CONSIDERATIONS

CONSIDERATIONS

1. Neurological considerations

   • As long as the brain mature some functions are lateralized to the left hemisphere of the brain and other functions to the right hemisphere. Each part of the brain appears to fulfill a function, language functions appears to be controlled by the left hemisphere. There are some neurological researches about the brain functions in the process of language acquisition. It has been found that children in puberty that suffer injury can relocalize the left hemisphere functions to the right hemisphere. Also, Thomas Scovel suggested that there is a plasticity in the brain that allow children to acquire first language and even second language as a native speaker before puberty. Other authors as Krasen suggested that lateralization is complete at the age of five.

2. Psychomotor Considerations

   • In the process of articulation there are several muscles that are used, such as throat, larynx, mouth, lips, tongue, and other. The coordination and control of those muscles are required to achieve a native-like pronunciation. These speech muscles gradually develop, and control of some complex sounds. Children who acquired a second language after the age of 5 may have a physical advantage in that phonemic control because plasticity is still present.

3. Cognitive Considerations

   • Through the first 16 years of life, human cognition develops in a faster way than after adulthood. Jean Piaget proposes the child stages, which are sensorimotor from ages 0 to 2, the preoperational from ages 2 to 7, the operational from ages 7 to 16. The critical stage to consider language learning, according to Piaget, occurs at puberty. also, the lateralization says that as the child turns an adult the left hemisphere becomes more dominant. Piaget's theory of equilibration is a cycle which is compound by equilibration ( resolution and certainty) and disequilibrium ( dudes and uncertain). Ausubel meaningful learning

4. Affective Considerations

   • Human beings are influenced by their emotions, there are factors such as empathy, self-esteem, extroversion, inhibition, imitation, anxiety, attitudes that are crucial when is learn a second language. Alexander Guiora proposes the term "ego of language" that in the childhood stage is dynamic and allows the learning of a language, but as the child grows, inhibitions are created that protect the ego that would affect the learning of a second language.

5. Linguistic Considerations

   • To learn a language, we must distinguish the contexts of each one. When a child learns a second language, the processes are similar to the first language, but for an adult, the process of learning a second language becomes difficult since in some cases the first language interferes with the learning of the second. However, the first language can be a facilitating factor, and not just an interfering factor because the learner has a guide about how the second language can work based on the mother tongue.