Assignment - ATL

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE IN THE CLASSROOM CONTEXT /

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment must be done individually and has to fulfil the following conditions:

 Length: between 6 and 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if
there are any-).
 Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.
 Font size: 11.
 Line spacing: 1.5.
 Alignment: Justified.

The assignment has to be written in this Word document and has to follow the
instructions on quotes and references detailed in the Study Guide.

Also, the assignment must be submitted following the procedure specified in the
document: “Subject Evaluation”. Do not send it to the tutor’s email address.

It is strongly recommended to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the
document “Subject Evaluation”.

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 Assignment - ATL

Assignment instructions:
See the data collected below and answer the following questions:

1. Work out an IL generalization that might account for the forms in boldface.
Give your reasons for postulating this generalization.
2. What strategy/strategies do you think these learners have come up with
regarding lexical use?
3. What additional information, if any, would you like to have from these
learners to test your hypothesis?
4. How do these tests and results relate to the concepts studied in this
subject?

Do not answer the questions one by one, but address all of them in essay form.

SUBJECT’S BACKGROUND

 Native Languages: Mixed.

 Target Language: English.
 Background Information: Intermediate level, students on an
intensive course.
 Data Source: student compositions.

DATA:

1. Soccer is the most common sporting.

2. America refused continual supported our military request.
3. When he was 7 years old, he went schooling.
4. About two hours driving eastern from Bangkok.
5. After finished my college studied, I went to my country.
6. Doctors have the right to removed it from him.
7. There is a night for asleep.
8. Moreover it may lead to conflicting.
9. I am not going to get married when I will graduation the school.

Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the
cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions will
not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.

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 Assignment - ATL

Student’s full name: MARITZA ROMÁN RODRÍGUEZ

Group: fp_tefl_2018-06_uneatlantico

Date: 05-05-19

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 Assignment - ATL

INDEX

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………...……page 5
2. Contextualization ……….………………………………………….….....…..page 6
3. Language Generalizations ………………………………………………..…page 7
4. Lexical use and strategies students can come up….…………………... page 8
5. Aditional information………………………………………...…………..…....page 9
6. Conclusions………………. …………………...…………...……..………….page 9
7. Bibliography ……………………………………….…………………………..page10
8. Webography…………………………………………………………………...page 10

1. Introduction

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 Assignment - ATL

What I are mainly concerned with here is the relevant debate in the field of language
acquisition during this boundless era of multilingual experiences, Tucker cited on Lenon,
A. & Prada, E. (n.d.) “multilingualism is becoming the norm, both in personal spheres of
language and educational spheres.” This bring us on the one hand, to a changing and
complex research of the language system but on the other, to identify new theories to
develop language in use and to improve our role and pedagogical practices as teachers,
Furthermore, second language acquisition has a variety of methodologies, which have
been used over the years, and nowadays can be regarded as models to determine their
effectiveness inside the classroom context. If the teacher identify student’s level and
interlanguage can lead an active learning process, and the level and achieve a good
level of engagement of learners. Harmer (1998) states three main factors that a language
classes involve: study, active and engage.

In the face of that rapidly changes mentioned, in educational spheres second language
acquisition has an undoubtedly protagonists; communication and grammar learning.
Universities, Bilingual schools and language institutes compete primarily with a
“communicative “approach, regardless the fact that they are still applying other methods
as audiolingual or direct grammar- translation, into their classrooms, Subsequently, a
correct approach to a second language learning in classroom tries to be consistent to
the active learning process, active communication, and input on natural language use
(Krashen, 2009), what is more , learners can use language in a meaningful context.

Alternatively, traditional approaches are still being applied in order to introduce grammar
to learners and even to intermediate level students because of the concept of
restructuring described by Batstone (1994: 137) cited on Lenon, A. & Prada, E. (n.d.)
“…Once having noticed something about the grammar, learners have to act on it,
building it into their working hypothesis about how grammar is structured.” And also with
Ellis ( 1997 : 143) cited on Lenon, A. & Prada, E. (n.d.) who described as the “process
by which learners reorganize their interlanguage in the light of new evidence about the
target language”. In other words the evidence from the research of SLA provide that
noticing and restructuring according to Lenon, A. & Prada, E. (n.d.) is only one part of

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 Assignment - ATL

the complex process of acquiring a second language, but the evidence suggests it may
be a necessary part.

Bearing the above in mind, this essay is projected to analyze and understand grounds
of specific cases proposed and to identify strategies which boost those students’
interlanguage into a process of restructuring and hopefully overcome generalization
errors that learners keep making despite their previous knowledge, their context, and the
individual interest on the target language.

2. Contextualization

Firstly, in order to elaborate the causes of language generalizations, which stand for
learners assumptions on grammar, spelling, and language use; it is relevant to review
the next data:

SUBJECT’S BACKGROUND

 Native Languages: Mixed.

 Target Language: English.
 Background Information: Intermediate level, students on an
intensive course.
 Data Source: student compositions.

DATA:

10. Soccer is the most common sporting.

11. America refused continual supported our military request.
12. When he was 7 years old, he went schooling.
13. About two hours driving eastern from Bangkok.
14. After finished my college studied, I went to my country.
15. Doctors have the right to removed it from him.
16. There is a night for asleep.
17. Moreover it may lead to conflicting.
18. I am not going to get married when I will graduation the school.

