...Second Language Learning Experience When I learnt English it was the language of Instruction of my School. I went to a school which had a big language block. We were taught 3 mores language besides English. English was given a big chunk in the block. Therefore, I would like to talk about my experiences of learning French. The methodology used was to a certain extent based on Grammar-Translation Method. We had to learn French grammar rigorously. There were two grammar periods. Every topic taught was followed by a lot of application exercises. Then, there were tests at the end of the unit. We had one big fat book in French which had lessons based on grammar topics. The teacher would first teach the grammar topic and then the lesson was read out. We had to copy the vocabulary list and memorise it. There used to be a lot of homework in French. We also did a lot of translation exercises in from English-French and vice-versa. Most of the French class was copying all what was done on the board. The teacher’ voice was the only voice we heard. Today, when I use a variety of activities in my language class, I feel all the speaking and fluency I developed in French is because of my own hard work. I don’t think what I learnt as a student helped me to speak or write French. I feel the method I was taught was not very student-friendly and had a lot of disadvantages: 1. There was no speaking taught. No role-plays, no pair activities or group activities. 2. Every lesson had a...
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...exploit technology in language learning • Challenges – • • • • • • • • • • • Not sure what teacher and pupil will see/find, Not sure what teacher and pupil will achieve, Not sure how to bring in all in online, What would be the performance of voice/video, What will be the costs, Who will manage, Who will be the trainer, When is the best time to arrange lessons, Which classes, What will be the feedback, How to conduct the lesson What we are doing (cont’d) • Uses cost-effective technology • What we want … For e-Lesson, we will be using key features: • Audio (Now) • PowerPoint presentation (Now) • Application sharing (1 year later) • Chat (Now) • Questions (Now) • Recording (1 year later) • Webcams and video (Now) • Writing using fonts or word (2 years later) What we are doing (cont’d) On-line presentati on Scores Prepare Tests Answers & Questions Preparation Lesson Script Invite What we are doing (cont’d) • Successfully completion of the trial period Increase Contact Hours and e-Lesson:– • To increase class contact hour and enhance students ability in language learning, BLLS Bangla school has started first e-Lesson class on 19 May and currently almost half of the classes (P5, P6, Sec1, and A-Level) are covered under this scheme.. • Demo 2. MoE background Proposal Scope 1. BLLS e-Lesson programme will provide a virtual classroom facility to it’s e-Lesson teacher and students to learn Bangla language at low costs (per student...
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...University of Calcutta Dr. Paromita Ghosh, for her inspiration and moral support. I am also thankful to all my samples without whose active participation my dissertation cannot be completed. Date:……………………. ……………………. Baisakhi Ghosh CONTENT S.L No. Title Page No. ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to find out the factors influencing second language learning among the undergraduate college students. A comparison was made between students who have studied in Bengali medium and those who have studied in English medium schools. To serve the purpose 60 respondents [40 female students and 20 male students of age group from 18 to 21 yrs] were selected purposively. Standardized questionnaires on Achievement Motivation, English Language Achievement and Personality were used. Data were collected from different colleges. After scoring the responses, the data were analysed by using Mean,...
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...How effective is learning a foreign language in high school? Not very. According to “America’s Lacking Language Skills,” an article by Amelia Friedman for The Atlantic, “less than 1 percent of American adults today are proficient in a foreign language that they studied in a U.S. classroom.” What’s one way to remedy this? Beginning foreign language instruction earlier. For the average American student, foreign language instruction doesn’t begin until high school. Only a small percentage of people remember everything that they learned in a high school foreign language class. Everything they learned just didn’t stick and they gradually forgot everything. Students should begin foreign language instruction in kindergarten because it is easier for young children to learn, has many benefits as the students get...
