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Ming Lee - Language Acquisition Unit

The document discusses the similarities and differences between child language acquisition and adult second language acquisition. It covers differences in pronunciation, input, learning rates, and purposes. It also discusses similarities in developmental sequences and the role of the brain. The document further examines some language teaching methodologies and how they would teach the past tense.

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Ming Li
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24 views2 pages

Ming Lee - Language Acquisition Unit

The document discusses the similarities and differences between child language acquisition and adult second language acquisition. It covers differences in pronunciation, input, learning rates, and purposes. It also discusses similarities in developmental sequences and the role of the brain. The document further examines some language teaching methodologies and how they would teach the past tense.

Uploaded by

Ming Li
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Mingrong Li

Course: Perspectives on Languages


Language Acquisition Unit
Fall 2020
Language Acquisition Unit
Question 1
To answer the first question which requires to show the similarities and differences between Child
Language Acquisition (CLA) and adult’s Second Language Acquisition (SLA), I attempt to discuss
about it from several different aspects. Differences talked about here between CLA and SLA consist
of the output of different linguistic features, the means of input, the rate and purposes of learning,
and the potential influential factors. Firstly, in terms of the pronunciation, children are
comparatively easier to reach native-like level than adults are (if within the same tjime). As point
out by Fasold (2013), he states that infants are able to discriminate similar sounds both in their
native languages as well as in other languages, which indicates children might absorb faster on how
to pronounce like native speakers compared with adults who has been significantly affected by their
L1 phonological system. Furthermore, in contrast with adults who have received a great number of
grammatical rules in classrooms, children are unable to account for certain syntactic structures, for
example, why the sentence “how do you get to school?” makes more sense than “you how get to
school” (Chinese learners vs English native children speakers). Secondly, let’s turn to look at the
ways of input. Even though there are many methods for teachers to teach language like
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Natural Approach, all these methods are mostly used
and applied in classroom; whereas the most common way of input for children is naturally
interaction with their parents or communities they belong to rather official language instructions.
Next, many researches done by linguists on the topic of rate of learning for CLA and SLA show that
the elder learner are, the longer learning time they take to reach the same level of development. The
fourth distinction I find is about the purpose of learning. For children, the mainly communication
intention for them is to communicate with their parents or surroundings to satisfy their certain need
such as to get food, or get more attention. However, the interests of learning another language might
vary significantly among adults, for example, the obligatory of education, further studying
requirement, business interaction, cross-country marriage etc. The last point of difference discussed
here is one potentially influential factor, that is, the effect from L1. Both positive transfer and
negative transfer could occur in the path of SLA while these transfers are impossible to appear for
CLA because the first language for them is their native language.
The main similarities between CLA and SLA concern the developmental sequences or learning
process. Nevertheless, the acquisition sequences for children differ from that for adults while both
of them experience certain stages like overgeneralization or fossilization (also called stabilization).
Another similarity based on biological consideration is about the base of language in the brain in
which the left hemisphere is generally viewed as the crucial part of brain regarding language
learning no matter who learners are.

Concerning the requirement mentioned in this ‘Language Acquisition’ assignment, I might


have got a disagreed opinion on the usage of the term ‘disadvantages’ which might include
somewhat not very positive meaning to some extent (if I have understood this question fair well).
The fact that the development of child language acquisition is a natural learning process for
everyone who is able to normally speak and hear since born rather a path viewed as negative thing.
If possible, child language learners might be able to be seen as monolingual while second language
learners indeed could be regarded as bilingual, which means children are naturally native speakers
of their first language. It might, however, take longer time and more hardworking for second

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Mingrong Li
Course: Perspectives on Languages
Language Acquisition Unit
Fall 2020
language learners to reach native-like level. On the other hand, compared with one language
speakers, second language learners might have more chances to widen their knowledge and views
through language itself or various unique cultures. As reported by previous many researches, there
might be a conclusion about intelligence among different learners, indicating that it might be not
appropriate to define that bilingual or trilingual are relatively lack of intelligence when they
compared with people who merely could speak one language. While there are also a great number
of researches prove that second language learners have been heavily influenced by their first
language, including both positive transfer or interference.

Question 2
When it comes to the research of language acquisition, it might be unavoidable to relate to language
teaching methodologies by which ‘reflect ideas about the process and purposes of language learning’
(Fasold, 2013). The method of Grammar Translation talked about in Fasold’s book is strictly limited
to study languages as a intermediate tool for literary translation and research rather suitable for child
learners and adult learners with low proficiency L2 level; or in another words, this method is mainly
used for the purpose of specific field, literary translation for certain groups of people.
Another method discussed here is the Audiolingual Method, which contributes to the learning
of spoken language and emphasizes that syntactic structures should not be taught explicitly instead
giving more space for learners to explore and engage in. On the one side, this method encourages
learners as participants to actively engaged themselves in the exploration of language rules; on
another side, it might be lack of the consideration of various personalities of each learner, which
probably result in less or no any engagement for some introverted learners.
One teaching methodology mentioned above is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT),
which is quite popular and common in classroom nowadays. From Fasold’s perspectives, CLT as a
mean of language instruction organizes well on the importance of each sikll (speaking, listening,
reading, and writing). Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of combination of language linguistic
features with learners’ different culture on the basis of active learners’ participant.

The question that how to teach “past tense” according to these methods will be given some
example answers here as below.
Grammar translation: leave “past tense” words blank within several different contexts, and then
ask students to fill in the blank or translate these sentences directly.
Communicative Language Teaching: story-telling drills to predict the following plots with
different pictures.
Audiolingual: let learners to write some sentences without any previous instruction about “past
tense”, and provide feedback on their answers and make a grammatical conclusion in the end.

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