Second Language Acquisition (8)

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN L2 ACQUISITION

A.    Language Aptitude

John Carroll led to the identification of a number of components of language aptitude. These are:

1.      Phonemic coding ability

It is about the ability to identify the sounds of foreign language so that they can be remembered later.

2.      Grammar sensitivity

It is about the ability to recognize the grammatical function of words in sentences.

3.      Inductive language learning ability

It is about the ability to identify patterns correspondence and relation between form and meaning.

4.      Rote learning ability

It is about the ability to form and remember associations between stimuli.

B.     Motivation

Various kinds of motivation have been identified. They are:

1.      Instrumental motivation

Learners may make efforts to learn an L2 for some functional reason (to pass examination, to get better job, or to get a place at university).

2.      Integrative motivation

Learners may choose to learn a particular L2 because they aare interested in the people and culture represented by the target language group.

3.      Resultative motivation

An assumption of the research referred to above is that motivation is the cause of learning. However, it is also possible that motivation is the result of learning.

4.      Intrinsic motivation

This kind of motivation involves the arousal and maintenance of curiosity and can ebb and flow as a result of such factors as learners’ particular interests and the extent to which they fell personally involves in learning activities.

C.     Learning Strategies

Learning strategies are the particular approaches or techniques that learners employ to try to learn L2. There are three different kinds of learning strategies. They are:

1.      Cognitive Strategies

It is all that are involved in the analysis, synthesis, or transformation of learning materials.

2.      Metacognitive Strategies

It is all that are involved in planning, monitoring, and evaluating learning.

3.      Social/affective Strategies

It concerns the ways in which learners choose to interact with other speakers.

There have been various attempts to discover which strategies are important for L2 acquisition. One way is to investigate how good language learners try to learn. Good language learners are active and pay attention to both form and meaning.

Other studies show that successful learners use more strategies than unsuccessful learners. They have also shown that different strategies are related to different aspects of L2 learning. Thus, strategies that involved formal practice (for example, rehearsing a new word) contribute to the development of linguistic competence whereas strategies involving functional practice (for example, seeking out native speakers to talk) aid the development of communication skills.

Second Language Acqusition (5)

DISCOURSE ASPECTS OF INTERLANGUAGE

A.    Acquiring Discourse Rule

The acquisition of discourse rules, like the acquisition of grammatical rules, is systematic, reflecting both distinct types of errors and developmental sequences. However, more work is needed to demonstrate which aspects are universal and which are language specific as it is already clear that many aspects of learners discourse are influenced by the rules of discourse in the learner’s L1.

B.     The Role of Input and Interaction in L2 Acquisition

Interactionist theories of L2 acquisition acknowledge the importance of both input and internal language processing. Learning takes place as a result of a complex interaction between the linguistic environment and the learner’s internal mechanism.

Modifying the way of speak with the learners is important. These modifications are evident in both input and interaction. Input modifications have been investigated through the study of foreigner talk, the language that native speakers use when addressing non-native speakers. Two types of foreigner talk can be identified- ungrammatical and grammatical. According to Stephen Kranshen’s input hypothesis, L2 acquisition takes place when a learner understands input that contains grammatical forms that are at ‘i+1’ (i.e. are a little more advanced than the current state of the learner’s interlanguage). It is called comprehensible input.

Michael Long’s interaction hypothesis also emphasizes the importance of comprehensible input but claims that it is more effective when it is modified through the ‘negotiation of meaning’ (i.e. learners can signal that they have not understood).

C.     The Role of Output in L2 Acquisition

Output can serve consciousness-raising function by helping learners to notice gaps in their interlanguages. That is, by trying to speak or write in the L2 they realize that they lack the grammatical knowledge of some feature that is important for what they want to say. Second, output helps learners to test hypothesis. They can try out a rule and see whether it leads to successful communication or whether it elicits negative feed-back. Third, learners sometimes talk about their own output, identifying problems with it and discussing ways in which they be put right.

Second Language Acquisition (4)

SOCIAL ASPECT OF INTERLANGUAGE

1.      Interlanguage As A Stylistic Continuum

Elaine Tarone has proposed that interlanguage involves a stylistic continuum. She argues that the learners develop a capability for using the L2 and that is underlies ‘all regular language behavior’. There two style of this continuum, they are:

a)      Careful Style               : Learners are consciously attending to their choice of linguistic forms, as when they feel the need to be ‘correct'.

b)      Vernacular Style         : Learners are making spontaneous choices of linguistic form, as is likely in free conversation.

2.      The Acculturation Model of L2 Acquisition

A similar perspective on the role of social factors in L2 acquisition can be found in John Schumann’s acculturation model. He investigated any linguistic development of Costa Rican and he found that they fail to use English properly. He called it ‘pidginized’. Schumann proposed that pidginization in L2 acquisition results when learners fail to acculturate to the target-language group, that is, when they are unable or unwilling to adapt to a new culture. The main reason for learners failing to acculturate is social distance.

Schumann also recognizes that social distance is sometimes indeterminate. In such cases, he suggests psychological distance becomes important and identifies a further set of psychological factors, such as language shock and motivation, to account for this.

3.      Social Identity and Investment in l2 Learning

The notion of social identity is central to the theory Pierce advences. She argues that language learners have complex social identities that can only be understood in terms of the power relations that shape social structures. A learner’s social identity is multiple and contradictory. Learning is successful when learners able to summon up or construct an identity that enables them to impose their right to be heard and thus become the subject of the discourse. This requires investment, something learners will only make if they believe their efforts will increase the value of their cultural capital.

Second Language Acquisition (3)

INTERLANGUAGE

A.     Behaviorist Learning Theory

This is kind of theory that states that language learning is like any other kind of learning in that it involves habit formation. Habits are formed when learners respond to stimuli in the environment and subsequently have their responses reinforced so that they are remembered. So, habit is a stimulus-response connection.

Learners imitated models of correct language and received positive reinforcement if they were correct and negative reinforcement if they were incorrect.

B.     A Mentalist Theory of Language Learning

1.      Only human beings are capable of learning language.

2.      The human mind is equipped with a faculty for learning language, referred as a Language Acquisition Device.

3.      This faculty is primary determinant of language acquisition.

4.      Input is needed, but only to trigger the operation of the language acquisition device.

C.     What is “Interlanguage”?

The concept of interlanguage involves the following premises abut L2 acquisition:

1.      The learner constructs a system of abstract linguistic rules which underlies comprehension and production of the L2.

2.      The learner’s grammar is permeable.

3.      The learner’s grammar is transitional (Interlanguage Continuum)

4.      The systems learners construct contain variable rules.

5.      Learners employ various learning strategies to develop their interlanguages.

6.      The learner’s grammar is likely to fossilize.

D.     A Computational Model of L2 Acquisition

The learner is exposed to input, which is processed in two stages. First, parts of it are attended to and taken into short-term memory. These are referred to as intake. Second, some of the intake is stored in long-term memory as L2 knowledge. The processes responsible for creating intake and L2 knowledge occur within ‘black box’ of the learners mind where the learner’s interlanguage is constructed. Finally, L2 knowledge is used by the learner to produce spoken and written output.