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...OF LEARNING IN USING MOTHER TONGUE TO SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Every day language plays an important role in all activities in life. It is use for expressing one’s thought and ideas by modulating the sounds. It is a communication process of God’s gift to human to interact and to communicate meaningfully at various levels such as personal, social and intellectual. One of the most prominent and advance language that is use today is the English language that has a countless influence not only in means of communication but also in written text. English language comes to our aid in our commercial transactions throughout the globe such as business and education. In learning an English language is now in demand because it takes place in globalization and helpful in dealing with other people from a foreign country. Unlike other languages, it has a establish pattern, phonological constraint and grammatical structure. In a real sense, English is an international and recognizable as a language we use today. To begin, language of human has different varieties and acquisitions that can be learn through a process. Firstly, the first language acquisition (L1) is a language through with the child makes acquaintance with anything about it to communicate. Learning L1 which is also called as mother tongue takes place in every natural way and through proper imitation and exposition. On the contrary, second language acquisition (L2) which is also called as foreign language is a language skill...
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...Personal Experience with Language Personal Experience with Language Language is a big part of my everyday life. I hear different languages being spoken in many places. I experience a different kind of language the most at the nail salon. Language has a big effect on everyone, in my opinion every time I walk into the nail salon I hear someone talking in a different kind of language. I have no idea what they are saying, but I find it very impressive that most of them can speak English and their language, Vietnamese. As soon as I walk into the nail salon I always hear them talking to one another in their own language. I am sometimes very curious as to what they are saying. For example, they will carry on a conversation with each other and they both look at me and start laughing. It makes me wonder if they were talking about me. Although I cannot understand their language, I usually can tell their emotion by the tone in his or her voice or the look on their face. The body language usually gives it away as well. It is very easy to tell how someone feels by their actions. I love hearing the language they speak because it is very different then the English language. Being around a different language is also very difficult as well. Sometimes I go to someone that does not speak English very well and it is really hard to understand them. Sometimes I have to ask them to repeat their selves more than once, and if I still do not understand I kind of just laugh or just nod my head. It...
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...represent the benefits of learning a second language. The statements can be divided into two broad categories: societal benefits (e.g. te reo Māori is an irreplaceable source of our nation’s self-knowledge and identity) and personal benefits. The personal benefits can be further subdivided into cognitive (e.g. Communicating with people within and across communities, cultures and nations enables students to engage with new ways of thinking, questioning, and interpreting their world) and individual social benefits (e.g. As they progress, they develop their awareness of languages and so expand their sense of identity and belonging). Section 2.4 will discuss the statements under these categories in more detail. It should be noted that most of these statements are claims – they represent best hopes for language learning and are therefore values and beliefs held by the language teaching profession. Thus, the status of this part of the essence document is motivational – it presents a vision of what language learning and use can be at their most successful. Such a vision is entirely appropriate at this level of documentation. Because it is motivational, however, it should take account of achievement at all levels. Although the longer term personal goals of intercultural communication are attainable only at more advanced levels of acquisition, those who study a language for a year for a few hours a week can also derive tangible benefits. The DES suggests that language learning benefits all: a partial...
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...Theories Of First Language Acquisition English Language Essay Imagine a blank template, a white sheet of paper, thats how human being starts off. From a crying baby in a cradle, to babbling, to simple single words, slowly progressing into two-words, then finally a complete sentence, ever wonder how one acquires the ability to produce the language? Linguists throughout the ages have tried to find out how does one ACQUIRE a language, is it a deep structure as claimed by Kimball? Or is it an innate ability, a build-in human capacity propagated by Chomsky? Various theories have arose since language studies came to fore, and the ability to acquire language has interested various parties since the dawn of man. From the dunes of Egypt, Psammeticus, the Pharaoh during the 7 th century BC, believed language was inborn and that children isolated from birth from any linguistic influence would develop the language they had been born with. Fast forward to the 15th century,King James of Scotland performed a similar experiment; the children were reported to have spoken good Hebrew. Akbar, a 16th century Mogul emperor of India, desired to learn whether language was innate or acquired through exposure to the speech of adults. He believed that language was learned by people listening to each other and therefore a child could not develop language alone. So he ordered a house built for two infants and stationed a mute nurse to care for them. The children did not acquire speech, which seemed to...
