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Complex second language learning process

2020-07-08 来源: 51Due教员组 类别: 更多范文


下面为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文 -- Complex second language learning process，文章讲述如今，第二语言习得已成为全球热门话题，并引起了全球热潮。第二语言习得或称为SLA，通常是指获取母语后进行的任何其他语言学习。人们已经从社会，心理，语言的角度研究了它。 （Saville-Troike2012）该领域的研究旨在系统地探索第二语言习得的性质和过程。主要目的是描述学习者如何学习第二语言，并解释为什么学习者能够学习第二语言。自进入21世纪以来，第二语言习得的研究范围已扩展到许多方面，涉及语言学，心理学，心理语言学，语用学和社会语言学。


Complex second language learning process

1. Introduction

Nowadays, second language acquisition has become a global heated topic, which has resulted in a worldwide wave. The second language acquisition, or named SLA, usually refers to any other language learning after the acquisition of the mother tongue. People has study it from the social, psychological, linguistic point of views. (Saville-Troike, 2012) Research in this field is to systematically explore the nature and process of second language acquisition. The main goal is to describe how learners acquire second language and explain why learners are capable of acquiring a second language. Since entering the 21st century, the scope of the study of second language acquisition has been expended to many aspects, involving linguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics, pragmatics and sociolinguistics. (Arik, 2010)

Second language acquisition is a very complicated process. The process of language acquisition is influenced by many cultural and environmental factors like education experience, first language acquisition and language input and output habits. In the process of SLA, these factors influence each other with mutual restraint and produced a lot of variables. (Saville-Troike, 2012) The differences of these factors directly influence the learning achievement. The deep study of these factors can make learners have a deeper understanding about the second language acquisition and stimulate the interest of learners. Therefore, the study of culture factors has profound meanings.

This essay is aimed to study three cultural factors and environmental that influence second language acquisition, which is mainly composed of five parts. The first part introduces the contest of second language acquisition in the universities and colleges. The second part discusses the function of education experience in the process of SLA. The third part analyzes the influence of first language acquisition on second language acquisition. The fourth part explores language input and output habits in the study of SLA. The fifth part is a conclusion to the whole essay.

2. Context

The study of second language acquisition has become an independent discipline, probably formed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Saville-Troike, 2012) SLA studies characteristics and its change in s' second language and change. It also describes the common features and individual differences among the learners of a second language, which also has description and analysis of the internal and external factors that influence the second language acquisition.

In the atmosphere of universities and colleges, second language acquisition has become an import study dimension. As an important branch of Applied Linguistics, second language acquisition mainly researches people’s learning the process and results of the second language. The purpose is to obtain objective description and scientific explanation of language learners' linguistic competence and communicative competence. (Housen and Kuiken, 2009)

In 1967, in the book of Language Transfer by Larry Selinker, the theory of interlanguage was put forward for the first time. Interlanguage refers to a gradual and dynamic transition of language system in the process of second language acquisition. (Selinker, 1976) Through certain learning strategies, the learners can form a gradual transition of language system that is different from their first language and the target language. Due to the contribution of the book and Larry Selinker, second language acquisition forms a field of study in its own right and becomes an independent discipline. Currently, the study of second language acquisition research relates to the three major areas, namely interlanguage study, learners' internal factors research and learners’ external factors research. (Selinker, 1976)

In 1994, Rod Ellis, professor of the institute of education of second language of Temple University in Philadelphia in the United States, published a masterpiece named The Study of Second Language Acquisition, becoming a classic textbook in the field. (Ellis, 1994) The book is divided into seven parts. The first part sketches the conceptual framework of the whole book. The second part summarizes the relevant learning language essence of main theories, including learner errors, development model, language changes and pragmatic features. The third part explains the second language acquisition from the perspective of external factors, mainly expounding the social factors and input and interaction. The fourth part explains the second language acquisition from the internal factors, including language transfer, cognitive explanation and universal language. The fifth part discusses the focus from learning transferred to learners, analyzing the individual differences and learning strategies of second language acquisition. The sixth part is about the discussion of English classroom teaching, discussing the theory of classroom interaction and regular teaching. The seventh part is the summary of the book, from three aspects of the data analysis, theoretical construction and practical application of critical analysis of current second language acquisition research. (Ellis, 1994) The book has a detailed system and has become a reference book for the students majoring in second language acquisition research.

