martes, 31 de mayo de 2011

Second language acquisition / learning yule


Second language acquisition
Acquisition Barriers
There are some barriers for acquire a L2. When people are teenager or adult:
  • they are exposed for few hours each week in their school
  • they have other occupation
  • They don´t have a constant interaction with this new language.
Acquisition and Learning
Acquisition: It refers to the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situation.
It hasn´t been taught with rules  
It is unconscious by the human being
Learning: It is a conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of a language.
It is taught in school
It is incorporated with grammar rules
It is during a long period with social interaction.
Critical period:
It happens during around puberty.
It is a period in which young people are very difficult to acquire another language fully. It is supported for a crucial factor “The Process of Lateralization” of the brain.  
The process of lateralization:
It is a process in which young people can acquire L2 but it is between ten to 16 years. The young people have the optimum age and their brain is more flexible for acquire new words and their cognitive skills allow more affective “working out” of the regular features of the L2 encountered.  
The affective filter  
It is used to describe a kind of barrier to acquisition that results from negative feeling or experiences. It is very important because teenagers are more self-conscious than young children when they produce new sounds then they need more motivated and feel more empathy with the foreign culture. Some time Students can be frustrated for negative feeling experience like unpleasant classroom, dull textbooks and exhausting schedule.

Focus Method
There were many people that wrote some books as William Caxton he wrote a book called “Right good lernyng for to lerne shortly fresh and englyssh”. He and other writer wanted to search solutions for the acquisition of L2; they created their theory and Methods.
Grammar –Translation method
It is a traditional method with a long list of word and a set of grammatical rules which have to be memorized. It has its roof in the traditional approach language teaching of Latin and is generally described as the GRAMMAR –TRANSLATION METHOD.
  Audiolingual Method
This is a very different approach because it is emphasizing in the spoken language.
On the other hand it is a systematic presentation of the structure of L2 , moving from the simple to more complex.
Its characteristic is a form of the drill which students have to repeat.
It presumes that the fluent use of a language is essentially a set of habits which could be developed with a lot of practice then many students spent a lot of hours practicing in a laboratory repeating oral drills.
  Communicative approach
They are partially a reaction against the artificially of “pattern-practice” and also against the belief that consciously learning the grammar of a language will necessarily result in an ability to use the language.
SOME ERRORS
There are some error which are produce when the children learn a new language L2
Overgeneralization:
It happens when some rules like plural are added in a L2 Example: womens
Transfers
It is produced when someone does  an  or more  expressions  or structure from the L1 to L2
There are two type of transfer: Positive Transfer and negative transfer
Positive Transfer: When the relevant unit or structure of both languages is the same, linguistic interference can result in correct language production.
Example : cognates  
Negative Transfer: occurs when speakers and writers transfer items and structures that are not the same in both languages
 

Second Language YULE

Interlanguage:   
When students integrate some rules of L1 and L2 and they produce their speaking this is interlanguage.
Fossilization: when students have mistakes but these cannot change it is Fossilization.  
Fossilization
Fossilization refers to the process in which incorrect language becomes a habit and cannot easily be corrected.
Example
Many advanced level learners who have Spanish as an L1 do not distinguish between ‘he' and ‘she'. This could be a fossilized error.
In the classroom
Errors in general take time to correct but a fossilized error may never be corrected unless the learner sees a reason to do so, e.g. if it is seriously hindering communication. Teachers can help learners notice their fossilized errors by for example recording them speaking, or by asking them to keep a record of written errors as part of a language portfolio.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/knowledge-wiki/fossilization



There are important appropriated conditions for to learn a L2
For Example:  Motivation                                            
An successful experience can be able to learn more
 Input     
 The term input is used to describe the language
 that the learner is exposed to:
it has to be comprehensible
it has to be simpler in structure and vocabulary
Output
The opportunity to produce comprehensible output in meaningful interaction seems to be a crucial factor in the learner`s development of L2 abilities.
Task-Based Learning: provide overwhelming evidence of more and better L2 use by learners.

Communicative Competence
Communicative competence can be defined, in term of three components as the ability to use the L2 accurately, appropriately and flexibly.
Grammatical competence
Sociolinguistic Competence
Strategic  competence
Involves the accurate use of words and structures in the L2.
Involves the ability to interpret or produce language appropriately.
This is the ability to organize a message affectively and to compensate, via strategies, for any difficulties.
Workshop
1. What is the difference between the terms ACQUISITION and LEARNING?
2. Why is motivation important for L2 stds?
3. Why might foreign talk be beneficial?
4. What is communicative competence?
5. What is Positive and Negative Transfer?

martes, 10 de mayo de 2011

How Language is Shaped

                      NOAM CHOMSKY AND HIS THEORY
Noam Chomsky, is an American Linguist, Philosopher, Cognitive scientist, and Social Activist
fathers of modern linguistics, and a major figure of analytic philosophy. 
Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a political dissident and an anarchist,referring to himself as a libertarian socialist. Chomsky is the author of more than 150 books and has received worldwide attention for his views.


Innatismo
Language Organ /language growth
Universal Grammar
Language is inmate
Human beings are GENETICALLY PREPROGRAMMED for to develop language.
We have a predisposition to speak.
We have been genetically programmed with mental structures.
These mental structures are in a organ called language organ.
Language organ is developed in our brain.
It doesn`t have a specific place. It is intangible.
It is developed for 2 factors that stimulated it:
Environment + experiences linguistics
If a child listens to Spanish he will be able to speak Spanish.
If a child listens to Spanish and English at the same time. He will be able to speak too language.
Is an universal language that is innate of human beings
It wants to say
That nouns, adjective, adverb are used in all language but their differences are where they are situated in the grammar structures.
Beautiful house
Not house beautiful like in Spanish.
Is inherited genetic and is useful us because we can speak and learn human language.
Alien´s Language:
If their language violates the principles of our universal grammar We couldn´t be able to understand their language because it could have different codes

Here, there are three theories Chomsky, Skinner and Piaget
They had differences theories about how humans beings develop their language.

Chomsky
Skinner
Piaget
He had differences with :
·      Language Organ
Skinner’s Behaviorist theory of language, learning, and mind.
Skinner agreed that humans were genetically programmed to see and hear.
He claimed that all our learning it could develop it with TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE.
The child passes through cognitive states, but he wasn´t really clear about what produced a new stage of cognitive development
He claimed that all our cognitive stages could develop with our experiences.

WORKSHOPIndicate IF TRUTH OR FALSE, provide the correct info.
Chomsky claimed that:
  1. We have a predisposition to speak.________
  2. We have not been genetically programmed with mental structures.________
  3. Nouns, adjective and adverb are not used in our universal grammar.______
  4. We are able to learn an Alien´s language___
  5. Skinner, Chomsky and Piaget agreed on their theories.______
  6. Skinner believes that a language organ can develop regarding the environment ________
¡ Match the following pictures to the corresponding theory, and therefore author. 
¡ PIAGET____
¡ CHOMSKY____
¡ SKINNER____

A
B
C