Chapter 6 Second language development

There are seven main factors that can affect the development of a second language.
First of all, language transfer can be one of the barriers in students’ learning. Language
Transfer is defined as “the influence resulting from the similarities and differences between
the target language and any other language that has been previously acquired” (Odlin, 1989,
p. 27). The language transfer can be both positive and negative transfer. Positive transfer can
facilitate the process of students’ learning, whereas negative transfer can impose confusion
and misunderstanding. For example, the influence of Khmer on Cambodian speaker who is
learning English. Cambodian speaker may say “ I have sisters two.” rather than “I have two
sisters”. The second influence is overgeneralization that refers to a circumstance in which
children overuse the rules of the target language in a broader category. For example, when
studying the past tense with the adding of “-ed”, students may come up with “goed or doed
rather than “wend or did”. Markedness is the third element that can interfere students’
learning process. It is a state in which one linguistic element is more distinctively identified
than other elements (Nordquist, 2018). For example, we have to add “s” or “es” to mark the
third-person singular. The next factors to be considered is developmental sequences which is
the process that learners develop their language learning ability step by step in a fixed order.
For instance, the acquisition of negation shows clear structure which involve a series of form.
People begin to use pattern of negative as “no swim”, and then “I no can swim” and the last
one I cannot swim. After that, it is realized that negative is attached to modal verbs.
Additionally, the fifth factor that plays an important in affecting students’ learning second
language is formulaic expression. It takes place when a sequence, continuous or
discontinuous, of words or other meaning elements, which is, or appears to be, prefabricated:
that is stored and retrieved whole from the memory at the time of use, rather than being subject
to generation or analysis by the language grammar (Wray, 2000). For example, when I was
young, I was taught to speak the whole sentence, which is “What’s your name?”, without
telling the meaning of each element or the use of grammar. I only knew how to read the
sentence and the meaning of the whole sentence. Moreover, fossilization is another process
that can cause the difficulties for language learners. According to Selinker (1978), it means
aspects of the learners’ interlanguage that appear to “fossilize” or remain permanently fixed
as non-native like structures or sounds. For example, once you open your mouth, people know
where you come from. Likewise, many Cambodian students have problem with pronunciation
that reflect nonnative-like sounds. They mispronounce the English “th” sound as “t” or “z”.
Last but not least, a situation when the L2 learners avoid using some particular sounds, words
or grammatical structures that they think those are unimportant and are not formally known.
For example, a few students may use simple sentence rather than complex structure of
sentence even they have already studied about it.
Being a teacher is not an easy job, teachers have to put a lot of efforts in preparing the
handouts for students as well as pay attention to their learning in order to find out how to
assist them. After figuring out what the common influences that disturb students’ learning,
the teacher can help distinguish and explain the differences and similarities between their first
language and the target language so that students can use the target language effectively and
clearly. Moreover, teacher can correct the students’ mistakes immediately or wait after they
finish their talking because they will realize the mistakes and adjust next time. Last but not
least, feedback should be given to the students or students can ask for their teacher’s
recommendation. For example, after checking the students’ writing, the teacher is able to
mention some changes, compliment, and recommend what should be changed to improve
their writing skills.

Chapter 7 the age factor

The chapter begins by stating that whether the certain age range can help people learn an L2 to
the native speaker levels is still a hotly debated issue. The chapter later on incorporates the
findings from different studies in order to examine the issues related to age factor. It is
hypothesized in the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) that, after the Critical Period, a period
of time during which certain behaviors or skills appear to be acquired with particular speed and
ease without external intervention, learners cannot attain the native-speaker-like ability when
they learn the language. Eric Lenneberg (2013) specified the duration of “critical period” as
from around 2 years old to around 13 years old. Children should be exposed to the language
during this period so as to become native-speaker-like. Otherwise, after these ages, learners are
believed to be unable to automatically acquire the language from a little exposure, unlike most
children; to learn or need being taught consciously and with labored effort; and to be unable to
overcome the foreign accents easily. Nevertheless, it does not mean that adults cannot reach
the high levels of L2 proficiency; instead, they just cannot achieve the native-speaker levels.
To support this notion, the book raises cases about two children who were raised in isolation
with little or no exposure to the language of their surroundings. Such children is referred to by
a term “Feral Child”. In the first case, a twelve-year-old boy Victor, who might have been
abandoned and
raised by wolves, came out of the forest in France. He was reported to be unable to learn to
speak even though he was taught so vigorously. The other case was about a 13-year-old young
girl under the pseudonym Genie, who was kept in a room between the ages of 18 months and
nearly 14 years. After receiving the teaching of English language, she could acquire the
vocabulary, but her understanding of the syntax and morphology was still weak. There are also
empirical studies to further examine the effect of age on SLA. The studies focus on the age of
arrival (AOA) or age of onset (AO) and Length of Residence (LOR). AoA may be
differentiated from AO in that AoA refers to the age of individual arrival in the country of
target language, while AO is more about the age of individual getting exposed to the second
language. Most studies indicated that, with many years of onset, the learners could pass as
native speakers on some tasks such as reading isolated sentences and grammar written
transcripts. Thus, the early age of onset and long length of residence can be advantageous for
an individual to pass native-like pronunciation. Nevertheless, the CPH cannot go without the
exception. There are a few cases in which some individuals still perform well even though their
puberty has already passed. To illustrate, a British woman named Julia learned to speak and
understand Arabic in the naturalistic context without formal instruction. She could differentiate
Egyptian from non-Egyptian Arabic accents. Moreover, she performed close to native-like on
various grammatical and translation tasks. In short, from this case, the critical period hypothesis
fails to explain the effect of age on the SLA. The age factor is very beneficial for learners as
well as teachers to take into account. For learners, when they are in the critical period, they
themselves should take advantages of it by learning as much as possible in order to reach the
native-like level, or their parents should encourage the children of this age range to do so. The
reason is that, within these ages (2-13 years of age), leaners can learn faster and more easily. If
they fail to do so, it is highly likely hard for them to achieve the native-like level. However,
learners should not be disappointed if they are starting learning a second language at an older
age beyond critical period. They still can be highly proficient in the second language, if not
native-like, as long as they try to study it consciously. It does not mean that you have to be in
the critical period when you are studying to be a native-like speaker, but there are also
exceptions. Moreover, possibly for us as teachers, understanding their age factor helps us to
understand what teaching methods or techniques should be used accordingly so that the
children can gain with much exposure to the target language.

