Initial Evaluation – Phase 1

Tutor: Luis Fernando Bautista

Estudiante: Alvaro Andrés Lombo Achury

Codigo: 518015_86

Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD

Escuela de Ciencias de la Educación

Licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras con énfasis en ingles

Foreign Language Acquisition and Learning

02 de septiembre del 2021

Personal Information

Hello you all, I hope you´re ok today, my name is Alvaro Andrés Lombo Achury, I live in

Villavicencio, I was born on May 19th of 1988, I'm 33 years old, I work as Academic

coordinator at Gimnasio Domingo Savio de Villavicencio, my cellphone number is

3155277878 and my email is

coordinadorprimaria@gimnasiodomingosaviovillavicencio.edu.co.

God bless you all.

Step 3. Check the five Hypotheses about the second language acquisition and choose the

one which most perfectly describes how has been your foreign language learning

process.

I feel more identified with “The input hypothesis”. This hypothesis, according with the

author, points that “the learner acquires structures by understanding messages contained in

such structures, and not by focus on them, or analyze them.” During my foreign language

acquisition process, I acquired the language by the compression and use of structures,

vocabulary, and then the use of the knowledge acquired in communication using context, as

the input hypothesis points. Since I started the acquisition process until now, I practically

acquired the grammatical part automatically, not putting too much attention in it, but at the

same time understanding the rule. This hypothesis also postulates that speech is not taught

directly. Rather, the fluency of speech it emerges on its own when its time comes. On the

UNAD, the English learnings have, into the English course, a series of classes called

“Speaking” in which we improve our English speech using all we already know to
communicate each other in the class. When I started the participation in the Speaking classes,

even if didn’t know too much, the speech emerged on its own, with mistakes, of course, but

as I progressed through the classes my speaking ability improved remarkably.

Step.5: In this phase, you must answer the following questions, please use strong

arguments, do not use theoretical quotes, and try to use examples to support your own

ideas.

1. How do humans learn additional languages after they have learned their first?

One of the greatest challenges in language science has been to explain complex processes

that allow children, in their first years of life, to master a code as complex as a language is

and to formulate coherent theories that account for the appropriation mechanisms that

second-year learners Languages or foreign languages used in their learning.

After reading about these explanations, one of the most assertive, since my point of view,

is the information processing theory. This theory emerges of a recent stream within

cognitive psychology which describes the human mind as an information processor.

According to this theory, learning consists of collect, store, modify and interpret the new

information that one receives.

Information processing models applied to learning of second languages, following the

contributions of McLaughlin (1987, 1990). Who made a key distinction between

declarative knowledge of the rules grammatical, or what is the same, what the learner

consciously knows about the language system, and procedural knowledge of an

unconscious nature, or what the learner can do in the target language. Thus, the learning
 process is defined as the gradual transformation of declarative knowledge into knowledge

procedural.

McLaughlin also expressed a key concept which it’s “the restructuration”, which is

basically when the incorporation of a new rule by the learner may result in the

restructuring of the entire system.

An example of this phenomenon, occurs when students, who previously correctly

produced the irregular past tense of the verb make: made, they use the wrong form

maked. This error, which is created by overgeneralizing a grammar rule English, shows

how the student advances from a lexicalized system to an analyzed system Based in my

own experience, these kinds of mistakes are very common in my partners.

2. What factors contribute to the variability observed in rates and outcomes of second

language learning?

As is known, second language learning outcomes are highly variable, due to a variety of

factors that, according with a study in which Native English speakers were exposed to an

artificial language containing three sentence patterns of varying linguistic complexity.

The study reveals that the variability in L2 learning includes: individual differences,

exposure conditions, and linguistic complexity.

3. What does it take to attain advanced language and literacy competencies in a

language other than the mother tongue?

You don’t need to spend too much time and effort to highlight the importance of acquiring a

second language today; but said acquisition seems to be an extremely easy or extremely

difficult company depending on the various variables and circumstances that condition it.

In my opinion, we need to focus more in the variabilities of the language acquisition.

When we’re in the acquisition process of a L2, we need to create new strategies to get

advance in the process. Something my English teachers always say to me is “practice makes a

master”. And it’s true, throughout my process, I have realized that I have improved a lot

thanks to practice, thus I applique methods of practicing every day. Of course, is not the same

for everyone, we all are different and have differences in our learning. As I said, we need to

create strategies for ourselves that can be adapted to our learning process.

For example, some people recommend listen to music in the language we want to learn to

advance, as a practice, but for some people that method actually doesn’t work, so those

people who can’t learn with music look for a new strategy that they can adapt to their

learning process, thus they can advance in their process of acquiring a L2.
ARL AFILIATION:
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Krashen, S. (2009). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. University of

Southern California.9-45.

http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_and_practice.pdf

Escobar, C. (s.f). Teorías sobre la adquisición y el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas.

Recovered from:

https://gent.uab.cat/cristinaescobar/sites/gent.uab.cat.cristinaescobar/files/escobar_2001_teori

as_adquisicion_l2_manus.pdf

Tagarelli, K; Ruiz, S & Moreno, J. (2016). Variability in second language learning.

Recovered from:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303354929_Variability_in_second_language_learni

ng#:~:text=Second%20language%20learning%20outcomes%20are,exposure%20conditions%

2C%20and%20linguistic%20complexity.