Language is the specific human faculty to express and communicate their thoughts. It is given through oral signs (sounds), written signs, and gestures that carry a meaning. Language is referred to any communication procedure used by humans to communicate between individuals.

 

Characteristics of the human language:

 

1.      It has a limited number of grammatical units and separated signs that are arranged to build an infinite number of sentences and phrases.

 

2.      It has the capacity to communicate new things.

 

3.      It is always used with a specific purpose (intentionality).

 

4.      It can refer to present, past and future.

 

5.      Communication systems should be common between two or more individuals, otherwise they are useless.

 

6.      All the information is encoded and decoded in the brain.

 

Language is a psychic product. Every people think in the language that they know. After this action, the brain activates certain processes in order to transmit whether sounds or written language. The elaboration and understanding of each word are mental processes that occur in a number of regions of the brain (according to recent research). Some of these sections are identified as Broca´s and Wernicke´s areas (see picture below). Damage in Broca´s area causes difficulties in speech articulation. People with damage on Wernicke´s area have problems to understand spoken language.

 

In conclusion, human language is a complex process that occurs in the brain, activating many functions from the moment an idea needs to be expressed to someone, to the point on which all the speech organs express the message. And the instant when ears perceive sounds and they are encoded by the brain.

 

 

 

 

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Krashen's Model:

 

Is a theory which main goal is that people were able to communicate with native speakers of a language. According to this theory, people acquire language when they are directly exposed to the target language. On the other hand, learning is a conscious process in which people learn the language with a tutor or in an academic context.

 

• Input hypotheses: According to Krashen´s model, human beings acquire language through receiving comprehensible input.

   

• Monitor: conscious learning acts as a monitor or editor.

   

• Affective filter: affective factors that block or impede the acquisition or learning process.

   

• Anxiety

   

• Personality Factors

   

• Motivation

   

  • Natural order: Human beings acquire language in a predictable order.

     

Contrastive: L1 interferes in a positive and a negative way with the L2 acquisition or learning process.

 

• Language Transfer: This theory takes language as a set of habits and learning as the establishment of new habits.

   

• Interlingual/Intralingual transfer: If the learner has an internal grammar (not the grammatical system of the target language, but a system, it will help them to develop the acquisition or learning process.

   

Connectionism: is a theory that gives greater importance to the role of the environment than any innate knowledge in the learner. Connectionists argue that input, rather than acting, is the main source of knowledge. Through thousands of instances of exposure to target language learners build up stronger neurological and mental connections between elements of a language.

 

Information processing: Learners through experience and practice become able to use certain parts of their knowledge so quickly and automatically that they are not aware that they are doing it.

 

References

 

ü        Krashen, S and Terrel, D (1983) The Natural Approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Oxford: Pergamon.

 

ü        ESL compswiki (2007) Theoretical approaches to explaining first language learning. (Documento en línea) Disponible: http://eslcompswiki.wikispaces.com/Theory+of+Language+and+Language+Acquisition. Revisado el: 6- 12- 2007.

 

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Connectionism

 

 

 

It is a theory that explains human intellectual abilities such as face recognition, reading, and the detection of simple grammatical structure, using neural networks (a large number of units called neurons, that are the basic information processing structures in the brain, joined together in a pattern of connections).

 

Thorndike states that learning is the result of associations forming between stimuli and responses. Here we have his three primary laws:

 

(1) Those situations that are followed by a reward will be strengthened. In that case, responses that cause satisfaction will become habitual.

 

(2) Learning is purpose oriented; this means that unless individuals see a reason for learning, they are not likely to learn. This explains why individuals learn faster when they need the knowledge.

 

 (3) Neural connections work as body muscles (the more we exercise a connection by repeating the same stimuli, the stronger the connection is). Stronger connections have the ability to activate faster responses, for example, faces that people are more accustomed to see, can be recognized faster than those people had seen once in a remote past. This means that those connections weakened when practice discontinued.

 

This theory explains human behaviour through linking pieces of information contained in neurons. The neuron has six basic functional properties:

 

It receives signals from the environment or other neurons.

 

It integrates and manipulates the input.

 

It conducts the integrated information over distances.

 

It sends information to other neurons or cells.

 

It transfers one type of information into another.

 

And, it conducts the formation of internal representations.

 

The theory suggests that transfer of learning depends upon the presence of identical elements in the original and new learning situations. We can use as an example the transference of grammatical rules in different sentences.

 

Zulbely Miranda.

 

 

 Factors Affecting Second Language Acquisition

 

 

INTELLIGENCE

• Measured by IQ tests

 

• It was found that while Intelligence was related to the development of second language reading, grammar, and vocabulary, it was unrelated to oral productive skills.

 

• Intelligence may be a strong factor when learning involves language analysis and rule learning.

 

• Intelligence may play less important role where instruction focuses more on communication and interaction.

 

APTITUDE

• Ability to identify and memorize new sounds

 

• Ability to understand the function of particular words in sentences

 

• Ability to figure out grammatical rules

 

• Memory for new words

 

• Successful language learners may not be strong in all of the components of aptitude.

PERSONALITY

Personality can inhibit learners or to encourage them. Introversion has the greatest chance of negatively affecting SLA because students that are afraid of embarrassing themselves by speaking incorrectly or by not being able to speak at all may try to avoid opportunities that would help their learning. .

 

MOTIVATION

 

Motivation is a desire to learn or acquire language. 

Integrative motivation is seen in language learners whose desire to learn is rooted in wanting to become part of the L2-speaking community.

Instrumental motivation in seen as a desire to learn a second language as a mean to obtaining some reward (good grades, employment, a diploma)

 

 

 

Contrastive Analysis

Contrastive Analysis is the systematic study of a pair of languages in order to identify their structural differences and similarities. This theory claims that it is possible to contrast the system of one language (the grammar, phonology and lexicon) with the system of the target language in order to predict the difficulties which a speaker of the second language will have in learning the first language, and to construct reading materials to help them learning that language.

 

Many recent studies support the view that cross-linguistic influences can have an important impact on second language acquisition. Language teachers, applied linguists, and educational researchers will find this theory extremely valuable to their work. The starting point of this approach is provided by real evidence from such phenomena as faulty translation, learning difficulties and residual foreign accents.

 

Language Transfer.

 

Language transfer refers to a situation where the learning of a skill in one language transfers to a second language. Transfer can be positive or negative. That is, a previously learned or acquired language can either facilitate (positive transfer) or inhibit (negative transfer) the learning of a second language.

 

Classification of language transfer analysis:

 

Intralingual: Within the same language.

 

• Analysis of contrastive phonemes.

   

• Feature analysis of morph syntactic categories.

   

• Analysis of morphemes having grammatical meaning

   

• Analysis of word order
• Componential analysis of lexemes.

   

• Analysis of lexical relations.

   

Interlingual: Between two languages.

• Comparative analysis of morph syntactic systems
• Comparative analysis of lexical semantics.

   

• Analysis of translational equivalence.

   

• Study of interference in foreign language learning.

   

 

Zulbely Miranda

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