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A controversial issue in second language acquisition

In the face of globalization, people are forced to learn to communicate in other languages other than their native ones.

Many people especially students acquire the skills their careers in other nations thus requiring them to learn the language of the land which they live in. The search for jobs also causes people to travel across national and international boundaries. This scenario exposes people to different cultures represented by the people they have to interact with. Limiting oneself to the native language one is used to will affect one’s productivity. It is therefore imperative that all of us, whether we are planning to travel abroad or not, to learn the language of others.

There are places where national languages are not the native languages of the people especially in Africa and Asia. The learning of another language apart from the native one is the content of second language acquisition. Many issues surround the effectiveness with which a person can learn a new language. The several issues have been the subjects of numerous studies carried out.

The motives of these studies is to find out if really the issues mentioned from time to time affect the ability of a person to become fully conversant with a foreign or a second language. This is done with a view to remove all the hurdles that would lower people’s ability to comprehend other languages. The research’s that have been done have challenged learning institutions to change their modes of reaching from time to time (Catherine, Doughty & Michael, 2003). The Controversial Issues The issue that has been debated time and over again is the form of teaching that teachers should adopt to be effective in teaching students. Teachers have wondered if the learners of the language should be corrected in terms of target on forms or otherwise.

While teachers are urged to correct errors made by students in the course of learning, they have limited knowledge on how to correct, what to correct and when to correct (Siyyari, 2005). The conflicting findings of several studies that have been carried out have been the cause of this. In fact, the studies done have not conclusively agreed on the best methods of learning and or teaching a second language. The other issue that has been debated over is the critical age at which a person learning another language may acquire native-like level of proficiency.

It has been argued that there exists a critical period, usually at puberty, at which this proficiency can be acquired and beyond which it would be impossible to acquire it. If the young persons are able to learn in the second language more effectively than the adults, the contributing factors should be assessed. The reason given has been that the younger have more time and exposure than the adults. Questions also arise on when the critical period begins and when it ends. Studies have also shown quite good proportions of adults who have attained proficiency in other languages and the whole issue of age is put into question (De Boot, Lowei & Verspoor, 2005).

The explicit and the implicit form of learning have been debated over time. Explicit learning involves pointing out errors made by students with a view to drawing their attention to those errors. The implicit form is concerned with the syntax and grammar of the language. It is, in fact, what may be called teaching about the language.

The explicit is said to have an effect on the learning of the student to some extent, which determines the extent of proficiency attained. It is argued also that learning implicitly, that is learning the grammar and syntax, does not necessary result in proficiency (Basturkmen, Loewen & Ellis, 2004). Focus on Form: Definition Focus on form has been proposed as the best way to learn other languages proficiently. Focus on form is defined as any planned or incidental instructional activity intended to draw the attention of learners to linguistic form of the language. Some categorization of form-focused instructions divides it into three groups. Focus of forms, planned focus on form and incidental focus on form.

Focus on form is further grouped into explicit and implicit categorizes and the main attention is on grammar instruction. It is claimed that in explicit focus on form, classroom based tasks work more effectively for learners in foreign languages classes. Deciding on the model of learning the second language is still not conclusive. Review of Previous studies A study was carried out to investigate the effects of three vocabulary lessons on acquisition of basic meanings, forms and morphological aspects of Spanish words (Fuente, 2006).

The participants in the study were first semester learners in Spanish classes. The study was done on the 10th week of a 15 weeks semester after receiving a minimum of 43 hours of instruction in Spanish. 30 learners were involved in the study and they all had the same teacher to minimize variation. The input based component of the study included listening to a conversation and then answering comprehensive questions.

The study’s findings indicated that the ability to retrieve word forms orally after the lesson was the same for all participants. The participants included those who hadn’t studied Spanish before, those who had one year’s instruction in Spanish and those who had two years training in Spanish language. The results of the study indicated that the pedagogical approach of the second language vocabulary lesson has impact on retention of new words. The task based lessons with built in focus on form are more effective in enabling students get the meanings of second language forms. This explicit focus on forms is also important in equipping students with formal aspects of words. Task based approach improved vocabulary intake and drew attention to form and meaning of words (De La Fuente, 2006).

