How children learn languages

HOW CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGES

Practice II, ELT DidacticsFuture teachers:

Ana Belen de la CrúzClara Olié

Juan Pedro Schiel Yicarean

STAGES OF L1 ACQUISITION

1-BABBLING (0 -8 MONTHS)

-they produce noises and sounds

2-THE FIRST WORD (11 MONTHS-1 YEAR OLD)

- they start communicating

-word-oject associations

3-TWO WORDS (2 YEARS OLD)

-syntax

-meaning

4- PHONOLOGICAL, SEMANTIC, AND LEXICAL NORMS (3-4 YEARS OLD) -vowels and consonants -adult-like language organization

5- SYNTACTIC AND LEXICAL COMPLEXITY AND RICHNESS (BETWEEN 6 AND 12) -expansion of vocabulary and language understanding -linguistic stimulation -abstract definitions

6- CONVERSATIONAL SKILLS -comprehensive improvement -recognition of problems and possible solutions -understanding of other people’s perspectives

LANGUAGE USE

-to get attention

-to get what they want

-to make requests and simple statements

-through intonation.

-to name and classify things

-to ask questions (where, what?)

-To differentiate things using contrastive adjectives (big, small- short, tall- hot, cold)

- they are able to use possessives (Daddy’s car)

-to ask questions by turning statements into questions through the use of intonation (cat asleep, mummy?)

-to express what they want using the structure I want

-to refer to events in the past and in the present (Mummy cooking)

-to make requests

-to explain things and ask for explanations using why?

-to ask questions using the auxiliary verbs do, can and will

-to give and ask for information

-to make direct and indirect requests -to make suggestions and offers-to express feeling and attitudes

-to express cause and effect relations through conditional structures

-habitualization

Different views of L1 and L2 acquisition

The Behaviourist Approach

The Nativist/Innatist Approach

The Cognitive-developmental Approach

The social-interactionist Approach

The Behaviourist Approach

-repetition in the form of drills

-correctness and the avoidance of errors

-imitation and practice or habit formation are key processes in language development

-does not take into account is children’s creativity in language use

The Nativist/Innatist Approach

-children are born with an innate language acquisition device

-did not consider children’s creativity as an important part of L1 and L2 learning.

-did not consider real communication, i.e. the personal and social aspects of language use.

The Cognitive-developmental Approach

-certain thinking skills must mature to build a framework/foundation for further language development

-the Critical Period Hypothesis: there is a specific and limited time for language acquisition

-however, apart from age, many factors have an impact on how people learn (motivation and learning conditions)

The Social-interactionist Approach

-focus on human social interactions and the role of adult and children relationships in learning

-an innate Language Acquisition Devise cannot function without the help provided by an adult

-Language Acquisition Support System: scaffolding

-Zone of Proximal Development

- importance of social interaction and learning from working with others and the consequential learning independence

Are the L1 and L2 acquired in the same way? How different are the two processes?

similaritiesMost learners go through four stages:

-First, they become aware of the rules that build up the language

-Second, they generalize and recognize patterns of repeated rules

-Third, they overgeneralize the rules and use them wrongly (go-goed; put-putted)

-Four, and finally, they are able to use the patters correctly

differences

-L1 acquisition is characterized for being contextualized

-L2 acquisition is decontextualized

-this conditions the amount of exposure to the language, i.e. the input, and the motivation for learning

Does younger mean better?

A number of theories claim that there is an age limit to develop certain skills

-Young learners are said to be capable of acquiring a native-like pronunciation

-Older learners -12 years old- are said to be better at learning grammatical structures or meaning relationships

The truth is that there is no such age limitation. Several factors influence the learning process

Learner/individual factors:

-motivation

-confidence

-language aptitude

-personality.

Contextual factors:

-teaching quality

-time

-the quality of materials

-how well teachers are trained.

Bilingualism and multilingualismBoth are really advantageous for further learning. In many countries around the world, children are exposed to several languages (home-school-society).

However, bilingualism and multilingualism cannot be the main objectives for schools since there are a number of limitations such as:-Rural and urban areas-Teachers’ unwillingness to work in rural areas-The limited access the learners have to English-speaking media This last constraint might the most negative, since exposure influences how motivated learners are.

Who learns how much of what language under what conditions?

Who learns?It depends on individual learner differences like

-age

-aptitude

-motivation -willingness to make mistakes

-willingness to guess or make predictions

-confidence

How of what language?

It depends on institutional factors like:

-goals of language learning

-the curriculum and syllabus

-the effects of tests

The goals may be oriented towards:

-communicative competence and the development of positive attitudes to language learning and cultures -or towards grammatical competence -there will be agreement between the goals and the kind of tests learners will have to go through

Under what conditions?

the situation and context under which the L2 is learned.

language development is divided into 3 parts

-sequence of development: -simple vocabulary -basic syntax -simple sentences -complex sentences

-order

-speed of development

Both the sequence and speed of development concern mainly the learners and how trained or developed are their multiple intelligences

Other important situational factors and conditions from the context are:

-the environment

-the type of classroom

-the topics that are dealt with

-the input learners receive