Second Language Acquisition

First Language English

MGMP

Thursday, 10 February 2022

Open Ended

What is the purpose of language teaching?

Open Ended

What is the purpose of language?

Areas of Focus:

• Language Acquisition: An Overview

• FLE and ESL: perspectives and approaches

• FLE: ​discourse analysis

Language Acquisition

An Overview

Open Ended

How do we master our first language?

Language Acquisition Theories:

• What exactly does the L2 learner come to know?

• How does the learner acquire this knowledge?

• What are teachers role in helping learners acquire language?

Language Acquisition Theories

Major Theories

Behaviourism

considers learning a language as a set of mechanical habits which are formed through a process of imitation and repetition. Humans learn a language through repeating the same form and text until it becomes a habit. Children imitate the sounds and patterns which they hear around (Lightbown & Spada: 1999)

Nativism

argues that children are born with an innate ability to organize laws of language, which enables children to easily learn a native language. They believe that children have language-specific abilities that assist them as they work towards mastering a language.

Monitor Theory

It requires meaningful interaction in the target language-- natural communication--in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding. Error correction and explicit teaching of rules are not relevant to language acquisition (Brown and Hanlon, 1970; Brown, Cazden, and Bellugi, 1973), but caretakers and native speakers can modify their utterances addressed to acquirers to help them understand, and these modifications are thought to help the acquisition process (Snow and Ferguson, 1977).

Social Constructivism

states cognitive development stems from social interactions from guided learning within the zone of proximal development as children and their partner's coconstruct knowledge. In contrast, Piaget maintains that cognitive development stems largely from independent explorations in which children construct knowledge of their own.

​ESL

• use English effectively for the purpose of practical communication

• form a solid foundation for the skills required for further study or employment using English as the medium

• develop learners’ awareness of the nature of language and language-learning skills

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source: IGCSE ESL syllabus​ 0991

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Subject | Subject

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​FLE

• read a wide range of texts, fluently and with good understanding, enjoying and appreciating a variety of language

• read critically, and use knowledge gained from wide reading to inform and improve their own writing

• write accurately and effectively, using Standard English appropriately

• work with information and with ideas in language by developing skills of evaluation, analysis, use and inference

• listen to, understand, and use spoken language effectively

• acquire and apply a wide vocabulary, alongside a knowledge and understanding of grammatical terminology and linguistic conventions.​

Subject | Subject

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Underlying Philosophy:

supporting the performance of social activities and social identities and to support human affiliation within cultures, groups, and institutions.​

Subject | Subject

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How is this piece of language being used to make certain things significant or not and in what ways?

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Open Ended

Describe how the stages of development of First and Second language are related.

Second Language Acquisition

Key Understanding

Stages of Second Language Acquisition

• Pre-production

• Early production

• Speech Emergence

• Fluency (intermediate to advance)

GRADUAL

Language acquisition is gradual.

ACQUIRED SYSTEM

a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire their first language

LEARNED SYSTEM

formal instruction and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious knowledge 'about' the language, for example knowledge of grammar rules.

COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT

Comprehensible input is language input that can be understood by listeners despite them not understanding all the words and structures in it.

Stephen Krashen Demonstration

Poll

How many German words do you think you were able to pick up from Krashen's second demonstration?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• more than 3

• none

Open Ended

Share 3 things that made the second demonstration successful.

Questions, anyone?

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Open Ended

What is/are the most common challenge(s) in teaching your subject effectively? How do you attempt to solve it/them?

Teacher's Role

Bridging the Gap

Open Ended

What is the purpose of teaching?

comprehensible input

• 1 level above learner's ability

• focused on communicative purpose

communicative language teaching

• use language for various purposes and in a variety of contexts 

• communicative competence

Teacher's Role

• provide a social context

• expose learners to real life situation

We have discussed

• Basic language acquisition theories

• The steps to acquire L2 is similar to that of L1

• Learners need comprehensible input

• Teachers are reuired to provide a context for each lesson

Looking ahead...

• What makes a good English Teacher

• Meaning, Form and Usage presentation in a class

• Supporting our learners at their level