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...Hugvísindasvið Second Language Acquisition The Effect of Age and Motivation Ritgerð til BA prófs Einar Garibaldi Stefánsson Maí 2013 Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Enska Second Language Acquisition The Effect of Age and Motivation Ritgerð til BA prófs í ensku Einar Garibaldi Stefánsson Kt.: 030382-4209 Leiðbeinandi: Ásrún Jóhannsdóttir Maí 2013 Abstract This paper looks into the competence of second language acquisition by investigating how second language is acquired. Furthermore it explores the age factor in learning another language other than mother tongue and also attempts to answer if there is enough current evidence that can demonstrate clearly that starting young makes any real difference in achieving better language competence. Moreover, research such as on motivation in relation to the learning environment along with language exposure and attitudes will be discussed and data analysed to find out if it plays any significant role in aiding learners to achieve successful second language competence. It has been a common belief that starting young to learn a second language makes a significant difference in language learning. However, results indicate that this is not entirely true in all cases since there are further factors that affect successful second language acquisition achievement such as language exposure and motivation. Consequently, if there is not enough language exposure, this might prevent the learners from succeeding in learning the language. Clearly, those...
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...Crossing Boundaries – an interdisciplinary journal VOL 1, No 3 - Fall 2002 From Communicative Competence to Language Awareness: An Outline of Language Teaching Principles MANUEL SINOR Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta This essay offers a critical review of some key theoretical issues relevant to second language acquisition and considers the practical implications of these issues on language teaching. The discussion advocates a renewed communicative approach to language pedagogy, which entails the educators’ readiness to act as teacher-researchers, their cautious considerations of individual learner differences, their familiarity with some defining aspects of human learning, and their willingness to encourage the learners’ discovery of formal language properties in a reflective and autonomous manner. 1 Introduction This essay reviews some of the key theoretical notions associated with second language acquisition and considers the pedagogical relevance of these notions. In order to relate the discussion to the practicalities of language teaching, we refer to the hypothetical case of ten adult learners of English, freshly arrived from Japan for a six-month course at a Canadian language school. These learners have earned their title of “mature students” not only from their middle age range, but also because their country’s Foreign Office selected them for their motivation to study English in Canada. Despite this promising background, two burning questions...
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...This essay will explore the five hypotheses that comprise Stephen Krashen’s model for second language learning. It will define each hypothesis and discuss a number of practical implications of Krashen’s model for the classroom. The implications will focus primarily on the “Input Hypothesis” and the “Affective Filter Hypothesis” which are the cornerstones of his model. This essay will also briefly discuss some criticisms of the model. Krashen’s Theory for Second Language Acquisition Krashen’s theory consists of five hypotheses: 1) The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis; 2) The Natural Order Hypothesis; 3) The Monitor Hypothesis; 4) The Input Hypothesis; 5) The Affective Filter Hypothesis. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis states that second language learners develop their ability in the second language in two ways: acquisition and learning. Acquisition is generally subconscious. People are not usually aware of their increasing proficiency. They acquire a “feel” for the language and have little conscious knowledge of the rules of that language. Learning, on the other hand, is a more formal process which is aided by rules and error correction. Krashen (1994) summarizes: “In everyday terms, acquisition is picking up a language. Ordinary equivalents for learning include grammar and rules” (p.52). The Natural Order Hypothesis states that “students acquire (not learn) grammatical structures in a predictable order” (p.52). In other words, some structures are acquired...
