Methodology Class 17/03/2011

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Well today's lesson was about the chapter "Second language acquisition/learning" of "The Study of Language" by George Yule.


First of all, I copied the diagram that the teacher made for us, but if I don't put any explanation it will be useless...so I'll begin with the concept "Acquisition". This term is used to refer when language is learned naturally in a gradual process by using it in communicative situations or other similar ways with actors that know the language, on the other hand "Learning" is a conscious process and involves all the knowledge of the features of language therefore is more "artificial".
In the diagram we can see the concept "Barriers", this term refers to the problems or difficulties that the previous terms have. Insufficient time is one of the factors that makes a barrier between second language acquisition and learning, this is because the hours that people can spend to reach a better use or development of language are not as much as they need to improve their faculties, another problem that comes up are the dull text books that the most of the times is contents' fault also the lack of interest that generates to the learners. Age is a problem too, this is directly related with the personality or lack of empathy with the other culture.
With the previously mentioned I get to the same conclusion that I found in a web site posted by an anonymous author.
Those whose second language experience is primarily a learning one tend not to develop the proficiency of those who have had an acquiring experience.



As we can see in the second diagram there are three kinds of methods; Grammar translation, audiolingual and communicative approaches.
Grammar translation is emphasized in written language and it is learned with vocabulary lists, grammar rules, and it considers teachers as experts, on the other side we have audiolingual method that is the opposite to the previously mentioned, in other words this method emphasize the spoken language, and oral drills are used to define the target of learning.

Finally communicative approaches emphasize the functions of language and the classes are more practical for the students, also it's centered on the different social settings, rather than the theory, that is to say that looks to improve the second language with the interaction between the learner with his teacher, mates, friends or even acquaintances.


Now I'll explain the aspects that we have to consider in second language acquisition.
"Transfer" is when the learner uses expressions or structures of his/her first language when he/she is performing the second language, in other words some grammatical rules may be change or some phonetic pronunciation too.
"Interlanguage" is produced when a second language learner has not become fully proficient yet but is approximating the target language; preserving some features of their first language, or  creating "innovations".

At last "Motivation" is one of the more important aspects to consider in my opinion, but just in our case, why? because there are two types, there is the instructional motivation that it just achieve a goal different to any social purpose, in the other hand we have integrative motivation that is the opposite, in other words the learners want to acquire the language in order to take part in the social life of a community using the second language, this goal is what we should reach, because as teachers we want that the students see english as a second language and not a foreign one, and I think that the government also wants that.


Note: The communicative competence is not too difficult to understand, so I think it's enough with the related concepts.