Running head: SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Second Language Acquisition: My Theory Paige Shaw University of Southern Mississippi

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Second language acquisition: My theory Language Acquisition Humans are social beings. We thrive on communication and interaction with other people. In fact, humans thrive so much on this communication and interaction that, over our

many years of existence, we have developed advanced forms of communication called language. Of course there are a few extreme cases, but other than these, every human on the planet acquires language at a very early age. At about six months, most babies begin to babble, by one or two years, they begin to form words and by three or four years they are making basic sentences. What is even more fascinating is that babies seem to go through the same stages of development, even though they are not learning the same language (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, pp.1-9). These findings propose to me, at the very least that there are innate factors to learning language as well as that these factors are universal. In my opinion, this can be applied not only to peoples first language, but second and non-native languages as well. I believe this because of the research that has found that second language learners go through stages of grammar acquisition and mistakes that parallel with the stages that babies go through when acquiring their native language (Gass & Selinker, 2008, p.30). Second Language Acquisition That being said, I also believe that there are differences in the way people acquire second or non-native languages. I believe that when people learn their native language, they do use an innate, biologically programmed function of the brain known as Universal Grammar to construct their language. They do this by setting principals and parameters on the spoken language they are exposed to in order to form rules for their particular languages grammar. Through this acquisition, they are eventually able to form an infinite number of ideas using this grammar that

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION has been acquired (Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams, 2007, p.164). This grammar is acquired subconsciously within each person and requires almost no explicit explanation (Brown, 2007, p.302). One of the main differences in acquiring a second language, in my opinion, is that the grammar a person acquires is not totally subconscious. If it was, we would all be like Antonio Banderas in The 13th Warrior and simply listen to another language with no explanation, and eventually understand that language completely. This would be the innatist perspective on second language acquisition, and is obviously not the case because there are many people who live in countries where the language spoken is not their own, and many of those people never learn that language without seeking specific instruction of it. That is not to say that some things

cannot be learned this way, but we do need some instruction once we are past a certain period of acquiring language as a native speaker would acquire it. Myth 7 from chapter 3 of Principles of Language Learning and Teaching by Douglas Brown says it best: A small child simply uses language. He does not learn formal grammar. You dont tell him about verbs and nouns. Yet he learns the language perfectly. It is equally unnecessary to use grammatical conceptualization in teaching a foreign language (Brown, 2007, p.55). To clarify, this is the difference between learning and acquiring. A person learns a language when there is explicit instruction and clarification of that language and a person acquires a language based on implicit factors. Implicit instruction can be given in situations where the focus is on meaning and the person picks up on the form simply through the exposure to it. This is what I believe the difference in age factors to consist of; how much implicit instruction is necessary and how much explicit knowledge is necessary. Age Factors

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION This brings us to another point: Age. Age is a complex and highly debated topic in

Second Language Acquisition (SLA), but through what I have seen and read so far I believe that age is not as important of a factor as some believe it to be. I do believe that after a certain age, a person learns a language in a slightly different way; however this does not mean that they cannot learn after a certain age. For this reason, I agree more with the sensitive period hypothesis than the critical period hypothesis. The critical period hypothesis, states that there is a critical period for a child to learn or acquire a second language and once that period has passed, he or she can no longer achieve native like proficiency (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). This may hold some truth and logic, however the critical period hypothesis also says that once the age has passes for acquisition, the ability to learn a second language declines. The followers of this hypothesis are obviously believers in the UG hypothesis even for L2. Before the critical period a child is said to acquire a language without necessity for explicit instruction but after the critical period, they must have conscious attention drawn to the language (Gass & Selinker, 2008). The sensitive period hypothesis therefore, allows for other more explicit explanations of learning a second language. The sensitive period hypothesis states that there is a time where native-like language acquisition can be achieved, of which afterwards high proficiencies can still be achieved (Kitsis, 2008). Through many studies, the main difference is in the ability to achieve native-like pronunciation and the ability to sound syntactically native-like, but nothing as to deter a person from communicating an idea (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011). In the sensitive period school of thought, the change is more gradual, and it is more of a shift in the way you learn as opposed to the ability to learn, though many people believe that even this notion cannot be