Since the beginning of this century, SLA is in the vigorous development. Foreign language colleges and foreign language institutes of comprehensive universities all have the professional master degree point. The number of published academic papers and graduation thesis has a tendency of increase each year.

Under this context, the study of SLA has been laid emphasis on in the global research field and the research of cultural factors has become more meaningful.

3. Factor One

Education culture is an import part for second language acquisition and the education level decides the development of the society. Therefore, the first factor is that educational experience of the learners deeply affects the effectiveness of second language acquisition, which can be divided into five aspects: age of learners, learning motivation and interest, emotional factors, will power and personality.

3.1 Age of Learners

People usually think that the younger foreign language learners are easily reached close to native speakers of language proficiency, and this view was also proved by Critical Period Hypothesis. (Hakuta and Wiley, 2003) The assumption believes that in human life for a period of time, the acquisition of language is naturally occurring without through the efforts; after this period, language learning never reaches the effect before. This hypothesis is based on the study of neural physiology. Before puberty, language areas of the left brain hemisphere are damaged by an accident in the childhood and the right brain will restore the function of language. To adolescence, side of the brain language has been completed, fixed in the left side of the brain. Once language function is lost, it is difficult to recover. (Hakuta and Wiley, 2003) There are two forecasts from Critical Period Hypothesis on foreign language learning. One must catch oral language learning in prior to the completion of the lateral brain language function. The other is that after the critical period, the speed of language learning slows down and learning effect is weakened. Penfield and Roberts points out that the best time for language acquisition is between the ages of zero and ten. (Penfield and Roberts, 1959) Although follow-up on relevant theory research has not proved exactly which age is best for language learning, there is no doubt that age has important influence on foreign language learning.

However, it is still not possible to determine whether the younger age of learning a foreign language is better. There are many other linguists who have raised the fact that adults learn a foreign language better than a child. They thought children may be better than adults in pronunciation, but the adolescents and adults will learn grammar better. Krashen and Scarcella even think that adult child language acquisition is faster than children and elder children learn faster than young children. (Krashen and Scarcella, 1979) And some scholars believe that teenagers are the best language learners. Snow and Hoefnagel-Hoehle’s research shows that in the process of lexical and syntactic learning, adolescents’ grades is the best, followed by adults and children is relatively worse. (Snow and Hoefnagel-Hoehle, 1975) Focus on the best age to learn a foreign language has carried out most of the experiments with different results. The in-depth study of the age of language learning makes people see the complexity of learning a foreign language, but the influence of age on foreign language learning is self-evident.

3.2 Learning Motivation and Interest

Learning motivation is a very important factor to influence the second language acquisition. Usually, the motivation of learning a foreign language can be divided into two types, that is, integrative motivation and instrumental motivation. Integrative motivation refers that a person has strong interest of learning a foreign language and hopes to integrate into the culture of the language. For instrumental motivation, learners want to achieve their goals through the use of second language, focusing on learning a new language of actual value and benefits, such as in order to pass the exam, get a scholarship and find a suitable job. (Lambert, 1974) Instrumental motivation likes the language and integrative motivation needs the language. Instrumental motivation has definite practical purposes and integrative motivation has no clear purpose. Instrumental motivation is passive learning and integrative motivation is active learning. Learners with integrative motivation can feel fun when learning a foreign language and not feeling boring. It is easier for them to master a foreign language. Generally speaking, successful learners are both natural and highly motivated. If learners themselves do not know their learning motivation and do not understand the integrative motivation, then this will be the biggest obstacle of second language acquisition. (Lambert, 1974)

On the other hand, interest is the best teacher. In the process of language learning, learners' interest is strong so that learners' motivation can be stimulated. Without doubt, learners will be very positive to learn language and culture of the language. Conversely, if students are not interested in, they won't have motivation. Accordingly, their attitude is negative. They don’t want to know and spend time and energy on learning, so the learning effect is also sluggish. So, for language learning, if there is no learners' active participation, the effect of two language acquisition is not ideal.