Another study compared the effect of explicit focus on form through corrective recast with the effect of delayed explicit focus on form on the linguistic accuracy of the oral production among Iranian foreign language learners. The study was initiated with a sample of 127 participants and only 60 carried on to the final stage of the study. A pilot study had been done on 30 learners with the view to validate the study questions. The learners who carried on to the last stage were tested using structured interviews which determined which of the two groups a learner was put; the comparison group and the experimental group. The study required teachers to assign tasks that pushed learners to use the aimed structures which amounted to applying treatment in an experiment set up.

Some passages were presented to the participants for each structure in twelve sessions. Participants took notes about the texts read aloud by the teacher at normal speed. They were to reconstruct the text and provide oral production of the summary of the text in pairs and once more to the class. In the experimental group, participants were provided with corrective recasts. The conditions for the experimental and comparison group were similar except that here looked corrective recasts for the latter.

Participants of the comparison group were provided with the correct form at the end of dictogloss. For the analysis, the participants were post tested using a structured interview again and the findings are discussed below. The results showed no significant differences were existent between the two groups on the pretest and post test interviews. However, significant differences were found between the two groups, and by extension, significant differences exist between the groups under corrective recast as compare to the one for delayed explicit focus on form. The corrective recast had an impact on the performance of the posttest.

In this study most of the null hypotheses of the study were not rejected. The hypotheses had intended to find out if there existed differences in the usage of particular terms and words. The results of the study indicate that the focus on form has an impact on the level of understanding of the students. The point at which awareness is raised by the teachers also matters. If the teacher interjects immediately after a student uses a word wrongly, the chances that the student’s makes errors in the future are minimized.

It also enables the students to delve into the grammar and syntax of the language, the implicit approach, thus further improving understanding. This then supports other studies done that show that focus on form, the explicit mode, is more appropriate in improving student understanding of second or foreign languages. Another study was carried out based on US census data of 1990. The participants were the native speakers of either Spanish or Chinese who had been in the US for not less than 10 years.

The study intended to evaluate their extent of understanding of the English language. The final analysis of the study included data from over 2 million Spanish speakers and 324, 444 Chinese native speakers. Respondents were asked to self describe their ability to use English on some given five level scale. The study intended to find out whether age level of education and the number of years people have been in the United States had an effect on English proficiency. The results in the study showed that there was no effect of the length of time a person had been in US and English proficiency.

This observation means that the proficiency in any second language is independent on the length of time one has interacted with people of the target language. This observation is an odd one since we may expect that if a person interacts with another language long enough, they have higher chances to gain proficiency. The observation, however, suggests that other factors may be involved in determining the speed of being proficient. The study also intended to find out if there were interactions between proficiency and education level.

Such interactions would discredit the age factor as the main contribution to the capacity to gain proficiency. The study found out that the language learning potential did not automatically reduce after the critical age of 15 and the upper limit of 20 years. This means that as much as other studies have found contradicting results, the critical age did not necessarily reduce people’s ability to acquire proficiency. Instead the capacity to acquire proficiency was found to reduce throughout one’s lifespan. In addition, the interaction of other social factors like education level and its effect on proficiency were discovered. The number of years of interacting with the language does little to affect proficiency.

The shortcoming of this study is that for all the respondents, they were not evaluated on whether they received formal education in the English language. This disallows comprehensive syllabuses that are used in learning institutions to be evaluated for success. The other studies done on language acquisition regarded the models used to equip students in the use of the language but this study lacked this aspect. But the results of the study are weightier since very large sample size was used as they used census data.

Among the best ways that have been purposed to teach languages is to present grammar structure of the language in question. This type of learning is what is regarded as inductive learning. This type of learning is defined by a study of the rules and principles of the language, which then are applied to examples (Hakuta, Bialystok &Wiley, 2002). This type of learning has however been faulted in it’s limiting the students capacity to learn those rules on their own. The effectiveness with which the student learns a second language is largely determined by own effort. Those who put effort in learning will more probably attain proficiency in the language’s they intend to learn.

Teacher should facilitate the learning process by challenging their students to learn some of the rules on their own. Another effective method that can be used to learn second language is to incorporate meaning-bearing input. This method will enable the student to make sense out of sentence in foreign language. This would speed up the process of learning by motivating students to learn the remaining terms. The focus of this type of learning is on acquiring the meaning of language as opposed to the form.

