Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 29 views

    Language Learning and Acquisition

    Uploaded by

    Erwin Santana Ortega
    This document discusses language acquisition versus language learning. It explains that children acquire their native language naturally by being immersed in it from a young age, without formal instruction, by repeating words and putting them together into sentences. However, when learning a second language in school, it is taught and learned through formal instruction of its rules. The document argues language is best acquired similarly to a first language, through immersion and use in meaningful contexts rather than just learning rules. Teachers should focus on creating an environment where students can acquire the language through practice using it to communicate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Language Learning and Acquisition

    Uploaded by

    Erwin Santana Ortega
    29 views3 pages
    This document discusses language acquisition versus language learning. It explains that children acquire their native language naturally by being immersed in it from a young age, without formal instruction, by repeating words and putting them together into sentences. However, when learning a second language in school, it is taught and learned through formal instruction of its rules. The document argues language is best acquired similarly to a first language, through immersion and use in meaningful contexts rather than just learning rules. Teachers should focus on creating an environment where students can acquire the language through practice using it to communicate.

    Original Description:

    It's a paper work that I wrote after reading about the topic of the title

    Original Title

    Language Learning and acquisition

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document discusses language acquisition versus language learning. It explains that children acquire their native language naturally by being immersed in it from a young age, without formal instruction, by repeating words and putting them together into sentences. However, when learning a second language in school, it is taught and learned through formal instruction of its rules. The document argues language is best acquired similarly to a first language, through immersion and use in meaningful contexts rather than just learning rules. Teachers should focus on creating an environment where students can acquire the language through practice using it to communicate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    29 views3 pages

    Language Learning and Acquisition

    Uploaded by

    Erwin Santana Ortega
    This document discusses language acquisition versus language learning. It explains that children acquire their native language naturally by being immersed in it from a young age, without formal instruction, by repeating words and putting them together into sentences. However, when learning a second language in school, it is taught and learned through formal instruction of its rules. The document argues language is best acquired similarly to a first language, through immersion and use in meaningful contexts rather than just learning rules. Teachers should focus on creating an environment where students can acquire the language through practice using it to communicate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Assignment of module: Language Acquisition & Language and Social Context

    INTRODUCTION

    Learning a language is one of the greatest examples that show the difference between humans
    and other animal species. It has been demonstrated that all humans can learn one or more
    languages during their lives and put them in practice when needed. It seems like humans do not
    learn a second language in the same way they acquired their native tongue. I clarify to myself
    some ideas that might lead to be doing a better job when teaching English as a second language
    on a daily basis.

    DISCUSSION

    When families have kids and they are around 2 years old, it is common to expect them to start
    speaking their mother language. First, toddlers start by repeating single words they hear more
    frequently either at home, nursing, at the grandparents house. Then they start putting two and
    three words together even if they lack of connectors. By the time they reach the age of five, they
    are able to make long sentences in order to communicate what they want or need just like grown-
    ups do.

    Since toddlers are acquiring this language, they are improving every time they hear someone
    practice that language. They do not need a teacher with special training for improving their
    communicative skills, they dont need to go to school or a special place to hear whatever language
    it is that they are acquiring. It doesnt seem a difficult work for them to learn, and they are not
    stressed out about failing a test either.

    When those kids become teenagers and start learning more about their own language, they start
    taking literature classes at high school and, sometimes, are told by their teachers the correct use of
    grammar. In this case they are learning the language. In other words teachers tell students some
    rules of the language they might have misunderstood while they acquired the language.

    So there are two different ways to start speaking a new language, whether its the mother tongue or
    a foreign one, as Schtz says:

    When we think of language learning we need to understand two clearly distinct concepts.
    One involves receiving information about the language, transforming it into knowledge through
    intellectual effort and storing it through memorization. The other involves developing the skill of
    interacting with foreigners to understand them and speak their language. The first concept is called
    language learning, while the other is referred to as language acquisition

    It is important to mention that not only toddlers and kids who are just starting to use the language
    are acquiring it. Students who decided to study abroad and become exchange students for a
    school year in another country are also acquiring it because they are not only being told about the
    language, they are actually using the language to communicate and at the same time to learn the
    written and spoken rules of that language. Cultural immersion would be a much faster way to
    become fluent in one idiom than it would be to learn it at school. On the other hand, learning a
    second language brings benefits once the learner is involved into the target-language. When he is
    able to speak and write even a little, then explaining the correct use of some rules might be quite
    productive to master an idiom.

    Now, teaching English as a foreign language by making students learn it instead of let them do the
    acquisition of it is the most recurrent practice worldwide. Perhaps prescribing the rules of English to
    students is the only way teachers know. Teachers still need to explore the best way students can
    get immerse in the culture and suck-up the language by acquisition.

    First of all, teachers need to be proficient in the language they want students to become good-
    users. Then they must be able to inspire and motivate learners to do their best when it comes to
    practice a second language. I assume that the inside of the classroom is going to be a determinant
    factor for learners to get involved into all the activities the teacher proposes.

    "We are designed to walk that we are taught to walk is impossible. And pretty much the
    same is true of language. Nobody is taught language. In fact you cant prevent the child from
    learning it." (Chomsky, 1994)

    Instead of making it happen, instructors need to let it happen. This means to set up a background
    and involve learners to carry on with those activities that would make them acquire the language.
    Those activities should be more realistic than what usually happens inside of the school
    classrooms. Perhaps preparing a sandwich in the kitchen would be an activity in which learners
    would feel comfortable because the activity itself is motivating.

    Its a difference between what you know, which is your linguistic competence, and how you
    use this knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension, which is your linguistic
    performance. (Chomsky, 1986)
    This means that if learners cant come up with new sentences made out of those words they have
    already acquired, then they will only be developing their linguistic competence, but not the linguistic
    performance. Linguistic performance is part of what people use language for, communicate in a
    way we never have, using our creativity.

    CONCLUSION

    I will try to set my mind in order to make my students learn the language by acquisition instead of
    by learning it. That way I think I will have more chances that they remember it in the future, at the
    same I assure my classes do not get boring or out of the context they need to be learning.
    Learners should be, during the first years of exposure, acquiring a second language and not
    learning it. The beginning of a school course would mean much speech from the tutor and active
    listening from the learners. Some steps further the mentor would invite classmates to participate in
    speaking some words and sentences. Everyone decides when it is the right time to start doing so.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    Schtz, Ricardo. "Assimilao Natural x Ensino Formal." English Made in Brazil


    <http://www.sk.com.br/sk-laxll.html>. Online. March 20, 2017.

    An introduction to language, Fromkin. Seventh edition. 2007

    Noam Chomsky, The Human Language Serie 2 - 1994

    You might also like