SAINT MICHAEL COLLEGE OF HINDANG LEYTE INC.

A Bonifacio St., Poblacion II, Hindang Leyte

MAJOR 4A
PRINCIPLES AND THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LEARNING

Factors Affecting Second Language Acquisition

I. INTRODUCTION

What is Second Language?

 Any language other than the first language learned.

 A language learned after the first language in a context where the language is used widely
in the speech community (in a narrower sense).
 Example: For many people in Taiwan, their first language (L1) is Taiwanese and the
second language (L2) is Mandarin.

What is Acquisition

 Acquisition is a process whereby children become speakers of their native language.

 Acquisition is a process by which language capabilities of a person increases.
 Gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative
situations with others who know the language.
 Example: Children who “pick up” a second language from long periods spent in
interaction, constantly using the language with the native speakers of the language as
their first language (L1).

What is Learning?

 A conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the features of language such as

pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
 Result in more knowledge “about” the language than fluency in actually using the
language.
 Example: A student can fill in the blanks on a grammar page but knowing grammar rules
does not necessarily result in good speaking as they may not be able to speak fluently.

II. CONTENT
FACTORS AFFECTING SECOND LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
 The general factors that affect Second Language such as age, aptitude, intelligence,
cognitive styles, attitudes, motivation and personality. The aim of this factors and contribution to
success or failure in the second language acquisition.

1. Motivation
 Motivation is one of the most important factors in second language acquisition. Richards
believes that motivation as a factor that determine a person’s desire to do something. It is
obvious that learners who want to learn are likely to achieve more than those who do not.
Gardner and Lambert defines motivation in terms of ‘the learners overall goal’. They also
distinguish two types of motivation;
a. Integrative motivation
 a learners’ studies a language because he is interested in the people and
culture of the target language in order to communicate with people of
another culture who speak it.
b. Instrumental motivation
 a learners’ goals for learning for the second language are functional or
useful. For example, they need the language to get a better job, to past the
tests etc.

 Motivation can also be distinguished into Intrinsic and Extrinsic.

a. Intrinsically motivated are ones for which there is no apparent reward except
the activity itself.
b. Extrinsically motivated behaviors expect a reward, for example, a praise or
positive feedback.

2. Attitude
 Attitudes is sets of beliefs about factors as the target language culture, their own culture
and in case of classroom learning of their teachers and the learning task they are given.
Language attitudes are which speakers of different languages have toward others
language or to their own language. It’s the expression of positive or negative feelings
toward a language may reflect impression of linguistic difficulty or simplicity, ease or
difficulty of learning, etc.

 Gardner and Lambert have investigated a number of different attitudes which were
classified by Stern, into three types;
a. Attitudes towards the community and people who speak.
b. Attitudes towards learning and language concerned.
c. Attitudes towards language and language learning in general.

3. Age
 Age is one of the factors that affects second language learning. It is generally believed
that children are better at language acquisition than adults. However, only the studies
conducted in naturalistic learning settings provide the evidence that support this
assumption. According to Lenneberg, that the language learning may be more difficult
after puberty because the brain lacks the ability and adaptation. Other researches proved
that learners who start learning a foreign language as children achieve a more native like
accent than those who start as adolescent or adults.

4. Intelligence
 Intelligence is the general ability to master academic skills and measured in terms of
linguistic and logical mathematical abilities. The studies on intelligence show a strong
 relationship between far as academic skills are concerned. It is proved that intelligence
can predict the rate and success of SLA in the formal language classroom.
 Gardner introduced a theory of Multiple Intelligences. He described eight types of
intelligence;

a. Linguistic
 sensitivity to spoken and written language, the capacity to use the language to
accomplish certain goals.
b. Logical-mathematical
 ability to detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically
c. Spatial
 ability to recognize and use the patterns of wide space and more confined
areas.
d. Musical
 capacity to recognize and create musical pitches and rhythmic patterns.
e. Bodily-kinesthetic
 ability to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily movements
f. Interpersonal
 capacity to understand intention, motivations and desires of other people
g. Intrapersonal
 ability to understand oneself, to develop a sense of self identity.
h. Naturalistic
 ability to understand the natural word.

5. Aptitude
 Aptitude refers to specific ability a learner has for learning a second language. Richards
(1985) explains that aptitude is natural ability to learn a language. Further, he adds that
language aptitude is thought to be a combination of various abilities, such as the ability to
identify and sound pattern in a new language, the ability to recognize the different of
grammatical functions of words in sentences. Students need aptitude for some specific
abilities which are responsible for learning languages.

6. Learning styles
 Learning style is also called cognitive style. It is the particular way in which a learner
tries to learn something. In L2 or foreign language learning, different learner may prefer
different solution to learning problems. Some learners may want explanations for
grammatical rules, some may feel writing down words and sentences which help them to
remember (kinesthetic learners). And others may find they remember things better if they
are associated with picture (visual learners). Richards (1985) mentions that learning style
or strategy accounts for how learners accumulate new L2 rules and how they automate
existing ones.

7. Personality
 Personality has been described as a set of features that characterize an individual. It has
been stated that this concept is difficult to define and measure because of its complicated
nature. Studies which investigate personality traits are based on the belief that learners
bring to classroom not only their cognitive abilities but also affective states which
 influence the way they acquire language. The most important personality factors are;
introversion/extroversion, self-esteem, inhibition, risk-taking, anxiety and empathy.