As much as this approach has limitations, it opens up students’ minds to learn more. The challenge with this approach is that for completely new learners, who have little or no knowledge in the target language, it may be hard to catch up. This approach should therefore not be taken as the central task or held with most regard. It has weaknesses too that need to be checked against (Hossein, & Fotos, 2004). Studies have shown that no single method of approach is ever enough that will cater for all needs for effective learning.

There should be a balance that should be maintained between all available alternatives if effective learning will be possible. If we take all advantages from each of the approaches, it will be possible then to provide a model that encompasses all aspects of learning. Among the proposed ways of teaching language that teachers may adopt is clarification request. Clarification request is the case where the instructor politely requires the student to repeat what they said previously. This usually happens when the instructor finds errors in the oral presentation of the student notable when answering questions. The idea of telling the student to repeat is based on the teacher drawing the attention of the student to the errors.

The student most likely realizes the errors they had made earlier and an attempt is made to correct those errors. When they say what they meant again, they often put the correct use of the language. This is learning by pointing out errors and students are motivated to dig more into the grammar and syntax of the language. Teachers also use comprehension check to point out errors. This process involves asking students comprehension questions that make them repeat on erroneous statement or use of a particular word.

When this model of teaching is adopted, students become more aware of when a word should be used and in what context (Siyyari, 2005). The explicit focus on form involves the pointing out of the error identified by the instructor. Usually the instructor tells the learner the way some statement should have been put. Implicit focus on form on the other hand is drawing the learners’ attention to the errors without necessarily offering a solution.

Focus on form in studying second language involves task-based language teaching. This involves planning of activities that will involve student’s participation in terms of using their gained skills in language. The tasks are planned to include chances where students will use grammar use, use of other syntax in the target language and other forms of the language. As the students participate in these activities, they have to interact and monitoring is done to assess the extent to which those students use the language.

The errors the students make in the course of interaction are also highlighted. The activities that may be used in the task based teaching method are engaging students in an activity like asking for direct directions in some congested street. These activities test the student’s ability to apply the language to real life phenomena, which is the reason why they are learning the language in the first place (Swan, 2005). The use of interlanguage theory in learning a second language is a wide practice. This theory is simply the learner’s effort over time to learn the grammar of the target language.

This always happens unconsciously and if the person fails to agree with the hypothesis, it is easily dismissed as too complicated or too simple. The interlanguage theory was traced to have contributed to many learning errors in the past. This theory is closely associated with high variability found within the languages (Leeser, 2004). Discussion and Recommendations The numerous studies that have been carried out before have come up with conflicting results. While some find significant correlations between various factors, others fail to identify the significance.

This has mainly been due to a lack of homogeneity in the studies. Studies that have been done often involved different languages each time. While some researchers study learners ability to pick up English as a second language and studies have been done on the rate of attaining proficiency. The speed of learning a second language largely depends on how different it is from the native. One would expect that a native English speaker would find it extremely hard to learn a language like Japanese or Chinese.

The studies that have been done mainly have been on acquiring mastery in English. The research that I propose should be done in future is to study how fast some groups of people learn other languages. It should be possible then to determine how best to teach English to the Chinese for them to attain proficiency or slightly lower than proficiency. It should also be possible to know best methods to teach Japanese to learn in French. The language to be learnt presents various difficulties to different groups, the research would also more clearly indicate the factors that affect the learning of English as a second language or French or nay other languages. This should help the curriculum developers to know the area to address for every language (Fidler, 2006).

These kinds of research would not have too differing views. Since the language being studied would be the same, the factors will more likely concur for several researchers. This will help in forming a theoretical framework for understanding the languages. Future studies should also involve a considerably higher number of participants. The studies carried out previously have used just about 50 persons and the generalizations drawn about the entire population.

The representatively of the sample sizes used in previous studies remains in question. Conclusion Longitudinal studies that examine the value of team based language teaching should be carried out. These should be conducted within some specific criteria or contexts. The results of such studies would help in the examination of the developmental aspect if vocabulary acquisition. This should help in tracing the process involved in the implementation of the various programs in learning institutions .

The point on which a program should take another dimension will be known and better programs will be developed. In conclusion, studies should continue be carried out further to enable new learners to better understand the dynamics of any language. We should all put in place those measures that will improve language understanding.

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