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 Assignment - ATL

From a language generalization regarding, it can be noticed some effects of their learning
process on grammar understanding. Nevertheless these students are intermediate level,
they coincide in cases of misplacing and verb form errors, sentence structure errors and
gerunds. From those errors it can be said that those students’ learning process could
had had wrong patterns at the moment of correction, But surely they have heard and
see the right constructions in their process, but at the moment of that task they did not
notice exactly how to place according to the tense and sentence context.

Secondly, let as try to understand how these students have adapted the same errors
when their L1 is different from each other, hence those errors evidence an
overgeneralization, incidentally, I must not forget overgeneralization defined by Lenon,
A. & Prada, E. (n.d.) as “a fundamental process in the construction of an IL,
overgeneralization occurs and this is characterized by the extensive use of a
grammatical form of the L2 in situations where another rule applies.” They also gave us
explain in this document that “Thus through the process of overgeneralization, both the
interlanguage system and those of the L2 are combined so, theoretically, the kind of
erroneous structure that result are independent of individual’s’ mother tongue. Here I
identify and highlight the predominance of the teacher role.

3. Language Generalizations

Generalization can be understood as a language construction made on the superficial

view of the structure, which through language process depends most of the cases on the
learner’s conception and inference of their L1. This concept is related to interlanguage,
the existed language between the L1 and L2. When the learner is constructing language
structures in L2 everything that the L1 involves –lexicon, language distribution, sentence
construction, everyday speech and words systematization- affects its acquisition, thus
generalizations that are used frequently, become errors and may cause interlanguage
fossilization (Ellis, 1997).

As far interlanguage is concerned to the data treated above it can be stated that the
generalization identified is on suffixes and prefixes –suffix a used on asleep-. There is a
lack of awareness when using the gerund suffix in order to create whether it is a noun, a

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 Assignment - ATL

verb or a participle adjective, therefore the learners described in this task remark the
distinction between learning and acquiring; they used the ing/ed suffixes may be because
they learnt it before, but did not real acquire its use, they did not go from the explicit to
the implicit when applying this form (Krashen, 2009). Moreover, their word structure on
suffixes has overuse. Being gerunds a common verbal form for students it is identified
as a regularization and misinformation of a grammar form, according to (Ellis, 1997).

Finally, The specific overgeneralizations are on the points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6; where 1

and 3 are on the gerund use, 2, 5 and 6 a case of regularization of a common verb form
in past tense whereas 4, 7, 8 and 9 result to be a misuse on lexical chunks perhaps
caused by a transfer of training issue or they could be also an effect of global
simplification.

4. Lexical use and strategies students can come up!

To present potential strategies used by the group of learners from this task, it is useful
to mention some of the ones that can facilitate acquisition and understanding of the
language:
- Analysing patterns in L2 and making the connection with L1.
- Making lexical /semantic comparisons between L1 and L2.
- Close translation from L1 to L2 .
- Guessing from textual context.
- Asking classmates for meaning.
- Foreignizing: using an L1 word by adjusting it to the L2 phonology /morphology.
- Looking up words in dictionaries, memorization, and literal translation.
As well on Ellis (1997:76-77) who states that “learning strategies are those particular
approaches or techniques that learners employ to try to learn an L2”. He also identified
three main learning strategies: cognitive, metacognitive and social/affective strategies,
these aspects are relevant to keep in mind through the learning process from teachers’
perspective.

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 Assignment - ATL

5. Additional information

There are different aspects involved in the process of learning a language it is important
to know in order to have better generalizations and learning practices; First, the kind of
exposure of L2 inside and outside the learning environment, bearing in mind that the
input has to be comprehensible so that students can understand and internalized the
information, Lenon, A. & Prada, E. (n.d.). Basically, we would like to consider individual
factors such as their background, age, interests, learning styles, learning strategies,
affective filter , intrinsic and extrinsic motivation while learning L2.

CONCLUSIONS

It is important to conclude with ideas from this assignment and class material I can say:
1. Selinker (19729) coined the term interlanguage and so far such term has been
used to describe the language system that results from language learning.
2. Most theorists agree on this phenomenon called “interlanguage” which is the
existence of a language between the target language and the mother tongue. Lenon, A.
& Prada, E. (n.d.)
3. A learner’s developing language is in fact systematic and it involves its own
internal logic and “rules”
4. Constructions are key components of Cognitive Linguistic and Functional
theories of language. Students learn constructions through using language, engaging in
communication.
5. It is important to bear in mind the process of interlanguage: the nature and effects
of transfer, overgeneralization, fossilization, transfer of training and learning and
communication strategies.
6. Teachers should remember the role of consciousness as well as the importance
of providing the students activities that encourage noticing and reconstruction which
will foster the restructuring of students’ interlanguage
7. Comprehensible input is fundamental in the process of learning L2, once the input
is understood by the learner, it can be transformed into intake.
8. Input and interaction can help successful language learning

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ellis, N. C.(2006 ): “Cognitive Perspectives on SLA - The Associative Cognitive Creed”

University of Michigan, 101.
Tarone, E. (1994): “Interlanguage” Elsevier Ltd. , volume 4, 1715/1719
Thornbury, S. (1997) :”Reformulation and reconstruction: tasks that promote noticing”.
ELT Journal 51/4:326-335
Lenon, A. & Prada, E. (n.d.) Approaches to Language in the classroom context.
Barcelona: FUNIBER.

WEBOGRAPHY
Fossilization in language learning. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4zI-
raPnEQ

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