Language 321 L2, C3

Practice activity (key)

(20 minutes)

I Locate a brief recording of an L2 speaker by using the link found in the L2 Audio Samples
document in today’s Folder or in the equivalent link embedded in today’s Learning Plan.

II Do the following tasks related to the recording.

A) Write down what you hear using the standard writing system in your L2. You will need to
listen to the recording several times, pausing and restarting as you write.

(Answers will vary)

B) Translate the message into English, using a dictionary if needed.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason
and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

C) Indicate how this activity reflects the different characteristics of speech and writing studied
earlier this week.
 The speech sample is rapid-paced, spontaneous, and fluid. Processing and understanding
the message depends on our familiarity with the vocabulary used, the accent of the
speaker, and our grammatical knowledge. It is made more difficult because we lack the
interactive component of a face-to-face conversation.

 Writing down what we hear is time consuming, because our hand cannot keep up with the
tongue. This reflects the deliberate nature of writing. We must also take time to parse
the continuous signal into the discrete units (words) in the written form.

D) What similarities and differences does the listening comprehension portion of this exercise
have with child L1 acquisition?

 Similarities – Like L1 children, the L2 adult learner hears an uninterrupted wall of sound
and must attempt to parse it into its meaningful parts. In both cases, incomplete
knowledge of the language requires us to fill in the gaps to make sense of the message.

 Differences – Adult L2 learners know this is a linguistic message intended to convey

some meaning. At least initially, L1 children must learn to distinguish non-speech
sounds with those used to communicate some meaningful message. They begin to do this
as speakers engage them face-to-face and by making associations between the sounds and
visual objects or gestures speakers include in their messaging.