3.3 Emotional Factors

The expression of emotion differs from man to man. But learning is most closely linked with the mood and feeling. When learners have a good mood or enjoy learning in the sense of achievement and external praise, they will feel very excited and have a strong motivation to learn. Instead, if learners' emotion is not high for a long time and experience failure, then they will feel very depressed and even cause them to lose the joy of learning a second language. Therefore, the emotional factors can enhance the enthusiasm of learning, but also can reduce the learning efficiency. (Saville-Troike, 2012)

3.4 Will Power

The process of two language acquisition is a long process and learners cannot acquire a language overnight. A successful person is always with a strong determination. Only perseverance can lead to the success. Therefore, the second language acquisition is a test of the willpower and perseverance of the learners. Even when sitting in the same classroom and in the face of the same teacher, the strong willed students can always perform better and their ability also increase greater. On the contrary, those students who are weak-willed make it difficult for them to give full play to their abilities. Thus, will is a control of learning. (Saville-Troike, 2012)

3.5 Personality

The study shows that the outgoing personality is more helpful to the learning of the second language than the introverted personality. Because extroverted learners are livelier and more sociable, it is more easily for them to involve in other second language learning exchange and interaction and they can get more content and information about the second language. In contrast, introverted learners are quieter and more passive. They don't want to take the initiative to participate in the activities of language learning and naturally they will lose many language learning opportunities and a chance to practice. (Saville-Troike, 2012)

4. Factor Two

For non-native speakers, they live in an environment that mother tongue occupies their daily speaking and writing, which will severely influence the second language acquisition. Therefore, the second factor is that the first language environment will affect the second language acquisition.

4.1 First Language Acquisition

Many linguists think that language is a kind of talent of human beings. As a matter of fact, like birds can naturally sing, normal people with the brain development almost do not need to make any effort in first language acquisition or mother tongue. However, if a child is put in other language environment outside of the mother tongue, then the children will be learning in the environment of mainstream language and in language acquisition as the way to develop the language. But if a child after birth immediately is isolated with any language environment for long time and cut off its acceptance of any linguistic information channel, then the child wouldn't have develop language knowledge of linguistic competence and linguistic performance language related to the mother tongue. (Ellis, 1994)

The critical period of mother tongue acquisition refers to a period of time in the early stage of human physiological development. In this period, people are very sensitive to the stimulation of language signals and can easily obtain the language of contact. However, after this period, the people's language learning ability shows a significant downward trend. About boundaries of this period, different researchers hold different views, but they all recognize the important role of language input in the critical period.

However, what type of language input can facilitate the acquisition of mother tongue is a matter of question. Behaviorism believes that language is the behavior and language acquisition relies on stimulus - response model. (Jiang, 1999) In fact, children basically grasp the language system of their mother tongue generally in the age of 5 to 6 years. Although they have limited mother tongue language signal in these 5 to 6 years, they can understand sentences never heard with comprehension and expression. This phenomenon led to Chomsky's argument of the poverty of stimulus theory. (Berwick, Pietroski, Yankama and Chomsky, 2011) The hypothesis is that there is a language acquisition device in the brain and the role of language input activates the device. In addition, people think that children can easily get mother tongue, because they are exposed to grammatically correct sentences in their growth process and parents or nannies can correct the children’s output of language grammar mistakes. But if analyzing the discourse for most adults, people will find their expression is not in line with the written language grammar rules. In fact, when parents or nannies communicate with children, they often use a concise syntax which does not conform to the conventional grammar rules, namely motherese and care-taker speech. Although they are also used to correct the errors in the children's language output, they mainly correct semantic errors. In other words, though they provide children with some positive evidence of grammatically correct sentences, they provide them with little negative evidence of pointing out that the children's speech does not conform to the grammar rules.

4.2 Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition is different from the acquisition of mother tongue. It is true that mother tongue acquisition is easy and natural, while the second language acquisition is a long process. Although learners in the process of second language acquisition pay a lot of efforts and hard work, 95% of the learners’ second language proficiency can never catch up with target language speakers who use the language level. (Ellis, 1994) The reason is that most second language learners are started learning another language at the physical end of the critical period of learning the mother tongue. The flexibility of the language acquisition mechanism inherent in the human brain begins to decline.

There is a similarity between the first and the second language acquisition. That is, the learners are actively constructing their own grammar system. In the process of mother tongue acquisition, children's grammar development presents a progressive trend. (Ellis, 1994) The theory of interlanguage shows that a learner also actively builds a grammar system that is different from that of the mother tongue and target language in learning the targeted second language. The typical characteristics of the system is transitional, namely interlanguage grammar system constantly closer to the target language grammar systerm, but only a small part of second language learners can master the linguistic and pragmatic knowledge of the target language. In addition, the second language learners are also influenced by many other internal and external factors in the process of target language. Internal factors include ages, the learner's learning motivation and attitudes, personality and characteristics and cognitive style factors. External factors refer to the learning environment and social, political, economic and cultural atmosphere. (Ellis, 1994)

4.3 Influence of FLA Thinking on SLA

Mother tongue thinking is more common in the process of second language acquisition. Mostly scholars fully confirm the second language learners relying on native language thinking. Most of students use the native language to think the content and structure. Some of them firstly write the outline in the native languages. Some students even think and write articles in their mother tongue, and then translated into the second language.

