Assignment of module: Language Acquisition & Language and Social Context

INTRODUCTION

Learning a language is one of the greatest examples that show the difference between humans
and other animal species. It has been demonstrated that all humans can learn one or more
languages during their lives and put them in practice when needed. It seems like humans do not
learn a second language in the same way they acquired their native tongue. I clarify to myself
some ideas that might lead to be doing a better job when teaching English as a second language
on a daily basis.

DISCUSSION

When families have kids and they are around 2 years old, it is common to expect them to start
speaking their mother language. First, toddlers start by repeating single words they hear more
frequently either at home, nursing, at the grandparents house. Then they start putting two and
three words together even if they lack of connectors. By the time they reach the age of five, they
are able to make long sentences in order to communicate what they want or need just like grown-
ups do.

Since toddlers are acquiring this language, they are improving every time they hear someone
practice that language. They do not need a teacher with special training for improving their
communicative skills, they dont need to go to school or a special place to hear whatever language
it is that they are acquiring. It doesnt seem a difficult work for them to learn, and they are not
stressed out about failing a test either.

When those kids become teenagers and start learning more about their own language, they start
taking literature classes at high school and, sometimes, are told by their teachers the correct use of
grammar. In this case they are learning the language. In other words teachers tell students some
rules of the language they might have misunderstood while they acquired the language.

So there are two different ways to start speaking a new language, whether its the mother tongue or
a foreign one, as Schtz says:

When we think of language learning we need to understand two clearly distinct concepts.
One involves receiving information about the language, transforming it into knowledge through
intellectual effort and storing it through memorization. The other involves developing the skill of
interacting with foreigners to understand them and speak their language. The first concept is called
language learning, while the other is referred to as language acquisition

It is important to mention that not only toddlers and kids who are just starting to use the language
are acquiring it. Students who decided to study abroad and become exchange students for a
school year in another country are also acquiring it because they are not only being told about the
language, they are actually using the language to communicate and at the same time to learn the
written and spoken rules of that language. Cultural immersion would be a much faster way to
become fluent in one idiom than it would be to learn it at school. On the other hand, learning a
second language brings benefits once the learner is involved into the target-language. When he is
able to speak and write even a little, then explaining the correct use of some rules might be quite
productive to master an idiom.

Now, teaching English as a foreign language by making students learn it instead of let them do the
acquisition of it is the most recurrent practice worldwide. Perhaps prescribing the rules of English to
students is the only way teachers know. Teachers still need to explore the best way students can
get immerse in the culture and suck-up the language by acquisition.

First of all, teachers need to be proficient in the language they want students to become good-
users. Then they must be able to inspire and motivate learners to do their best when it comes to
practice a second language. I assume that the inside of the classroom is going to be a determinant
factor for learners to get involved into all the activities the teacher proposes.

"We are designed to walk that we are taught to walk is impossible. And pretty much the
same is true of language. Nobody is taught language. In fact you cant prevent the child from
learning it." (Chomsky, 1994)

Instead of making it happen, instructors need to let it happen. This means to set up a background
and involve learners to carry on with those activities that would make them acquire the language.
Those activities should be more realistic than what usually happens inside of the school
classrooms. Perhaps preparing a sandwich in the kitchen would be an activity in which learners
would feel comfortable because the activity itself is motivating.

Its a difference between what you know, which is your linguistic competence, and how you
use this knowledge in actual speech production and comprehension, which is your linguistic
performance. (Chomsky, 1986)
This means that if learners cant come up with new sentences made out of those words they have
already acquired, then they will only be developing their linguistic competence, but not the linguistic
performance. Linguistic performance is part of what people use language for, communicate in a
way we never have, using our creativity.

CONCLUSION

I will try to set my mind in order to make my students learn the language by acquisition instead of
by learning it. That way I think I will have more chances that they remember it in the future, at the
same I assure my classes do not get boring or out of the context they need to be learning.
Learners should be, during the first years of exposure, acquiring a second language and not
learning it. The beginning of a school course would mean much speech from the tutor and active
listening from the learners. Some steps further the mentor would invite classmates to participate in
speaking some words and sentences. Everyone decides when it is the right time to start doing so.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Schtz, Ricardo. "Assimilao Natural x Ensino Formal." English Made in Brazil

<http://www.sk.com.br/sk-laxll.html>. Online. March 20, 2017.

An introduction to language, Fromkin. Seventh edition. 2007

Noam Chomsky, The Human Language Serie 2 - 1994