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION answered because so many other characteristics are entangled in this web of linguistic competence (Gass & Selinker, 2008). Psychological Factors

There are many intertwining factors in successful second language acquisition, and many of them have to do with psychological factors such as personality, type of learner and the affective domain. One of the main factors attributed to this shift in learning, according to some, is lateralization of the brain hemispheres. This lateralization stabilizes certain functions of the brain including the language acquisition function, meaning that it may be more difficult (but not impossible) to acquire native-like proficiency. Under this school of thought, at some time before puberty the brain has more plasticity and can therefore learn a second language much like the first one; innately and without specific instruction (Brown, 2007). However, once the brain has lateralized, a person must have more instruction and guidance to successfully acquire a second language. This is where many other factors come into play. Types of learning One of the most basic factors to consider in second language acquisition is what type of learner that person is. This is because second languages cannot be acquired by everyone in the same way. Everyone is different, and therefore everyone needs different types of instruction. Some people are field dependent and others field independent (Brown, 2007). This means that some learners see the big picture while others see all the parts that are included in that big picture. Some people respond better to visual stimuli while others respond better to kinesthetic or auditory stimuli. Some people just want to be able to communicate while others want to know every reason for every order of every word. These learning differences are also heavily intertwined with personality factors.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Personality factors

Difference in personality is also a large contributing factor in language acquisition. Some people consider learning styles and personality factors to be interchangeable because they so often overlap (Gass & Selinker, 2008). Some linguists believe that there are certain personality traits that are more acclimated to learning language. These personalities consist of extroverts, risk takers, and field-dependent learners. These types of people could, in fact, be excellent language learners, but that doesnt mean that introverts, non-risk takers, and field-independent learners cannot also be good language learners. This simply means that the extroverts will probably excel more in communicative activities whereas introverts will be better at putting the structural components of the language together; same for risk takers and field-dependent learners. Affective domain The affective domain is all about how personality combines with the input a person receives in order to retain and reproduce information. Affect refers to emotion or feeling. The affective domain is the emotional side of human behavior, and it may be juxtaposed to the cognitive side. The development of affective states or feelings involves a variety of personality factors, feelings both about ourselves and about others with whom we come into contact (Brown, 2007, p.153).Everyone has an affective filter. This filter is like a shield from anything a person is uncomfortable with. If the affective filter is up, any input that is received will not be processed. For this reason, affect, in my opinion, is one of, if not the most crucial factor in second language acquisition. The affective filter is up when a person is too anxious, uncomfortable, or receiving input that conflicts with their beliefs. Therefore if a person does not value the information he or she is given, that person will not be affected by the information. This

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION is the reason that some people can have substantial instruction and guidance in a second language and still know nothing.

Also among the affective domain are the issues of self-esteem and motivation. These are obviously two largely contributing factors because; if a person has a low self-esteem then they are not going to believe they can perform a specific task and therefore more likely fail. This is discussed as the attribution theory of Bernard Weiner (Brown, 2007). The attribution theory states that a person will explain the causes of his or her own successes and failures by four explanations: ability, effort, perceived difficulty and luck. Two of these are internal factors and the other two external. Therefore failure to get a high grade on a final exam in a language class might for some be judged to be a consequence of their poor ability or effort, and by others to difficulty of exam, and perhaps others to just plain old bad luck (Brown, 2007, p.156). If the learner has a high self-efficacy, then he or she will put forth the appropriate amount of effort to succeed. These people would more likely attribute a bad grade to bad luck, whereas students with low self-efficacy would contribute a bad grade to lack of ability. Either of the excuses for not succeeding is bad, and therefore what is important to keep in mind is that students need to believe in themselves and feel like they can succeed in learning a second language. This success will, in turn, cause greater motivation. Motivation is also a complex area, but it generally boils down to either people are motivated or they are not. Motivation can be caused by many factors, both internal and external. There are many students learning a second language just because it is required and therefore they have no motivation. There are also people on the other end of the scale who really care about the language and the culture behind it. These people are usually highly motivated and, unless they have absolutely no aptitude for language learning, are usually very successful.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Sociocultural Factors

