How Languages are Learned

How Languages are Learned
Becoming bilingual is a way of life. Your whole person is affected as you struggle to reach beyond the confines of your first language and into a new language, a new culture, a new way of thinking, feeling, and acting. Second language learning is not a set of easy steps that can be programmed in a quick do-it-yourself kit.
The teaching process is the facilitation of learning, in which you can "teach" a foriegn language successfully if, among other things, you know something about learns or fails to learn a second language. Where does a teacher begin the quest for an understanding of the principles of foreign learning and teaching? By asking some questions.
Who? Who does the learning and teaching?
What? No simpler question is one that probes the nature of the subject matter itself. What is communication? What is language?
How How does learning take place? How can person can ensure success in language learning?
When When does second language learning take place?
Where Are the learners attempting to acquire the second language within the cultural and linguistic milieu of the second language - that is , in a "second" language situation in the technical sese of the term?
Why Finally, the most encompassing of all questions: Why are learners attempting to acquire the second language?

These questions have been asked, in very golbal terms, to give you an inkling of the diversity of issues involved in the quest for understanding the principles of language learning and teaching. And while you cannot hope to find final answers to all the questions, you can begin to achieve some tentative answers as you move through the chapters of this book and additional information which we added to these pages. Thomas Kuhn(1970) referred to "normal science" as a process of puzzle solving in which part of the task of the scientist, in this case the teacher, is to discover the pieces, and then to fit the pieces together. Many of the pieces of the language learning puzzle are not yet discovered, and the careful defining of the questions will lead to finding those pieces.

Language

To persume to define langugae adequately would be folly. A definiton is really condensed version of a theory, and a theory is simply - or not so simply - an extended definition. Consider the following definitons of language found in dictionaries nad introductory textbooks:

Language is a system of arbitrary, vocal symbols which permit all people in a given culture, or other people who have learned the system of that culture, to communicate or interact (Finocchario 1964:8)
Language is a system of communication by sound, operating through the organs of speech and hearing, among members of a given community, and using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary conventional meanings (Pei 1966:141)
Language is any set or symbols of linguistic symbols as used in a more or less uniform fashion by a number of people who are thus enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another (Random House Dictionary of the English Language 1966:806).
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication (Wardhaugh 1972:3).
[Language is] any means, vocal or other, of expressing or communicating feeling or thought ... a system of conventionalized signs, especially words or gestures having fixed meanings. (Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language 1934:1390).
[Language is] a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings (Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language 1961:1270)
Still other common definitions found in introductory textbooks on linguistics include the concepts of : the generativity or creativity of language
the persumed primacy of speech over writing
the universality of language among human beings

Many of the significant characteristics of language are capsulized in these defintions. Some of the controversies about the nature of language are also illustrated through the limitations that are implied in certain definitons.

