Ben Austin
Chapter 10 Reflection
Like Sarah brought up, acquiring a language does not just involve learning and repeating sentences with the correct syntax and grammar and so forth. Instead, one needs to internalize these structures and mix them with vocabulary and specific idiosyncrasies of the target language. I believe in class, we called this the difference between learning and acquiring a language.
The book provides plenty of examples (and endless hypotheses and jargon) to show why acquiring a language needs to work in this way. However, I am interested in seeing how acquiring language in this manner would actually happen. Namely, what steps would language teachers need to take to have their students truly acquire a language rather than just learn it?
When I was took German in high school, I had two teachers. One was a more “traditional” teacher—we learned out of a structured book, had daily homework assignments, weekly tests, and so forth. I left her class feeling as if I had a pretty strong grasp on things like conjugation, word order, and so forth.
My other teacher led a more unorthodox class. We did not use any books, or really have any structure to the class. He said that he thought learning out of a book was useless, because of pretty much what this chapter was saying: learning individual structures allows students to simulate speaking a language but not truly get a grasp on how it works. In his class, we would often watch movies in German and speak about them, and homework was generally keeping up e-mail correspondence with him. While his class was much more fun, I was more uncertain about what I had learned. I am still actually not sure. I was definitely more proficient in German after his class than before, but I am not sure to what degree, and I know I definitely have some gaps in more complicated grammar that perhaps a more traditional teaching method would have covered.
So, I guess I had two teachers who represented both sides of language teaching: learning a language and acquiring a language. Personally, I would say that something in between both of their teaching methods should occur. This way, the teacher would fully explain tough grammar rules while still not implying that a mastery of such grammar rules equates to mastery of the language.
I find the process of acquiring a language amazing. I am truely amazed on how fast my 3 year old son had acquired Spanish and now English. He has not yet learned the languages but has definetly acquired the language. Language is a lot more than learning the grammar and pronunciation rule(sub-skills), or memorizing them it is also being able to have a conversation in the language being acquired. Having one on one interaction with native speakers and practicing conversations in the language being learned is crucial in the acquisition of any language. For example, my son has acquired the language with just simply practicing and hearing the language being spoken. Studies show that interaction makes a big difference in language acquisition. Students learn faster and feel a lot more comfortable with the language. Teachers should try to make time during class to practice conversation skills or make it an assignment for after class. The sub-skills are very important too, but students must put in action and practice what they have learned in class.
We talked briefly in class about the limitations of input, and how that might alter the language learner’s acquisition. Is all the native speaker input for the learner in the form of “foreign talk”? Are “foreign talk” and authentic native speech really all that different? Are they different in ways that will affect the learning that is taking place? This is directly connected to the article I read for our article review about foreign language learning of English in India, where English learning there undergoes major transformations for lack of authentic input. This is not quite the same as the dilemma of “foreign talk,” since this article is in a foreign-language learning context, and it seems to me like foreign talk is mainly an issue for second-language learners. However, both scenarios raise questions of quality of input and its effects on output.
This next week’s chapter (Chapter 10) was particularly helpful because it gave me a sense of how to approach the idea of meta-linguistic awareness in students. For example, I am the type of person to go overboard and over-explain grammar forms or conjugation rules while teaching. I think of it as a positive thing, that I am giving so much to my students by each interaction. In reality, their meta-linguistic awareness should be developed enough that, rather than correcting others’ speech, I can simply ask for them to try again. Learners are aware through intuition of the forms they are using incorrectly, since they usually feel a level of uncertainty and hesitancy around the forms they do not know. This was clearly illustrated in the example given where a student produced a wrong utterance, and all the teacher had to do what say, “What?” for the student to correct their own mistake. I would normally be the person to correct them myself, and in that instance, less learning would take place. It is better for students to experience, then be corrected, rather than be taught correctly beforehand to preempt the mistakes they make. In other words, better to make a mistake and change it than to never make a mistake at all, since that correction process helps for a form to stay solid in the brain with less uncertainty.
