Group: 2u target learners

Student: Barno Tursunaliyeva
Group: 2U
Target learners
Identity
In this modern world, knowing only one language is not sufficient to gain more knowledge, to work in a good place, or to exchange ideas with others. As a result, learning L2 becomes more and more common among people around the world. Now second language acquisition serves as a means of acquiring more skills in every field. However while learning L2, learners have many difficulties to manage. They can be releted to grammar, environment, vocabulary, or differences between their L1. In order to find efficient ways to solve these problems, a lot of scholars have done researches and they have tried to show clear results. As well as, such kind of problems happens with my students. They are Jasur and Shoxjaxon who are 18-years- old student boys. During their L2 acquisition, they have also faced several difficulties. As an example, Jasur who is from Namangan is studying in academic lyceum in Tashkent now which is specialized in English and math. His level in English is advanced now. Before coming to this lyceum, he had background knowledge about English and he had high aptitude for acquiring new languages so it is not that difficult to learn English for him. The reason is that, his parents are his real motivators in his life. They always encourage him to learn L2 with great enthusiasm. Furthermore, his parents are fluent in English because they work in one international company. As Jasur informed, he had silent period when he was till 5 years old as Julia underwent in her L2 acquisition period which was stated in Ioup et.al (1994). He could speak neither English nor Uzbek. When he was 6, he started to speak in both Uzbek and English fluently. Then he went to private school and here his English level improved considerably. With the help of his knowledge, he entered the academic lyceum with the highest score among students. Jasur prefers learning L2 through touching or watching things. In this case, he has visual and kinesthetic learning styles. An extremely extrovert and sociable person, Jasur has a wide circle of friends and acquaintances who are bilingual speakers, including his classmates at lyceum. There he always communicates with them in English. According to the affective filter hypothesis (Krashen, 1985), Jasur had a low affective level so he learned L2 easily and fast. He had no pressure, no anxiety in conversing with people. He did not pay attention to make mistakes while speaking and every time his parents told him to feel free when he spoke. As a result, he can speak in English fluently and without any hesitation. Because of the good and social environment, he learned English fast and effectively and now his home language becomes English.
One of my students is Shoxjaxon who was born in an Uzbek family now he is living in Tashkent. Because of a lack of motivation, being introvert and having low aptitude, he spent many years to acquire the L2. Shoxjaxon learns L2 easily through listening, seeing and it means that he has auditory and visual learning styles. Initially, his English proficiency was elementary. He had many years of formal instructions in general English before beginning the study of American English. He started the study of general English during his school years, continuing it in Tashkent for 1year before graduation. After a 2-months- stay in a host family in California, where he learned English with real life experience, he returned to Uzbekistan to finish his school and commenced attending English courses, working at the same time as an English teacher for kids in the study center. The reason is that, he could not speak well in English because of his shyness, lack of self-confidence and did not know complex grammar rules. All the time he was worried about making mistakes when he spoke. While working in the study center and attending courses, he experienced many things. Every time he tried to ask every single thing he did not understand and the meaning of every single word. He always kept repeating unfamiliar words with their definitions until he learned them by heart and used them in his speeches freely. He observed many experienced teachers' lessons and always tried to note essential things. Additionally, his teaching period also greatly contributed to his knowledge of the English language. As a result of this experience, now his proficiency in English is advanced and now he is preparing many students for IELTS and SAT exams. According to the Krashen's affective filter hypothesis (1985), Shoxjaxon always did not feel confident and free. He was afraid of speaking wrongly and he did not want to feel ashamed in front of people. As a result he did not speak fluently in English for a long time. However, at the end, he understood that without speaking, he could not acquire the L2 completely and he commenced trying to lose his anxiety, shyness. He managed it and now as I mentioned above, he teaches many students like him and helps them to enhance their English.
Motivation and Investment
Despite “motivation” is a term which used in both educational and research contexts, this concept has several different meanings in the literature (Dornyoi, 1996). Motivation is force which can encourage people to do something new or can modify their behavior by showing directions to find a true way or try harder to achieve their goals. As well as every individual has their own way to get motivation or to motivate others. For some people, motivation is their life, their job, their family and their health while others get motivation by admiring people. Additionally, being motivated also plays an important role while acquiring L2. In terms of Jasur, he grew up in English environment and his parents know this language perfectly. They always encourage him to acquire English. And what’s more his friends at school and lyceum knew English and use it while having conversations with each other. Initially, Jasur did not want to learn English strongly and he was not that fond of it. However his parents always awarded and praised him when he told or asked something in English. They always gave him what he wanted and supported him both financially and psychologically. His parents gave people who knew English and achieved high results as an example. In this case, Jasur had extrinsic motivation (Lisa Legault, 2007) but he had lack of intrinsic motivation. Thus his parents and teachers tried to explain how important English was in his future life and with the help of knowing English what he can achieve in the future. After these explanations, he began to acquire L2 with the great enthusiasm. Notwithstanding being highly motivated, he had little investment in language practices. He spoke well and explained his opinions clearly. However his handwriting was awful. Once they wrote dictation in the lesson, explicit correction was given him i.e. his teacher gave him and other pupils like whose handwriting was not understandable punishment because of their handwriting in front of other students. It would be better if metalinguistic feedback should be given him according to his character. He felt ashamed and from that day he started to hate writing. As Darvin and Norton (2021) mentioned that “… if learners feel marginalized in a classroom or community because of their race, gender, ethnicity, social class or sexual orientation, they may not be invested in the language practices of these learning contexts, notwithstanding high levels of motivation” (p.3). He never tried to write beautifully and correct his mistakes until he understood the importance of clear handwriting. He worked hard on his handwriting and in this case grammar translation method helped him a lot. The reason was that, his grammar was also not good. He translated sentences, stories and wrote them again and again until he wrote them clearly and with the help of this method he improved both his handwriting and grammar at the same time. He always compared his handwriting with others and checked it with his teacher. At the end, he managed to correct his handwriting now his handwriting is one of the most beautiful handwriting in his class.
In terms of Shoxjaxon, he was born in Uzbek family in the country. His countryside was not that modern from the educational side. There were not several people who knew English around him. His parents spoke only in Uzbek language and his family situation was not that good to support him from financial side. He had one neighbor who was studying at the university and his major was English language and literature at that time. Shoxjaxon admired him a lot and always asked his neighbor to teach him English. His neighbor always encouraged and supported him. He had a strong desire to acquire L2 and tried his best. According to Dornyei (as cited in Rafika Nurhidayah, 2020) stated that “Motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate learning the second language and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process” (p.096). In this case, he had intrinsic motivation but not extrinsic motivation. Because of being the first child in his family, instead of learning a language, his parents told him to work and help them. Nevertheless, he stated firmly his decision about learning English and finally his parents allowed him to learn English. After this, they always supported him, his parents found well-paid job, with the result that their financial condition soon improved. Shoxjaxon knew that knowing languages gave many opportunities to find a good job, to live in luxury, to learn about other nations. In spite of being unmotivated, he had a lot of investment in the language practices. Darvin & Norton (2017) said that “Learners invest in an L2 because they hope it will provide a wider range of material and symbolic resources that increase the value of their cultural capital and social power” (p.3). He attended the English courses a lot and even he lived with native family in California. As it is mentioned above, he spent many years learning English.

References

Rafika Nurhidayah, (2020). The Role of Motivation in Second Language Acquisition. English Study Program, Sekolah Tinggi Bahasa Asing Pontianak.