The common view is that mother tongue thinking hinders the second language acquisition. The theoretical basis is contrastive analysis theory. (Peng, 2004) In this argument, Chinese and English is a good example to illustrate the point. In China, different peoples have different cultures and languages. The use of language is deeply influenced by cultural constraints. Ethnic languages are inseparable in the discussion of second language acquisition. Their customs and habits, traditional ideas and ways of thinking are embodied in the language. So, when Chinese students learn English, in a great extent, they will be influenced, interfered and misunderstood by native languages and cultures.

However, there are also positive aspects from native language. In fact, the two languages of English and Chinese have common points. For example, the classification of English and Chinese words includes nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals, conjunctions and prepositions. Sentence structure of English and Chinese is subject, predicate and object. If students can understand or grasp the knowledge of the Chinese language, it will play a good role in English studying. Meanwhile, in the process of learning the second language, the native language is inevitable for cognitive basis, so students can use existing knowledge to learn new knowledge of the second language, improving their second language learning and enhancing understanding of the second language. Thirdly, to some extent, native language can also enhance students’ confidence to study the second language, reducing the learning frustration and enhancing self-confidence. (Morgan-Short, Sanz, Steinhauer and Ullman, 2010)

Most second language acquisition is carried in the native environment, which is inevitably affected by the impact of native language. Therefore, in the process of learning SLA, students must have a correct view of native language influence on SLA about the positive and negative impact. Learners should adroitly guide action according to circumstances, exceed and give full play to the native language as a positive role in learning the second language, avoid falling into the mother tongue thinking mode and negative effect.

4.4 Influence of FLA Grammar on SLA

Grammar helps people form and explain the formation rules of words or phrases of the language. However, second language acquisition research is how people learn other languages except first language acquisition. This is an important topic in second language acquisition research to investigate the influence of the mother tongue learning situation. Investigations in this area have already begun since 1950s. In this point, English and Chinese grammar analysis is deeply discussed.

On the one hand, in the perspective of voice, Chinese and English speech is in two different phonetic systems. For Chinese students to learn English, English pronunciation exist the aspects that Chinese languages do not have. Students are not familiar with English pronunciation rules. English learners have been accustomed to Chinese pronunciation, so they like replacing English pronunciation with Chinese intonation. Especially for beginners in English, it is always used to find a similar pronunciation to help memory. (Busse, 2013)

On the other hand, in the perspective of vocabulary, subject to the influence of mother tongue thinking, in the process of learning vocabulary, they often misuse count nouns and the mixture of count nouns, articles, conjunctions, prepositions. Meanwhile, they often misuse the meaning of words to express their thoughts. In addition, students often confuse the meaning and usage of some words or phrases. They think that as long as the Chinese meaning is the same, arbitrary which English word or phrase can be used, but they do not know of these words or phrases in usage is very different. (Busse, 2013)

5. Factor Three

A language is a way of communication. The third factor is that language input and output habits will affect the second language acquisition.

5.1 Input and Output Process of Second Language Acquisition

In the process of second language acquisition, input, absorption and output are the necessary key links. At present, there is a lot of researches for the input and output of second language learning, and most of them concentrated on the learners' cognitive psychology. Psycholinguistics uses cognitive theory to analyze the process of second language acquisition. It believes that learners in the process of second language acquisition must be in contact with the target language materials, namely the input. When students are exposed to input materials, firstly it causes the brain's attention and attention is the first step in the acquisition of the original information into the brain. Brain needs some learning strategies to handle the input materials. Through general knowledge of language module of working memory and long term memory, understanding and mastery can be obtained by matching, analogy, restructuring and transformation of the input in order to understand the meaning and form of the second language system. Through the language processing of materials, students produce a kind of interlanguage and form the second language in the final expression, which is the output. (Yuan and Bao-Fu, 2008)