I think second language acquisotion is a very important topic for future educators to study. It is important for us to be familiar with the sort fo things that happen in the brain as we are learning a new language. I also think it's amazing how they have developed a whole field of study specifically for second language acquisition. As I read through the chapters I often connect what I am reading to things that, either I do or my family members do. I consider my first language to be Spanish, however, now I am more comfortable with the Enlgish language. Sometimes it is hard to grasp some of the ideas of Second language acquisition because it seems a lot of the theories can be seem as opinion-based. I also have some trouble understanding some of the concepts because I have not learned a new language recently and when I did learn English I was too young to actually remember now. I do know a little bit of Italian, but it is so similar to Spanish that it was very easy for me to get it and I did not go through most of the process as the books explains it. Knowing more about the learning of a second language will help us know more about the teaching of it. This class also helps us she patterns that will most definitely help us when we are in the classroom. One thing that I will always keep in mind is that I dont want to be one of those teachers that teaches for memorization. I want the students to be able to understand and, in turn, use the information they learn and us it outside the box. The frame of this course allows us to do that. So, not only are we learning about second language acquisition, we are also learning about techniques that we can use one day in our classrooms.
-Nadine
In chapter 12 of our textbook, the authors review the literature on different non-language factors that can inhibit the learning of a second language. To me, this is of critical importance to teachers, since so much of students' experience of school is more than just the content. How we interact with students - the trust in the relationships we build, the safety in the environments and spaces we create in classrooms and the work load and stresses we pile on students too - all these things can either foster or inhibit acquisition. Are students overloaded with way too much work in their other classes and extra-curriculars? Maybe there's harassment and bullying going on that the teacher isn't aware of, or the teacher decides to manage their rowdy, unruly class in a way that sounds more like bootcamp and less like school. Maybe students are intimidated by the teacher, or are just simply bored with the class. This chapter is a great reminder that a good teacher has to also ask what affective factors are at work in students' lives that can affect their perception of the language itself.
With so much to balance between its contributions from psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and cognitive science, the challenge that Second Language Acquisition presents is connecting its theories to concrete and practical teaching strategies. At bottom the most important thing to realize is that language acquisition is a complexly elegant process. It cannot be distilled down into the memorization of rules or mechanics, but rather teachers must do what they can to turn the classroom into a fully immersive experience and situate the language in a practical context. Along with this, it's important to encourage a sort of meta-cognitive awareness of the acquisition process, to make students conscious of their learning so that they may might devise strategies of their own and have a stake in their learning. Last of all, it's crucial to constantly evaluate ways which students are assessed. Should ESL teachers, for instance, build their criteria and assessment around the standardized tests that exist? Or is this approach too reductive if the goal is to help speakers function in day-to-day circumstances and interactions with native speakers? It's important to problematize these approaches because acquisition is unique from speaker to speaker.
I think that as foreign language instructors we need to be far more aware of the acquisition process than just knowing about the theory behind it. Personally I think it really helps when we can remember how we felt as SLA learners and relate back to the strategies that helped us most. Every learner is different and has different intelligences when it comes to language acquisition. Just the way we all learn differently, acquiring a second language is also a learning process. We need to focus on not just teaching grammar and having students repeat vocabulary after us, but also on making them literate in that language. I feel that using the target language in the classroom, for the most part, is most effective. This gives them a more authentic feel and hopefully will extend their intake. We also need to largely focus on output. When I first learned English, I thought that I would be able to converse. Once I was here, I realized how little I actually knew. I wasn't trained to speak. It's much easier to write things down when you have time to think about and correct them. It's much more difficult to be put on the spot. Practice and immersion are key. Since we are not teaching the second language in the respective culture, we should try to make it as authentic as possible. Listening to native speakers and speaking to another is the best practice I can think of when it comes to language acquisition.
I think that something educators should be aware of that the book touched on are sociocultural and personal factors that affect learning. Learning a language is not an impersonal experience that is identical in every student. Each learner has their own unique struggles with the acquisition process, and I think that instructors should do their best to acknowledge these differences and ideally to help the student overcome his or her individual obstacles.
This approach is not one that is unique to SLA, but to all areas of learning. In my opinion standardized tests and the like are not indicative of actual acquired knowledge. As we discussed in class, a student can perform better the second time he takes a test. This says something about the test, and not about the student or the student's command of the knowledge in question. I think researchers and educators need to come up with better and more personal ways to gage learning so that education can become more tailored to students and the areas they need help in. Hopefully emerging theories as well as emerging technologies can address this issue and implement some much needed change in the education system, particularly in regard to language learning.
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