III. IMPLICATION TO THE CLASSROOM SETTING

 At present, SLA happens mostly in classrooms, where teachers pay much attention to
vocabulary and grammar while learners seldom have the chances to practice what they
learned.

A. Teaching Enlightenment
1. To Create Language Environment
 Teachers should focus on students’ acquiring instead of learning a second language. The
process of SLA is a psychological process in which learners actively participate and what
learners learned will be stored, processed and practiced and only by creating a better
language environment and language input, can the process of SLA be realized. Therefore,
in order to improve the efficiency of language teaching, teachers should attach
importance to creating language environment.
 First, teachers Introduce more about the culture and custom of the target language to
attract learners’ interest in SLA.
 Second, teachers should create a pleasant environment for learners to reduce learner’s
resistance in a second language learning. For example, through multimedia, teachers can
make language learning more interesting;
 Third, teachers should hold or encourage learners to hold more activities related to
language learning, which can help learners to practice what they have learned.

2. To provide more comprehensible input

 The language learning is mainly achieved by getting a lot of understandable input, which
is mainly composed of listening and reading. According to the comprehensible input
hypothesis proposed by Krashen, if we want to make the best use of language, input in
SLA, we should process the meanings of it and make the materials input interesting and
understandable, which can help learners master the language imperceptibly. In classroom,
it is teachers who are responsible for providing students with comprehensible input
besides the expression of grammar.

3. To Pay Much Attention to the Feedback on Learning

 Feedback from teachers on learners’ learning is a kind of assessment, which consists of
oral compliment and criticism. Through feedback, learners can know exactly the
efficiency of their language learning, which can help them to correct the wrong and
enhance the right in the future learning. Authentic feedback on learner’s hard work is of
help to improve their language learning, and the sense of achievement is the motivation
for the improvement of learners in SLA.

B. Learning Enlightenment
1. To Set Up a Specific Goal
 Learners with specific goals are more likely to be better motivated in a second language
learning because learning motivation is the intrinsic driving force which will directly
 promote a learner’s learning process and efficiency. For example, if the goal of a learner
is to study abroad, he or she should learn more about cultures and customs of the country
speaking target language, which will also motive him/her to practice oral English more
by join activities like oral English Contest and to be active in communicating with his/her
foreign teachers in class.

2. To hold a positive attitude

 Since people differs a lot from each other, so-called individual differences, it’s natural
that the learning efficiencies will be different among different learners. A learner should
realize the individual differences and accept them. When a learner doesn’t achieve what
he or she expected, he/she should find out the reasons and go on with his/her learning
step by step instead of being overanxious, depressed or even giving up. Only when
learners look at individual differences in a right way and learn according to them, can
learners obtain their own achievements in a second language learning. Holding a positive
attitude means not only accepting individual differences but also actively handle the
problems.

3. To Improve First Language Proficiency

 When their first language is poor, their mother tongue will exert a negative effect on their
second language learning, which makes them proceed slowly or even fail in SLA. Thus,
first language proficiency is the basis of one’s SLA, for the reason of which one should
learn one’s mother tongue better and know better about the differences between first
language and target language, which helps positive transfer happens and cushion the
negative one and as a result, the achievement in SLA will be remarkable.

4. To Carry Out More reading

 Many studies have found that reading can help learners to improve their pragmatic
competence and widen their scope of knowledge, which will lay a good foundation for
future learning. Reading can be divided into two kinds: extensive reading and classified
reading. Nowadays online reading is popular and has become important contents of
modern consciousness, which can help learners to keep up with the latest news of target
language, to improve their abilities of practicing a second language. It can help learners
with high levels can summarize what they’ve learned in the learning process and to some
extent offer a rapid way to improve accuracy in language usage.

IV. REFLECTION

 There are many factors affecting second language acquisition which are interconnected,
interacting and inter promoting. Being successful in second language acquisition, it
depends on many factors. Age and motivation factors are among the important ones. In
studies, it has been found that if a learner has a competency in his or her own language,
he or she is more advantageous than those who lacks competence in first language. As to
 motivation, it has been revealed that motivated students are more successful in second
language acquisition than those who are demotivated. Motivation is a crucial factor in
second language acquisition which is influenced by different factors which are the
personality, the postures of learners, their cognition styles. The motivation is the
neglected heart of our construal of how to design learning and teaching and it is
something that all students bring with them in one form or another. It is not the case that
all we require to do, as teachers, is to identify it, embolden it, victual it now and then, and
optically canvas it grow. The language teachers should facilitate a second language
learning with the help of multimedia, internet platform, mobile communication devices,
everything available. As learners, they better put factors affecting in SLA, individual and
social, in perspective and take the advantage of them to succeed in SLA. So, the process
of acquiring the second language acquisition can be effective when both the learners and
the teacher are involved in the process and derive fun out of it. This is the only way to
keep the motivation and interest levels high. When this is achieved, all the problems of
teaching and learning get resolve and better results are attained.

GROUP 3 MEMBERS
Pamela O. Brehonio BSED 2– Leader
Jianne B. Briones BSED 2
Stiffany Valdez BSED 2
Mary Grace L. Bellezas BSED 2