5.2 Input Hypothesis of Krashen

Proposed by American linguist Krashen in the early 1980s, input language links linguistic theories with language teaching practice, which had a broad impact in the field of foreign language teaching. (Li, 2013) This theory holds that language is produced by receiving comprehensible input. Input hypothesis is composed by the five interrelated core assumptions: language acquisition learning hypothesis; the natural order hypothesis; monitor hypothesis, the input hypothesis and the affective filter hypothesis. Krashen claims that a person's language ability is mainly obtained through the way of acquisition and second language acquisition should be in the natural environment. Through frequent contact, the learners can comprehensibly input natural language acquisition. (Li, 2013) Krashen claims that comprehensible input refers to the language input, including slightly higher than the structure existing language ability in language learning.

For English learning, the first key point is input, which requires contacting with a large number of ways of English pronunciation and expression. Although Chinese people do not have a full English language environment, they can make full use of network resources, watch English movies, listen to more English news, or listen to the textbook carefully. Learners can recite more content and then become a person with high aspirations and determination, coping classical partial excerpt and reciting it, which is a very good accumulation process. When accumulated to a certain amount, English study will have a change from quantitative to qualitative, which will greatly improve the level of English. (Li, 2013)

5.3 Swain's Comprehensible Output Hypothesis

In the late 1980s, Swain proposed output hypothesis, which clarifies language output to help language learners use the language fluently and properly. (Wang and Li, 2009) Swain pointed out that only by understanding input cannot make the second language acquisition researchers accurately and using the language fluently. Successful second language acquisition both needs to contact a comprehensible input and output. Swain believes that in certain conditions, the output can promote the acquisition of the second language, which is different from the input but it can enhance input in second language acquisition.

For English learning, the output is to develop and finish tasks, such as writing, translation and oral expression. At the beginning of the training, the process is painful, because there is a need to search for useful materials in the mind. With more practice, English learners can form their own system of thinking and language expression ability.

6. Conclusion

With the development of globalization, second language acquisition is about to raise attention from the public. However, due to the cultural and environmental factors, learners will be deeply affected.

In the first place, the second language acquisition process is extremely complex. In the acquisition process, due to various factors, the learners will have a certain gap after the study of a period of time. There are individual differences among learners. Individuals are not the same in the emotional, cognitive and physical development. Moreover, living environment is also not the same. If these differences are the fact that exists objectively, then, even if there is really the best age for foreign language learning, it also varies from a person to another person. After researches, it can also be observed the influence and mutual restraint among various factors with each other. The change of a factor of will affect changes in other factors, which directly affect the eventual purpose of language learning in the process of language acquisition. The success or failure of the second language acquisition is not decided on the one hand, but the common role of the parties. Each of the second language learners has his own characteristics and teachers should understand the status of the students in accordance with their aptitude and in the light of its general trend. Learners should be combined with their own characteristics, and avoid weaknesses, turning unfavorable factors into favorable ones in order to promote all related factors and achieve the best effect.

In the second place, the process and results of the second language acquisition are influenced by many factors, but the role of mother tongue has been a focus of the field. By now, a lot of masterpieces have discussed the relationship between mother language and the second language acquisition, and put forward the concept that native language interferes in the second language acquisition. A comparative study has also been made between the mother tongue and the target language in phonology, grammar, spelling and cultural level by comparison. The hypothesis of the interlanguage also reveals the influence of mother tongue on the second language in a certain sense. Many research results on the basis of these theories show that there is a close relationship between the mother language and the second language acquisition. It is worthy of our research topic that rational use of the relationship of the first language acquisition and second language learning will promote the effectiveness of second language learning.

In the third place, language input and language output plays a very important role in the process of second language acquisition. Language input can activate mechanism of language acquisition, and language output can reflect the mechanism of input acceptance and recreation. The foreign language teaching method is not desirable, which emphasizes the one-sided focus on language input and ignores the output of the language. People should explore the teaching mode of language output, which is the effective combination of the input and output. In order to improve the communication ability of learners, teachers should provide more opportunities for them to learn and use the language, making learners express their feeling of reading and listening through the channels of speaking and writing. Only in this way can people achieve the ultimate goal of the second language teaching and second language acquisition.

Finally, cultural and environmental factors are indispensable in the process of second language acquisition. Through continuous researches and studying experience, side effect can be avoided and an effective mode of learning can be settled down. It is believed that the research of second language acquisition will continues with more positive influence and consequences.


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