Second Language

Learning
Dr Muhammad Yousaf
 Second and foreign language learning
• A distinction is sometimes made between learning a “foreign language” (that
is not generally spoken in the surrounding community) and a “second
language” (that is spoken in the community).
 Learning vs Acquisition
• The gradual development of ability in a first or second language by using it
naturally in communicative situations is called language acquisition.
• The conscious process of accumulating language skills and polishing
language abilities, in contrast to acquisition is called second/foreign language
learning.
 Barriers to second language learning
1. The Age Factor
• It is believed that after the critical period for language acquisition has passed,
around the time of puberty, it becomes very difficult to acquire another language
fully .
• However, it has been shown that students in their early teens are quicker and more
effective L2 learners in the classroom than, for example, seven-year-olds.
• The optimum age for learning may be from 10 to 16 years old where the flexibility
of our inherent capacity for language has not been completely lost and the
maturation of cognitive skills allows a more effective analysis of the regular features
of the L2 being learned.
 Barriers to second language learning
• Even in the optimum age, there are still acquisition barrier of quite a different kind.
2. Affective factors
• Teenagers are typically much more self-conscious than younger children.
• If this self-consciousness is accompanied by a lack of empathy with the other
culture or fear of embarrassment, feeling of indifference with target culture or
people.
• This type of emotional reaction, or “affect,” may also be caused by dull textbooks,
unpleasant classroom surroundings or an exhausting schedule of study and/or
work.
• All these negative feelings or experiences are called affective factors.
 Language teaching methods
• The instruction in other languages has led to a variety of educational
approaches and methods aimed at fostering L2 learning.
• GTM (Grammar Translation Method)
• Audio Lingual Method
• Communitive Language Teaching Method (CLT)
 GTM
• This is the most traditional approach.
• This method has its roots in the traditional teaching of Latin.
• Vocabulary lists and sets of grammar rules are used to define the target of
learning .
• Memorization is encouraged.
• Written language is emphasized more than the spoken language .
 Audio Lingual Method
• Emphasizing on spoken language the method became popular in the middle
of 20th century.
• It was strongly influenced by a belief that the fluent use of language was
essentially a set of "habits" that could developed with practice.
• It involved a systematic presentation of the structures of the L2, moving
from the simple to the more complex, in the form of drills that the student
had to repeat.
 CLT
• It is more recent revisions of the L2 learning experience.
• It is partially a reaction against the artificiality of "pattern practice" and also
against the belief that consciously learning the grammar rules of a language
will result in an ability to use the language.
• There are many versions of how to create communicative experiences for
L2 learners, they are all based on a belief that the functions of the language
should be emphasized more rather than the forms of the language.
 Error
• One radical feature of most communication approaches is the toleration of "errors"
produced by students.
• Traditionally, "errors" were regarded negatively and they had to be avoided or
eradicated.
• The more recent acceptance of such errors in learners' use of the L2 is based on a
fundamental shift in perspective from the more traditional view of how L2 learning
takes place.
• An "error" is not something that hinders a student's progress but is probably a clue
to the active learning progress being made by the student as they try out way of
communicating in the new language.
 Transfer
• Some errors may be due to "transfer" or also called as "crosslinguistic influence".
• Using sounds, expressions or structures from L1 when performing in L2 is called
Transfer.
• If the L1 and L2 have similar features, then the learners may be able to benefit from
the positive transfer.
• If the L1 and L2 have different features, transferring of these results in negative
transfer.
• Negative transfer ("interference") is more common in the early stages of L2
learning and often decreases as the learner develops greater familiarity with the L2.
 Interlanguage and Fossilization
• The interim system of L2 learners, which has some features of the L1and L2 plus some
that are independent of the L1 and the L2.
• This suggests that there is some in-between system used in the L2 acquisition process
that certainly contains aspects of the L1 and L2, but which is an inherently variable
system with rules of its own.
• The process whereby an interlanguage, containing many non-L2 features, stops
developing toward more accurate forms of the L2 is called Fossilization.
• Language can be fossilized if some learners develop a fairly fixed repertoire of L2
expressions, containing many forms that do not match the target language, and seem not
to be progressing any further.
 Motivation
• The desire to learn L2 in order to achieve some other goal, such as
completing a school graduation requirement or being able to read scientific
publications, but they are not really planning on engaging in much social
interaction using the L2 is called Instrumental motivation.
• The desire to learn L2 for social purposes, in order to take part in the social
life of a community using that language and to be accepted as a member in
the community is called Integrative motivation.
 Input and output
• Input describes the language that the learner is exposed to.
• Input can be made comprehensible input by being simpler in structure and
vocabulary, as in the variety of speech called foreigner talk.
• L2 material that the learner can acquire in interaction through requests for
clarification while active attention is being focused on what is said is called
Negotiated input.
• The opportunity to produce comprehensible meaningful interaction seems to be
another important element in the learner’s development which can be considered as
output in language learning.
• Yule, G. (2010). The study of language. Cambridge university press.