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Roles of first language acquisition in second language acquisition
Roles of first language acquisition in second language acquisition
Roles of first language acquisition in second language acquisition
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It is an obvious notion that millions of people around the world can speak more than one language than their native tongue language. While some speakers are able to achieve a proficient fluency in their second target language (L2), others cannot do so. In more recent years, researcher’s level of interest has dramatically increased into why language learners have a problem being fluent in their second target language. They have suggested that there is a process in which one language can be interfere in a certain way that can affect the second language being learned. A language learner is being influence by a process known as interlanguage that is caused by borrowing language and rules from their mother tongue. Chomsky has said that babies have access to ‘language universals’ and we humans have an innate ability. Language has been said to have its own natural agenda and it takes its own way of developing, but never a habit formation. Learner language or better known as interlanguage is the type of language produced by nonnative speakers in the process of learning a second language. During this process, errors are caused by interference that occurs when the language learner tries to extend, borrow, and apply the rule of their mother tongue onto the second language (L1 transfers to L2), which causes a mix in the both languages. Essentially borrowing linguistically means that they change phonological and phonetic systems but maintain their general sound pattern. This awareness has created a contributing factor in affecting foreign language learning which causes problems when a person attempts to communicate the second language. For example, this type of interference produces distinctive forms in a way an English language learner is u... ... middle of paper ... ...ingual Education, 1 (2008): 404-406. Lakshmanan, Usha. And Larry Selinker. “Analysing Interlanguage: How Do We Know What Learners Know?.” Second Language Research, 17.4 (2001): 393-420. Long, M. H. (2003). Stabilisation and fossilization in interlanguage development. In C. Doughty & M. H. Long (eds.), Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (pp. 487– 536,). Oxford: Blackwell. Nickel, Gerhard. “The Role Of Interlanguage In Foreign Language Teaching.” IRAL: International Review Of Applied Linguistics In Language Teaching 36.1 (1998): 1. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Richards, Jack C. “Social Factors, Interlanguage, and Language Learning.” Language Learning, 22.2 (1972): 159-188. Spolsky, Bernard, and Francis M. Hult. "Chapter 29: Interlanguage and Language Transfer." The Handbook of Educational Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. N. pag Print.
The video Mother Tongues: Languages Around the World discusses the various languages found in Africa, Oceana, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The film starts with a brief description of Africa’s nearly 2000 languages. It explains that because of Africa’s relative isolation and long history of occupants it has the most languages of any land mass. The African languages include anything from Arabic, Swahili, or the ‘click’ language. Click languages are located only in Africa; in these languages the clicks function as normal consonants.The many languages of Africa all evolved differently due to separation between groups. For example the Nigeria area has over 400 languages and almost every language group is represented. Africa has unique sounds such as kp or gb which can be written has ibgo. These sounds are not common in places other than Africa. Swahili is probably the best-known African language. Developed along the Indian Ocean near areas such as Kenya. Swahili was adopted from many languages especially Arabic. Swahili has taken on an international image as one of the main languages of Africa.
Most people who grow up with a foreign language spoken in there house grow up with an advantage in society. This advantage can only occur once the individual learning that foreign language also learns the dominant language spoken in that country. Once both of these languages are learned and mastered, the individual has now placed them se...
