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Second Language Acquisition

2st

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7 views12 pages

Second Language Acquisition

2st

Uploaded by

wredsan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Second language acquisition/ learning

Muneerah Al Shuhail

1
Introduction

• Children acquire their 1st language really fast and without any effort.

• All children develop language at roughly the same age.


• The question is: if 1st language acquisition is so straightforward, why
is learning a 2nd language so difficult?

• Think about a baby acquiring his first language.

• Think about a person acquiring a second language.

• What similarities and differences are there in the two processes?


2
Acquisition and learning
• Acquisition: the gradual development of ability in a
language by using it naturally in communicative situations
with others who know the language.

• Learning: a more conscious process of accumulating


knowledge of the features of a language (e.g. vocabulary
& grammar) in institutional setting.

4
Acquisition and learning
• Activities associated with learning:
used in schools
result in more knowledge “about” the language (as
demonstrated in tests) than fluency in using the language (as
demonstrated in social interaction).
• Activities associated with acquisition:
experienced by young children
experienced by those who “pick upfrom L2 from long periods
of interaction with native speakers.
• Those individuals whose L2 exposure is primarily a learning type
of experience tend not to develop the same kind of general
proficiency as those who have had more of an acquisition type of 5
experience.
Acquisition barriers
• Why is learning an L2 different from acquiring an L1?

Factor L1 L2

Age childhood teenage or adult years

Interaction time constant a few hours each week of school


interaction time

Responsibilities Little to do a lot of other things going on

6
Another No Yes
language?
Acquisition barriers

⚫ Why learning L2 is fundamentally different from L1?


⚫Age – encounter the 2l during their teenage or adult
years.
⚫Interaction is not constant – few hours each week of
school
 time rather than via constant interaction experience as
a child.
⚫Another language – with an already known language
available for most of their daily communications.
Acquisition barriers

• Many adults manage to overcome the difficulties and develop an


ability to use the L2 effectively- though not usually sounding like
native speakers.

• e.g Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor/ Governor of California, whose


accent is clearly noticeable yet who is as linguistically proficient as
any native speaker of American English.
7
• This provides evidence for the Critical Period Hypothesis
Acquisition barriers

• However, even in ideal acquisition situations, very few adults seem to


reach native-like proficiency in using an L2.
• There are individuals who can achieve great expertise in the written
language, but not the spoken language.

• e.g. Joseph Conrad:


wrote novels in English that became classics of English literature
his English speech retained the strong Polish accent of his L1
• This suggests that some features of an L2 (e.g. vocabulary and
grammar) are easier to learn than others (e.g. pronunciation) 7
Acquisition barriers
• Against this view, it has been demonstrated that students in
their early teens are quicker and more effective L2 learners in
the classroom than seven-year-olds.
• The optimum age for learning may be during the years from
about 10 to16 when:
• the flexibility of our inherent capacity for language has not
been completely lost

• the maturation of cognitive skills allows a more effective


7
analysis of the regular features of the L2 being learned
Acquisition barriers

• Affective (not effective) = Affections/ feelings


• There are other types of acquisition barriers that might inhibit the
learning process

• Self-consciousness
• Unwillingness
• Embarrassment
• Lack of empathy with the other culture.
• Dull textbooks, unpleasant classrooms, an exhausting schedule
of study or work, etc.
• Basically, if we are stressed, uncomfortable, self-conscious or 7
unmotivated, we are unlikely to learn very much.
Acquisition barriers
• Children may overcome such factors quickly.
• Studies have shown that children quickly overcome their inhibitions
as they try to use new words and phrases.

• Adults can sometimes overcome their inhibitions too.


Experiment:
• In one interesting study, a group of adult L2 learners volunteered to
have their self-consciousness levels reduced by having their alcohol
levels gradually increased

• Up to a certain point, the pronunciation of the L2 noticeably


improved 7
• After a certain number of drinks, pronunciations deteriorated rapidly
Thank you

26

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