Chapter 8: Individual differences

In life, people tend to like to compare themselves to other be it knowledge, wealth, and
beauty; however, they have never considered about the differences that they have from others
at all. In education field, students really fond of comparing their academic achievement to their
friends and classmates. The comparison has sometimes been a motivation for students to work
harder or appreciate their own effort in learning, meanwhile some other times, it has been
quite a pressure or burden to those who feel inferior whenever it comes to comparing. From
Chapter 8 of SL’s course book which is Introducing Second Language Acquisition, it is stated
that differences of learning and outcomes of the learning of second language might be
influenced by the differences that individual has including intelligence, aptitude, attitudes,
motivation, personality, learning style, cognitive style, and learning strategies.
The individual differences that are mentioned above is believed to be factors that play
such a crucial role in learning second language. However, not all factors hold the same
importance as some factors seem to be not really associated in second language acquisition at
all. The first factor that will be discussed is intelligence which refers to the ability to adapt to
the environment, often operationalized in terms of traditional IQ tests emphasizing skills
valued in academic contexts. Based on a study which is aimed to examine whether intelligence
test measures correlated with aspects of second language performance, the result showed that
intelligence really seems to have relationship only with skills requiring abstract language
abilities, but not skills requiring useful in carrying out face-to-face personal communication at
all. Another factor is aptitude which also has an important role in second language learning; it
refers to basic abilities that facilitate individual second language learning, and it is different
between one another. Aptitude has four main characteristics. It has to be a stable innate,
separated from general intelligence, motivation, and viewed as capacity that enhances the
efficiency of learning. It is found that aptitude is associated with two main grades which are
more advanced and less advanced. It is also believed that WM, working memory which is an
active system for temporarily storing and manipulating information needed in the execution
of complex cognitive tasks, and phonological short-term memory, subsystem of working
memory responsible for temporary maintenance of acoustic information, are also the
components of individual aptitude. Motivation and attitude are seen to be related and affect
one another. Motivation is defined as the effort to learn language, meanwhile, attitude refers
to the tendency to respond in an evaluative manner toward someone or something. There are
two types of motivation which are intrinsic, anticipation of internal reward, and extrinsic
motivation, anticipation of reward from outside the self. Each types of motivation gives
different influence toward the second language learning. Motivation varies through times.
Personality is also suggested to be linked with one’s second language learning. A study
between introvert and extrovert second language learners found that introvert learners seem
to have better results in vocabulary and course grade test. Another study showed that the
talkativeness of one’s personality is suggested to link with the oral proficiency of second
language. Learning style and cognitive style also play significant roles in second language
learning. Learning style refers to person’s preferred way of acquiring new information and
skills. According to Kolb, the ideal learning cycles includes concrete experience, reflective
observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. As different individual
has different learning style, a person might take more time in each stage than the other does.
On the other hand, cognitive style is a predisposition to process information in a characteristics
manner. It is regarded as the middle point between personality and intelligence; it is also a
reflection part of one’s preference. A last but not least factor that contributes to second
language learner’s performance is learning strategies. A research found out that students who
are dependence toward their teacher rather than having their own specific learning strategies
tended to learn less effectively. There is also a study of strategy instruction. Students were
exposed to strategy instruction and comparing from the post-test and pre-test results, their
speaking skill became much better than comparison group. From the researches, we can see
that learning really does associate to one’s language learning; however, different individual
might favor different learning style. Moreover, learning style might vary from children to
adults and so on. After I get to know about all of the factors above, I can see that there are so
many different factors that contribute to the difference second language learning of each
individual, and each factors plays such important role in their own way.
Taking into consideration, these factors really help me understand the second language
more in both aspects of learning and teaching. In learning, to learn more effectively, I will have
to take into consideration important factors, especially learning style and strategies. I
sometimes do feel sad whenever I am comparing my academic achievement to my friends;
however, after talking to them, they tend to have specific learning style and strategies. After I
have adopted similar learning style and strategies, my grade seems to really be better than
before, so this is such a clear proof that shows that learning style and strategies really
associated with academic and especially second language learning. In teaching, with the
knowledge of these factors and its influence toward student’s learning, teacher might be able
to teach much more effectively. For example, in designing techniques, activities, and tests,
teacher should take into consideration of all factors, especially intelligence, aptitude,
personality, and motivation. Each student might be good in different aspects of second
language learning due to the difference in factors mentioned above. As for class activities,
teacher can try to motivate students to talk or speak more in groups by grouping them with
those who has talkativeness in their personality so that they can lift up the spirit of the team
and encourage those who are introverts to interact more and feel like wanting to be part of the
discussion in the group. Intelligence of each individual is different so teacher should design
tasks or techniques that favor both those who have high and low intelligence to make sure that
low achiever wouldn’t feel discouraged or embarrassed from being unable to do tasks given,
etc. When I take a look back to my practicum, my class was such a passive class. However, I
managed to lift up their spirit by dividing them into groups. They seemed to be very active as
they got to interact with one another and they even participated in class more than when they
were sitting by themselves separately.