how language is learned

How languages are learned

contexts for language learning

1- A young child learning a first language

2- A child learning a second language in a day care or on the playground

3- Adolescents taking a foreign language class in their own country

4- An adult immigrant with limited or disrupted education working in a second language environment and having no opportunity to go to language classes

Learner characteristics

Very young language learners begin to task of the first language acquisition without the cognitive maturity of metalinguistic awareness that older second language learners have

Most child learners are wiling to try to use the language

Others learners prefer to listen and participate in social interection with their peers

L2 aplications: mimicry and memorization

behaviorist explained learning in terms of imitation, practice, reinforcement and habit imitation

Audiolingual teacher materials and teaching training. classroom activities emphasized mimicry and memorization

The innatist perspective

Chomsky argued that innate knowledge of the principles of universal grammar permits all children to acquire the knowledge of their environment during a critical period of their development

L2 aplication krashen's monitor model

1- Acquisition learning hypothesis: we acquire as we are exposed to second language, we understand in much we learn in the other hand through conscious attention to form and rule learning

2- Monitor hypothesis: the learned system acts an editor or monitor making minor changes polishing what the acquired system has produced

3- Natural hypothesis: was based on the finding that as in first language acquisition, second language acquisition unfolds in predictable sequences

4- Input hypothesis: is that acquisition occurs when one is exposed to language that is comprehensible and that contains 1+1

5- Affective filter hypothesis: metaphorical barrier that prevents learners from language even when appropriate input is available