A consolidation of the definitions of language yields the following composite definition:
Language is systematic and generative.
Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.
Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual.
The symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer.
Language is used for communication.
Language operates in a speech community or culture.
Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans.
Language is acquired by all people in much the same way - language and language learning both have universal characteristics.
Enormous fields and subfields, year-long university courses, are suggested in each of the eight categories. Consider some of these possible areas: Explicit and formal accounts of the system of language on several possible levels (most commonly syntactic, semantic, and phonological).
The symbolic nature of language; the relationship between language and reality; the philosophy of language; the history of language.
Phonetics; phonology; writing systems; kinesics; proxemics; and other "paralinguistic" features of language.
Semantic; language and cognition; psycholinguistics.
Communication systems; speaker-hearer interaction; sentence processing.
Dialectology; sociolinguistics; language and culture; bilingualism and second language acquisition.
Human language and nonhuman communication; the physiology of language.
Language universals; first language acquisition.
Can foreign language teachers effectively teach a language if they do not know, even generally, something about the relationship between language and cognition, writing systems, nonverbal communication, sociolinguistics, and first language acquisition, just to name a few items at random?
The TESOL(Teachres of English to Speakers of Other Languages) oraganiztion, in its Guidelines for the Certification and Preparation of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages in the United States (1975), cited the necessity for the teacher to "understand the nature of language, the fact of language varieties - social, regional, and functional, the structure and development of the English language system".I came to know How Languages are Learned (2006) by Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada due to the Reading Club organized by Professional Development Unit (PDU) in Bahçeşehir University (BU) in the 2007-2008 Academic year. The reason why we had chosen this book to read in the Reading Club was that it is a good book to brush up our information about the language learning theories. At the beginning, we were anxious to get drown in the wide jargon of linguistics, however, the book was not as complex as its name suggests. Lightbown and Spada's "How Languages are Learned" makes a good introduction to first and second language acquisition and some of the related linguistic theories. In addition, the book presents the data gathered from classroom research. Without overloading the reader with details, the book gives you enough to make some more informed choices about the classroom.  Examines several theories on how young children acquire their first language, including behaviorist, innatist, and interactionist models. It also addresses the issue of bilingualism. It is a nice chapter to review the theories about first language acquisition. I have not learned anything new but it was good to review the characteristics of first language acquisition.
Presents and analyzes several theories on second language learning. It provides overviews of theories of first and second language acquisition respectively. The writers have tried to keep the explanations brief and easy, in addition, they have also represented the different theoretical positions. The strengths and weaknesses of each theory are discussed and supported with examples of data from various researches. It has given me the chance to make comparisons with my teaching style in the classroom “Individual differences in second language learning,” is about how individual learner characteristics can affect success in second language learning. It begins with a task that asks us to rate a set of characteristics of “a good language learner” according to our degree of importance from 1 to 5. For instance, how important the characteristic “willing to make mistakes” is compared to “constantly looks for patterns in the language”. In my opinion, it is a nice task to discuss what we think before we get down to the theories behind it and read the research findings. This chapter focuses on intelligence, aptitude, learning styles, personality, motivation and attitudes, identity and group affiliation and learner beliefs which are as important in the course of language learning as teaching methods. There is also a section about age of acquisition is widely discussed with reference to specific research findings. There are useful comments about the problems presented by different research methodologies. The topic “At what age should second language learning instruction begin?” is a very important question for learners, parents and teachers. The writers have approached this question in a sensible way and concluded that the aim of the learner defines it. is a bit long because it deals with the “learner language” It is a detailed topic in which the writers focus on how a learner uses the second language. They examine the acquisition of some syntax and morphology and especially dwell on the errors of language learners because they tell a lot about the language learning process. presents the process in second language classrooms. It is one of the detailed chapters in which we can see the theory and the practice. There are a lot of examples of classroom interaction and error correction which are a great help for the reader to understand the process clearly. It is a good way to compare what the theories are and what you do in class. Especially in error correction part, I have found out that I mainly focus on meaning and use metalinguistic comments while correcting my students’ errors. “Second Language Learning In The Classroom”, is one of the best parts of the book because there are lots of classroom situation examples which I liked examining and comparing with my own. Six proposals are presented for classroom teaching situation. Each proposal is related to a particular language theory, however, Lightbown and Spada do not claim that only a particular theory can be applied in class. They demonstrate how these theories work in the classroom situation with examples. Each proposal is introduced with the theory which is closely related, and then an excerpt of a class lesson is given which is followed by the research findings. discusses the popular ideas about language learning and then summarizes the research related to that area. It is a nice chapter to encourage the reader to think about his/her own beliefs about language learning and about the ways in which the research addresses, or does not address, those beliefs. It makes you think about everything that has been said so far and think about your own teaching. In my opinion, this type of presentation makes the theory more relevant to classroom language teachers.
Overall, the book is a brief introduction to second language acquisition (SLA), but addresses to the main areas of SLA which are particularly interesting for language teachers. Another good point of the book is that it focused on the teacher and the classroom applications rather than just the researchers and theories. The explanations of the major theories are clear and overall the book is direct with the minimum use of jargon so it makes it easier especially for the beginner to get a grasp of SLA theories. The tasks in the book are a nice way of reflection. It encourages the reader to revise his/her own knowledge, ideas, experience, and opinions. This helps to make the information more understandable and lasting (vivid) for the reader. Discussions and possible interpretations of the data are followed after the findings of the authors’ research. At the end of each chapter, there is a topical list of suggested readings. Complete references are given in a bibliography at the end of the book. There is also a glossary of terms at the end of the book, and terms included in the glossary are italicized throughout the book. In general, this book is a must particularly for all practicing language teachers.