UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA

FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

UNIT 2: TASK 3

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

PRESENTED BY:

COLLABORATIVE GROUP:

TUTOR:

APRIL, 2020

TASK 3: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Task 1a:

By: Cindy Jiménez

https://view.genial.ly/5e84f40078f6e10e10c6e74a/presentation-second-language-acquisition

Task B

Language learning process and the significance of age in language learning.

Language is the base of society. This is the first thing that we learn insofar as we grow up

without any special instruction and we acquired it instinctively like average to communicate

with others. The language allows to distinguish and to identify a culture, to reflect emotions,

desires, and preferences that join in rule’s society.

When we try to learn a new language, first we should understand that we’re going to know a

new culture. That this will be an active process and that process involves responsibility,

commitment, and willingness.

Language learning brings to learners to be active and to play a role in the community with

other learners, they will have to speak, write, listen and read to represent reflect, create and

analyze their ideas and experiences, this continuos process doesn’t stop and provides to the

students the ability to learn and acquire their new language up to get the better results, that

each student set out. Because the greatest part of this continuous process depends on the

student, he disposes the goal and he is obliged to accomplish it.

Many people affirm that age is an advantage or disadvantage when you learn a second

language and this is not false, because, both have consequences and influences in the learning

process. According to Lenneberg´s critical period hypothesis (1967), there is a biologically

determined period of life when language can be acquired more easily, because the

neuromuscular mechanisms are only active until 12, making easier some aspect as

pronunciation and intonation. Also, we have to take into account, that before 12 the children

are a better memory capacity and they can acquire more information if this, have been

received like a play or in a natural context. It is important to clarify, that this age, the children

acquire the second language by imitation and they just will understand the grammar after 12.
Now, with the adults, we find many advantages and dares, because they will require more

effort but they will get better results. First, the adults have more conversational competence in

their mother tongue, they have cognitive maturity and that will give you an advantage over

younger learners, for them will be easier to understand and to learn grammatical rules.

“Scarcella and Higa noted that the older acquirers (adolescents) were better able to regulate

both the quantity and quality of their input. They were better at encouraging speech and at

getting the native speaker to modify it for greater comprehensibility” (Krashen, 2009, p.44)

One important factor in the adult learning process is the motivation to learn a second

language, usually, this is associated with personal necessities like to get a better job, education

immigration among others. Although children's and adult's language learning is unlike, for

both represent a challenge and this can be related to their capacities and abilities.

3. Screenshot apport to others

Task A

By: Rafael Enrique Rangel

https://view.genial.ly/5e88ac0f28852a0e0965c98b/presentation-genially-sin-titulo

Task B

Language learning process and the significance of age in language learning.

I can describe the language learning process as enriching because by learning about a second

language, we are not only going to acquire knowledge about the grammatical part, reading or

listening.

We are also going to get to know part of the culture of the language we are studying, and in

turn curious data that can be beneficial to develop knowledge and be able to take it into

account in order to develop within the society where we should make use of the tips or advice

that were provided to us. , which can be from slang or verbal expressions used by native

people of said language, having as references their nationalities and places of origin.

In turn, we must take into account the importance of learning a second language at certain

times in our lives to prepare ourselves for the future. That is why it would be very good if the

acquisition of a second language is done since we are children in schools because learning

will be much easier, and also the child can generate a much broader development by

interacting and sharing with his classmates. lessons.

 In Colombia, we must bear in mind that the country in recent years has incorporated in its

study programs the acquisition of a second language as a fundamental basis from the schools,

to be later taken into account in labor aspects.

In the country, in the future we will be able to see how people will be much more competent

in academic and labor areas, thanks to the levels of knowledge of a second language.

3. Screenshot apport to others

Task 1A:

By: Betzi Liliana Daza

https://view.genial.ly/5e878fd678f6e10e10dcb8ca/presentation-learning-and-acquisition-
hypothesis

Task B

Language learning process and the significance of age in language learning.

The language learning process is of vital importance for the human being, since by means of

different languages you can acquire various knowledge of the native language.
Language is the main basis of the human being, this is in charge of transmitting

communication, it begins to develop from gestation, and definitively establishes itself in the

relationship that the individual maintains with the social world in which he carries out his

activity . Age is the most important factor in learning. It is scientifically proven that a Spanish

child who learns for example: English while abroad or with a native teacher during his first

years will undoubtedly achieve a magnificent accent, unlike a student who learns English in

adulthood, who can reach a high degree of competence at the syntactic and vocabulary level,

but it is difficult to overcome the pronunciation quality of the previous case.

Penfield and Roberts (1959) explain that children's brains are made up of enormous plasticity

that will decrease as they grow and reach adulthood. The critical period of teaching and

understanding both the mother tongue and a second language is more or less from the age of

two until puberty. Before the age of two, learning a second language is impossible, since it is

essential that the child understands his first mother tongue accurately before entering the

study of a different language. The child needs to differentiate the vocabulary, syntax, and

other characteristics of the first language with respect to the second language. Although

children learn languages more quickly and effortlessly, adults have more advantages such as

greater memory storage capacity, greater analysis capacity, etc. Adults understand linguistic

rules in greater depth and insight than a child. However, some isolated cases have been

demonstrated in which students who have learned a second language in adulthood have come

to understand and speak this language almost as well as a native speaker.

The language learning process is of vital importance for the human being, since by means of

different languages you can acquire various knowledge of the native language.
 Language is the main basis of the human being, this is in charge of transmitting

communication, it begins to develop from gestation, and definitively establishes itself in the

relationship that the individual maintains with the social world in which he carries out his

activity . Age is the most important factor in learning. It is scientifically proven that a Spanish

child who learns for example: English while abroad or with a native teacher during his first

years will undoubtedly achieve a magnificent accent, unlike a student who learns English in

adulthood, who can reach a high degree of competence at the syntactic and vocabulary level,

but it is difficult to overcome the pronunciation quality of the previous case.

3. Screenshot apport to others

Task 1A:
 By: Donnis David Soto

https://view.genial.ly/5e88090878f6e10e10e2346c/presentation-the-learning-learning-
distinction

Task B

Language learning process and the significance of age in language learning.

References

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

Southern California.9-45. Retrieved

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

Language and language learning, Retrieved from:

https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/ela/docs/s2_framework/lang_learning.pdf

The age factor in second language acquisition, May, 2017 Retrieved from:

https://termcoord.eu/2017/05/age-factor-second-language-acquisition/