How are languages learned?

How are languages learned?  After reading “How Languages Are Learned” by Lightbrown & Spada, I have a sense of how languages are learned but, language learning depends on the individual learner.  After going over the popular ideas about language learning, I have come up with a couple conclusions.

Highly intelligent people are good language learners.  According to evidence found in the book as well as a course I took about IQ testing, I believe IQ testing measures grammar rules and vocabulary items.  It does not test learners with a wide range of intellectual abilities, especially in the classroom.  

“The best predictor of success in second language acquisition is motivation.”  Although I believe motivation is a key element in learning a second language, I strongly believe that as teachers, we have to make the classroom comfortable enough for our learners to experience success.  I never really thought about learners’ motivation, except that I could be that teacher to motivate my students.  For example, some students are forced into learning another language because their first language is not offered as the primary language used in the school and/or classroom.  “The principal way of motivating my students is by making the classroom a supportive environment which students students are stimulated, engaged in activities that are age appropriate to their ages, interests, and cultural backgrounds”(185).

The last idea presented in chapter seven was, “Students can learn both language and academic content simultaneously in classes where the subject matter is taught in their second language.”  I am obviously a true believer of this because I am a future Bilingual educator.  Ample amount of research has confirmed that students in content-based immersion programs develop comprehension skills, vocabulary, and general communicative competence in the new language.  Moreover, every learner learns differently.  Although getting to know our students on a personal level will take time, it is definitely necessary in creating a engaged classroom environment.

Learning to Get By

        Chapter 6, “Acquiring Knowledge for L1 Use” written by Muriel Saville-Troike was a very interesting chapter.  I especially liked this chapter because it posed the same questions that I have for my research paper I am working on.  He explains that there are two very different functions of learning a second language.  Academic competence which serves the knowledge by learners who want to use the L2 primarily to learn about other subjects and interpersonal competence which serves the knowledge required of learners who plan to use the L2 primarily in face-to-face contact with other speakers.  To break it down, academic competence entails the goal of learning a second language for school focusing on reading and listening.  Interpersonal competence entails the goal of learning a second language to communicate with others focusing on listening and speaking skills.

As a future Bilingual teacher, our main goal is for our students to learn for interpersonal and academic competence.  My research paper asks the question of how ESL teachers can benefit from Bilingual teachers approach to learning?  The progress of my research explains that ESL Pull-Out classrooms aim to assimilate the student to English as quick as possible, whereas Bilingual classrooms aim to add English to the student’s existing L1 in a timely fashion.  Although I am just beginning my research I find it hard to believe in ESL Pull-Out classrooms.  

Hopefully at the end of my research I will have a concrete answer to my question through factual evidence I will find.  How can you have language learners interested in learning for academic purposes, such as, standardized testing and have language learners interested in achieving native like fluency while conversing with others?  Through authentic resources?  Or, if you do present students’ with these different types of second language competences, will this help?  And, if the students’ are interested in both competences, how will you as a teacher meet the standards by the State and your own Standards you have set for your students?  These questions are very hard to answer because I am not actually in the classroom yet, but hopefully after researching, I will find an answer.

The Unexpectedness in Multilingual Communities

The article, “Lingua Franca English, Multilingual Communities, and Language Acquisition” took me on a whirl.  After reading the article, I put it down and had to question SLA experts.  Some questions I have are; How are SLA experts correct?  Are they really correct?  I realize that Lingua Franca English is the universal language of communication, but how are SLA experts so sure that form is so important?

“It is now well recognized that the dominant constructs of SLA are founded on monolingual norms and practices” (934).  The article talks about language acquisition and use in multilingual communities.  The author explains that in these communities it is often difficult to identify one’s mother tongue or native language.  These communities are so multilingual that they even share mixing of diverse languages, literacies, and discourses. Moreover, when people are conversing with one another, they are open to the unexpectedness.  

These multilingual communities are so open to one another that it kind of reminds me of Utopia community.  As a future language teacher, I am finding it difficult to teach the “correct” dialect of English to second language learners.  I feel as if I am cheating them of what other dialects are out there.  I realize that I have knowledge about introducing different dialects into the classroom using authentic resources, but I guess I never really thought of teaching the Lingua Franca English.  We must give some students some choice in the matter while giving them the truth of the dialect of English we use in our schools and the teaching of that specific dialect.