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...Motivation 1 Motivation and Its Role in Language Acquisition Robert A. Cote SLAT 596Y Dr. Linda Waugh December 15, 2004 Motivation 2 “Motivation represents one of the most appealing, yet complex, variables used to explain individual differences in language learning” (MacIntyre et al. 2001, p. 462). These words succinctly describe the multifaceted issue that researchers, classroom instructors and language learners themselves have faced since Gardner and Lambert brought to light the complexities of motivation via their studies in the late 1950’s. The number of factors involved in motivating persons to acquire a foreign language has increased tremendously during the past four decades and attempting to address all of these components in one paper is impractical. The author will therefore attempt to present a limited overview of motivation, supporting research from both inside and outside of the classroom and views challenging its validity. Prior to exploring motivation and its function in language acquisition, one must first understand the term in its general sense. MacIntyre et al. defined motivation as “an attribute of the individual describing the psychological qualities underlying behavior with respect to a particular task” (2001, p. 463). This goal-directed behavior shows itself through distinct actions of the motivated individual. Dörnyei described this explicitly when he wrote the following: The motivated individual expends effort, is persistent...
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...FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION http://www.literature.freeservers.com/image_polat/ccfsla.html | The Critical Period Hypothesis | Neurological Considerations Psychomotor Considerations Cognitive Considerations Affective Considerations Linguistic ConsiderationsIn the Classroom: The Audiolingual Method | The increased pace of research on first language acquisition in the 60s and 70s attracted the attention not only of linguists of all kinds but also of educators in various language-related fields. Today the applications of research findings in first language acquisition are widespread. In language arts education, for example, it is not uncommon to find teacher trainess studying first language acquisition, particularly acquisition after age 5, in order to improve their understanding of the task of teaching language speaker to native speakers. In foreign language education most standard text and curricula now include some introductory material in first language acquisition. The reason for this are clear: We have all observed children acquiring their first language easily and well, yet the learning of second language, particularly in an education setting, often meets with great difficulty and sometimes failure. We should therefore able to learn something from a systematic study of that first language learning experience. The purpose of this chapter is to set forth explicity some of the paramters for comparing and contrasting the two types of language acquisition...
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... In Second Language Acquisition there are different explanations provided by behaviourist and cognitivist theorist for how second language is learned, the origins of errors and how errors should be dealt with. For each theory, behaviourist theory and cognitivist theory, there are different features for their explanations of how language is learnt and each theory views the origins of errors and how they should be dealt with, differently. There are various techniques and teaching methods that are used in these theories. The behaviourist theory takes concepts from behaviourists such as Skinner, from behaviorism in psychology. The theorist refers to a process called habit formation and that all learning is habit formation. When children are learning their first language, they do it by imitation. The child will imitate the sounds and patterns that they hear around them. The adult will hear that the child is attempting to make sounds and they will encourage them through reinforcements such as a reward for the sound. The child will keep on repeating and practicing the sound in order to gain more rewards and by doing this it conditions the child’s verbal behaviour until the habit agrees with the adults habits. Therefore the reinforcements lead to habit formation. Second language acquisition has a lot in common with the way that first language is acquired. Second language is learnt in a similar way to first language learning. The behviourist believe that since the first language habits...
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...Globalization and the Problems and Prospects of Teaching and Learning of Yoruba as a Second Language (L2) in Colleges of Education in Nigeria Oyewole Arohunmolase Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo Nigeria Introduction The teaching and learning of Yoruba as a second language in Nigeria and as a foreign language in Britain, United States of America (USA), Germany, and many other countries all over Europe and the world has extended the frontiers of knowledge in the teaching and learning of Yoruba language. Many people in Nigeria and in the above named countries all over the world are interested in knowing the spoken form of Yoruba, its literature, and its culture. The Federal Government in Nigeria’s policy on the teaching and learning of Yoruba L2 in Colleges of Education is to see that people in Nigeria live in unity and harmony as one indivisible, indissoluble, democratic, and sovereign nationals founded on the principles of freedom, equality, and justice with other ethnic groups. Government also, in the National Policy on Education (NPE), Stresses the importance of Language as a means of promoting social interaction and national cohesion; and presenting cultures. Therefore, every child in Nigeria shall learn the language of the immediate environment. Furthermore, in the interest of national unity it is expedient that every child shall be required to learn ONE of the THREE Major Nigerian Languages; Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba (NPE1998: 8). This view of every child being required...
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