ISSN : 2241-4665
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ISSN : 2241-4665
Ημερομηνία έκδοσης: Αθήνα 27 Ιουνίου 2022
“Second
Language Acquisition: I Learn English My Own Way”
Χανδρινός
Κωνσταντίνος
Έκτακτος Επιστημονικός Συνεργάτης, Α.Ε.Ν./Α
Υποψήφιος Διδάκτωρ ΕΚΠΑ.
Abstract
One of the integral responsibilities
of a teacher is to assist the students in their learning process. However, in
order for the teacher to achieve his/hers desired objectives s/he has to
consider a plethora of factors ranging from designing the most effective lesson plan to
accommodating the different cognitive processes that each child employs in his/hers
conquest of knowledge. This short article will focus on four individuals and
their fundamental distinguishing features in second language acquisition.
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1. Introduction
In
this short paper and for a better understanding of the individual differences,
the four people will be investigated in groups of two, one group will consist
of two people born in Canada and the other group of two people that arrived in
Canada from abroad.
The
two first persons that this paper will examine are two females both born in
Montreal, about the same age and with similar educational backgrounds. Their
names are Nicoleta and Maria and both can speak three languages, namely, English,
French and Greek. They both started to learn Greek from birth and at the age of
five, they started their learning English and French.
2. Case study
First
of all, it is of paramount importance to deliberate on the fate of the girls’
first language and the role it may have as a factor in the successful learning
of the second and even third language. Interestingly, Nicoleta admitted that
she is experiencing a degree of subtractive bilingualism with respect to the
Greek language. In addition, she reported that, sometimes, she caught herself
code mixing her first language with the other two when she spoke with her Greek
friends and family. When I asked her what would be a possible reason for this
loss of her first language, she stressed the lack of informal instruction and
education in her first language and the poor usage of Greek in her house with
her parents who used the majority language of their new country; therefore,
with sadness she realizes that this inadequate knowledge of her first language
may have contributed to some of her problems in learning French and English.
Alternately,
Maria had a different story to tell. She said that both her parents always
speak to her in Greek and are aware of the importance of cultivating and
maintaining the first language. For that reason, she received formal education
in her first language. According to her, the formal education/instruction she
received in her first language played an important
role in better acquiring French and English.
During
the discussion, both confirmed the findings in Dr. Lightbown’s book concerning
intelligence and aptitude. In other words, both women said that their written
and reading production was quite good. However, their oral production abilities
were not good, especially in French, even though they followed a French
immersion program. Concerning English, they both blame the phenomenon of
negative correlation that plagues the instruction of English, whereby as the
students advance to higher grades the quantity of time devoted to teaching
English as well as the quality of instruction deteriorates.
Furthermore,
Dr. Lightbown in her book mentions that aptitude, motivation and personality
may be important in the successful learning of a second language(s). Nicoleta
and Maria again confirm that those factors may play an important role in their
learning process. In other words, Nicoleta was able to use her natural aptitude
to build/perfect her first language. During her summer trips in Greece and only
by hearing people speaking, she was able to mimic their way of talking thereby
acquiring new vocabulary, which she usually forgot after returning back home.
In addition, Nicoleta considers herself an outgoing person who always tries to
get her message across. She also mentions the fact that motivated her to refine
and achieve native like oral mastery in French and English was her employment
as a salesperson, where she was required to carry on daily conversations in
both languages with clients and co-workers.
Maria
on the other hand views herself as a visual person who requires to see and/or
read before she is able to memorize and learn new vocabulary or something else.
In addition, she also is an outgoing
person who enjoys conversation, especially with people of other cultures, where
she uses the opportunity to pick up new and exotic words and learn about other
cultures.
Now
let’s consider a person who is not born in Canada but arrived as an immigrant.
Dora came to Canada seven years ago at the age of twenty. Her first language is
Greek and she has high school education. English was her choice of second
language, which she started acquiring at the age of eighteen. According to many
researchers, when she started learning English she had passed the critical
period hypothesis and the language center of her brain started to become
atrophic in respect of accepting a new language; therefore, it is believed that
she would not easily reach ultimate second language attainment.
During
the interview, she mentioned that her scholastic aptitude and achievement,
while she was receiving her formal education, was average and she had some
problems with reading and writing English. However, she did not experience any
serious problems in using the language orally in practice conversations with
the rest of her classmates. The reason for her easiness in oral use of the
language would be the fact that she has the natural aptitude for memorizing
words and sounds she hears; therefore, she prefers the aural style of learning
and enjoys audio visual material presented in class.
However,
when she arrived in Canada she had to overcome some enormous barriers in order
to reach native like standards. To elaborate, after she came to Canada and
realized that she had a distinguishable heavy accent, she became even more
self-conscious of the way she spoke and became more reluctant to talk English
with native speakers. But her motivation to succeed and find better employment
propelled her efforts to overcome that emotional obstacle. In addition, after a
few years and with her new job in Toronto, she had constant exposure to
English, which assisted her to achieve ultimate attainment.
Finally,
Nikos is another person who arrived from outside Canada, this time for another
reason, namely, to study. Nikos started learning English at the age of
seventeen, an age that according to the critical period hypothesis learning a
new language may be a challenging adventure. However, Nikos’ scholastic
aptitude was quite high; therefore, he says that the acquisition of English as
a second language did not pose serious problems concerning vocabulary and
written production. His rate of acquisition confirms the findings in Dr.
Lightbown’s book, where she suggests older learners may learn faster, and be
“more efficient with more sophisticated vocabulary and style”.
Moreover,
the fact that Nikos has a “noticeable” accent did not deter him, unlike Dora,
on the contrary, he took pride in being different. In addition, he views
himself as a friendly and sociable person who grasps every opportunity to
use/perfect his second language skills. Also, he says that he cherishes every
moment of talking with native speakers from whom he is able to improve his
“heavy Accent” and at the same time learn new different words. In addition, his
desire to excel in his studies in his new language propelled his efforts to
perfect his second language as much as possible.
3. Conclusion
The
task of learning a second language is enormous and as Dr. Lightbown presents in
her book, a plethora of factors may contribute to the success of learning a
second language. Some of these factors may include, cognitive style, aptitude,
motivation, to some degree age and even first language. Every person is
different and learns in a distinct manner and at a different rate. As a final
thought, Dr. Lightbown says: “[teachers should] encourage [and help their
students] to use all means available to them as they work to learn another
language” (41).
Bibliography
Ausubel, D. David, Joseph D. Novak
and Helen Hanesian. Educational
Psychology:
A Cognitive View. 2nd ed.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and winston , 1978.
Macneil, D. Richard. “The
Relationship of Cognitive Style and Instructional Style to the
Learning Performance of
Undergraduate Students”. Journal of
Educational
Research.
V73, n6, p.354-59, Jul-Aug. 1980.
Lightbown, P. and Spada, N. How Languages Are Learned. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. New York. 1998.
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