In the essay “Mother Tongue” Amy Tan, the author, gives a different, a more upbeat outlook on the various forms of English that immigrants speak as they adapt to the American culture. Using simple language to develop her argument, she casually communicates to the audience rather than informing which helps the audience understand what is being presented at ease. Her mother plays an important role in her outlook of language, because she helps her realize that language not only allows one to be a part of a culture but create one’s identity in society. Amy Tan shares her real life stories about cultural racism and the struggle to survive in America as an immigrant without showing any emotions, which is a wonderful epiphany for the audience in realizing
In Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” descriptive diction emphasizes her story of growing up as a Chinese- American showing that people shouldn’t be judged by their use of language. Language can be expressed in different levels but the use of the phrase “broken english” bothered Tan she states, “as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness,”(692). Tan expresses that one cannot be judged on the basis of how varied their english maybe. Growing up bilingual Tan depicts her mother’s use of language as, “ language, as i hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery” (692). To Tan the language is familiar and comforting although many would find it unflattering, like the stock brokers and doctor
The article Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan is a personal look into how language, and the dialects of that language, can affect a person 's life. It 's a look into how the people inside the cultural circles who use dialect derivatives of a major language are treated by people who exist outside of those cultural circles. It shows us how society treats a person using a "broken" or "limited" dialect, and how society 's treatment of these people can also affect the children who grow up using these "broken" dialects. Tan wrote this article try and convey to the reader that English is a colorful, and ever-changing language that has many dialects. Tan makes the point, several times throughout the article, that society judges you based on the type of English that you use. Throughout the article, Tan uses both her mother, herself and society 's treatment of them as evidence to support her idea. The purpose of pointing this out is to show the reader that the language a person uses, whether it be taught to them in school or by a parent at home, isn 't indicative of a person 's intelligence or value, and they shouldn 't be judged as less for using it.
“We can know so much because in a sense we already knew it” (Chomsky, 1976 p.7). Within this quote are the foundations for Chomsky’s theory of an innate predisposition to learn language by his imagination of a mind that holds a priori knowledge. It is suggested by Chomsky (1976) that this innate knowledge is within the human mind at birth and is unlocked by experience. Essentially, Chomsky’s argument is that there is some sort of biological basis only evident within humans that permits the acquisition of language across different cultures, notwithstanding the complexities or differences between them. Christiansen and Chater (2008) provide for Chomsky’s position by noting that children can obtain their native language before being able to carry out tasks such as tying laces or riding a bicycle.
Over the course of time the topic of language has been a catalyst for many discussions and debates as to if it is learned throughout one's life, or is it a hard copy instinct the one is born with. Many scientists and writers in the humanities field have their own opinions as to what they believe about language and its plight in human society. One writer challenges many of our educators and scholars today by expressing his thoughts on the instinct to understand, learn, and speak language.
Also in support of the Bilingual Approach, Brown (2000:68) says the first language ‘can be a facilitating factor not just an interfering factor.’ Brown is here alluding to the issue of language transfer, which is defined by Odlin (1993:27) as ‘the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired.’ The facilitating factor (Brown, 2000) is what is referred to as positive transfer, or a situation where similarities between the L1 and the L2 can facilitate learning. Positive transfer is also defined by Nunan (2000) as the use of the rules that coincide in both the L1 and the L2 and the learners using the L1 rules to benefit from learning the L2. The interfering factor (Brown, 2000) refers to negative transfer, or the use of L1rules in the learning of an L2 although such rules do not exist in the L2 (Nunan, 2000). Dulay and Burt (cited in Maniam, 2010), refer to negative transfer as interference, which they define as automatic transfer, due to habit, of the surface structure of the L1 on the surface structure of the L2. In apparent reference to the notion of negative transfer,
In linguist and psychologist Noam Chomsky’s Language and Mind, he asserts that a “universal grammar provides a highly restrictive schema to which any human language must conform” (55). The theory of universal grammar that Chomsky proposed states that the ability to comprehend and produce a language is already built in the human brain before birth. Even from an early age, children’s brains are programmed to constantly analyze grammar and syntax. To back up his claim, Chomsky elaborates on “the intrinsic structure of a language-acquisition device” (99).
The acquisition of language has long been a debate in the world of linguistics, starting with B.F Skinner and Noam Chomsky in the 1950’s. Skinner, a leading behaviorist argued that language is just another behaviour learned through stimulus reinforcement, whereas Chomsky argued that it is unique. In his novel “The Language Instinct”, Pinker discusses the ins and outs of language while siding with Chomsky’s viewpoint. To further explain how language is not just a learned skill and to develop his own argument, Pinker goes as far as calling language an ‘instinct’.