People who are intrinsically motivated by genuine interest in other languages and cultures are generally much better at learning language. This is probably because culture is so intertwined with language and a person would find it difficult to learn one without the other. This is also why, some people react negatively toward second languages. People that have low ambiguity tolerance or high inhibitions will find it difficult to accept ways of life that are different from their own and will therefore reject the language, culture and or people (Brown, 2007). Many of the people who have difficulty in this area may have had negative experiences with people that speak different languages and therefore their attitudes will be debilitating for language learning because they will resent the language. In the same manner, some people will hear or form stereotypes about the people from certain areas and so they will not learn because their affective filters will be up or they will simply be unmotivated to associate with these people (Gass & Selinker, 2008). Language is so dependent on others that it is very difficult if not impossible, to learn a second language without a social aspect (Swain & Deters, 2007). For this reason I believe that more communicative methods such as the Community Language Learning are necessary to reach the height of linguistic performance although not without some preparatory deductive approaches.

Linguistic Factors Many linguists focus a lot of attention on Native language influence of second language acquisition. This focus yields much data on the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH), Universal Grammar and intralingual transfer (Brown, 2007). The CAH says that errors made are

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION results of transfer from the native language to the target language (Lightbown & Spada,2011). Further research was conducted and it was found that many of the errors made in the target language did not parallel with the native language, and therefore with more research, linguists concluded that there is an interlanguage that every second language learner develops. This idea

is much more plausible, and in fact it was even found that people from different native languages made the same types of errors throughout the different stages of the interlanguage. Interlanguage has some characteristics of the second language, and some characteristics, such as the omission of function words and grammatical morphemes, that seem to be general and to occur in all or most interlanguage systems (Lightbown & Spada, 2007, p.80). This interlanguage is constantly changing as the learners linguistic knowledge grows and will eventually fossilize or stabilize when the learner reaches his or her maximum proficiency (Brown, 2007). Teaching Implications There are many things a teacher can learn about his or her students and apply based on this knowledge. The main idea that I take away from all this knowledge about second language acquisition is that Regardless of the instructional level, the curriculum should be learner-driven by what learners will know and be able to do with language rather than the grammatical concepts they can recite (Shrum & Glisan, 2010, p. 151). Basically, I believe that a combination of all teaching methods and theories is the best way to go. I believe I relate the most closely with the constructivist mindset. I think that both implicit and explicit learning are needed to achieve the greatest proficiency possible as well as awareness of the grammatical structures being explained. I believe that there should be a great deal of input and output in order to improve comprehension and production and that the input should be in the Zone of Proximal Development in order to maximize language growth. I also

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think that focus on form through contextualized activities are the most effective way to promote correct grammatical use simultaneously with a communicative focus (Hinkel & Fotos, 2002). I also found through research in Kitsis (2008) and Sallee and Rigler (2008) that incorporating discussion boards or blogs on the internet are great ways to make students practice written communication skills as well as comprehension. With this method, students communicate with each other and discuss class material which gives them more motivation, selfesteem, and socialization practice in the target language.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION References Brown, H.D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching. Fifth edition. New York: Pearson Education Inc. Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An introduction to language. Ninth edition. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage learning. Gass, S.M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second Language Acquisition: An introductory course. Third edition. New York: Routledge. Hinkel, E., & Fotos, S. (Eds.) (2002). New perspectives on grammar teaching in second language classrooms. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Publishers. Kitsis, S.M. (2008). The facebook generation: Homework as social networking. The English Journal. 98(2), 30-36. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40503379

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Lightbown, P.M., & Spada, N. (2011). How languages are learned. Third edition. New York: Oxford University Press. Muoz, C. (2008). Age and the rate of foreign language learning. The Modern Language Journal. 92(3), 481-483. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25173078 Sallee, B., & Neil,R. (2008). Doing our homework on homework: How does homework help? The English Journal. 98(2), 46-51. Retrieved from http://jstor.org/stable/40503382 Shrum, J.L., & Glisan, E.W. (2010). Teachers handbook: Contextualized language instruction. Fourth edition. Boston, MA: Heinle, Cengage Learning. Swain, M., & Deters, P. (2007). New mainstream SLA theory: Expanded and enriched. The Modern Language Journal. 91, 820-836. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4626134