Andrew Sampson states that total proscription of mother tongue is detrimental to some extent, suggesting that code switching of mother tongue and English, under a good strategy of control, is useful for academic needs and even communicating purposes by concluding, “The results of this study suggest that code-switching is not necessarily connected to learners’ ability level and rarely signals an unwillingness to communicate in L2, but rather serves communicative classroom functions such as expressing equivalence, discussing procedural concerns, floor holding, reiterating concepts, and forming group relationships” (302). Code-switching not only improves the learner’s proficiency in English, but also allows the students to learn. In most cases, English language is meant for English-speaking students’ at level L2 or L3. Therefore, teachers should help non-native English-speaking students to code-switch in their communications. Code switching would improve the learner’s ability to identify his or her mistakes and correct those mistakes while she or he continues to learn English. At the same time, if possible, the teachers might use code switching to illustrate particular concepts and subjects. In other words, the teachers themselves can use the learner’s L1 or any other language to explain concepts or offer examples on the subjects in the learner’s L1. However, the teachers should avoid using oversimplified English words and vocabularies. This is because such approach would not help the learner to perfect his or her English
“Broken English” is a commonly used term for those who speak English but not properly or entirely. In Amy Tan’s essay “My Mother Tongue” she explains what it was like growing up with her mother 's broken English. She includes exact phrases her mother said to enhance the essay. In Junot Diaz’s short story “The Money” he also includes the use of Spanglish, a combination of Spanish and English. His incorporation allows the reader to further understand the background and culture of the short story when growing up in New Jersey. In “My Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan and “The Money” by Junot Diaz the incorporation of “Broken English” enhance the integrity of their essays.
Nowadays, knowing more than one language is important not only just with communication in a multi-culture society like Australia but it also contribute in individual career. Therefore, children are born ready to become bilingual and language learner. Bilingual, according to Kessler (1997) is defined as “the alternate use or more language within the same individual” (p.17). Young children who are acquiring two languages simultaneously from birth appear to mix language at the word level, utterance level and across in small conversation level. Children often put together or combine two or more separate language in their utterances. Therefore, language mixing is a phenomenon of bilingual and happens in young children. The aim of this paper is to provide further evidences on the result of Lindholm and Padilla (1977) study in the article “Language Mixing in Bilingual Children”, and these evidences agreed with their study. The study reveals that bilingual children differentiate their two languages when they are increased the age. Extending of their research, the result provides that most English words appear in Spanish utterances of Spanish-English children when bilingual children mix language at lexical, phonology and phrasal level.
Still today, it is the commonly held belief that children acquire their mother tongue through imitation of the parents, caregivers or the people in their environment. Linguists too had the same conviction until 1957, when a then relatively unknown man, A. Noam Chomsky, propounded his theory that the capacity to acquire language is in fact innate. This revolutionized the study of language acquisition, and after a brief period of controversy upon the publication of his book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, in 1964, his theories are now generally accepted as largely true. As a consequence, he was responsible for the emergence of a new field during the 1960s, Developmental Psycholinguistics, which deals with children’s first language acquisition. He was not the first to question our hitherto mute acceptance of a debatable concept – long before, Plato wondered how children could possibly acquire so complex a skill as language with so little experience of life. Experiments have clearly identified an ability to discern syntactical nuances in very young infants, although they are still at the pre-linguistic stage. Children of three, however, are able to manipulate very complicated syntactical sentences, although they are unable to tie their own shoelaces, for example. Indeed, language is not a skill such as many others, like learning to drive or perform mathematical operations – it cannot be taught as such in these early stages. Rather, it is the acquisition of language which fascinates linguists today, and how it is possible. Noam Chomsky turned the world’s eyes to this enigmatic question at a time when it was assumed to have a deceptively simple explanation.
As time goes by and as the global community develops, the world grows more and more international, making second or third language acquisition become necessary to the majority. With the growing importance of multiple language ability, more and more parents think of bilingual or multilingual education, which means acquisitions of two or more languages, for their kids. In fact, we do have many reasons showing why multilingual education is important and beneficial, such as aspects of interpersonal relationship, employment, brain health, and so on.