Module 2: Language Teaching and Learning

• Language acquisition


  Enables us to employ language instinctively, with little focus on grammatical regulations
• Language learning


  Provides a profound comprehension of the structure of the language, enabling individuals to grasp and utilize increasingly intricate forms
• Concepts of learning


  • Learning is acquisition or getting
  • Learning is retention of information or skill
  • Retention implies storage systems, memory, and cognitive organization
  • Learning involves active, conscious focus and on acting upon events outside ot inside the organism
  • Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting
  • Learning involves some form of practice, perhaps reinforced practice
  • Learning is a change in behavior
• Language is considered as the key basis of all communication and the main instrument of thought, learning a language is important in founding interpersonal relationships, understanding social situations, extending experience, reflecting on different thoughts and action, and contributing to the society
• First language (L1) or native language

  The language acquired during early childhood and learned as part of growing up among people who speak them
• Simultaneous multilingualism


  Acquisition of more than one language during early childhood
• Sequential multilingualism


  Learning additional languages after L1 has already been established
• Second language (L2)


  Any language that a person learns or uses other than the first language
• Terms used to refer to additional languages to the L1

  • Second Language
  • Foreign Language
  • Target Language
• Third language (L3)


  A language acquired chronologically as the third language, or the subsequent language learned after acquiring two languages simultaneously during early infancy
• Before the child understands explicit language rules and conventions, he or she produces or use the language to construct and convey meaning in exceptional ways
• With continuous schooling, the student learns the language in specific contexts for specific purposes and enhance their language learning by using what they know in new and more complex contexts and with increasing sophistication
• Teaching


  Guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting the conditions for learning
• Categories which need to be given attention and consideration in the teaching of a second language

  • Learner Characteristics
  • Linguistic Factors
  • Learning Processes
  • Age and Acquisition
  • Instructional Variables
  • Context
  • Purpose
• Commonly expressed opinions about how languages are learned

  • Languages are learned mainly through imitation
  • Parents usually correct young children when they make grammatical errors
  • Highly intelligent people are good language learners
  • The best predictor of success in second language acquisition is motivation
  • The earlier a second language is introduced in school programs, the greater the likelihood of success in learning
  • Most of the mistakes that second language learners make are due to interference from their first language
  • The best way to learn new vocabulary is through reading
  • It is essential for learners to be able to pronounce all target language sounds accurately
• Learners who can begin their schooling in a language they already know will have more self confidence and will be able to learn more effectively in the early school years
• Most of the mistakes that second language learners make are due to interference from their first language
• Knowledge of one more languages can contribute positively to many aspects of second or foreign language learning
• Research has shown that second language learners from different first-language backgrounds often make the same kinds of errors when learning as particular second language
• The best way to learn new vocabulary


  Through reading
• Second language learners can also increase their vocabulary knowledge through reading, but few second language learners will read the amount of target language text that a child reads throughout more than a decade of schooling
• Research evidence suggests that second language learners benefit from opportunities to read material that is interesting and important to them
• Pronunciation


  Second language speakers' ability to make themselves understood depends more on their ability to reproduce the phrasing and stress patterns than on their ability to articulate each individual sound
• Most language of the world are spoken in many different varieties. Thus, it not longer seems appropriate to insist that learners be taught only one language variety
• Conversational language


  Involves only a relatively limited number of words and sentence types. However, learners will find it easier to understand and to make themselves understood if they also have an understanding of some of the pragmatic features of the new language such as how speakers show respect, apologize or make requests
• Second language learning is not simply linear in its development. Isolated presentation and practice of one structure at a time does not provide learners with an opportunity to discover how different language features compare and contrast in normal language use
• Research has shown that no matter who language is presented to learners, certain structure are acquired before others. Second language learners benefit from the efforts of native speakers and fluent bilinguals to modify their speech to help second language speakers understand. Teachers increase the complexity of their language intuitively as the learner's proficiency increases
• Errors


  Are a natural part of language learning. Teachers have a responsibility to help learners do their best, and this includes the provision of explicit, form-focused instruction and feedback on error. Excessive feedback on error can have a negative effect on motivation and teachers must be sensitive to their students' reactions to correction
• Restricting students to step-by-step exposure to the language extends their dependency. Learners who successfully acquire a second language outside classrooms certainly are exposed to a great variety of forms and structures they have not mastered. There will be loss of motivation is students are not sufficiently challenged
• If the tasks are well designed, learners working in groups get far more practice in speaking and participating in conversations than they ever could in a teacher-centered class. Learners do not produce any more errors in their speech when talking to learners at similar levels of proficiency than they do when speaking to learners at more advanced levels or to native speakers
• Students do not learn everything they are taught. Some aspects of the second language develop according to 'natural sequences of development and learners may be more likely to learn certain sequences of development and learners may be more likely to learn certain language features when they are developmentally 'ready.'
• Recasts


  This kind of feedback has been found to be by far the most common type of feedback in second language classrooms. Research in which learners interact individually with interlocutors shown that recasts are perceived as corrective feedback, even though learners may not always know exactly which language features the feedback is focused on
• Motivation is increased when the material that is used for language teaching has an inherent value to the students. Research has confirmed that students in content-based instruction is usually associated with the opportunity to spend more time in contact with the language, without losing out on instruction in other subject matter
• Language learning is affected by many factors. Among these are personal characteristics and experiences of the learner, the social and cultural environment both inside and outside the classroom, the structure of the native and target language, and the access to correction and form-focused instruction
• Better understanding of these factors will help the teachers and learners to maximize the process of language teaching and learning
• Approaches and methods in language teaching

  Teachers can adapt or implement based on their own needs. Experience in using different teaching approaches and methods provide teachers with basic teaching skills that they can later add to or supplement as they progress in teaching
• Changes in language teaching methods throughout history could be the kind of proficiency that learners need, or changes in theories of the nature of language and of language learning
• Approaches to language teaching and learning have shifted from the traditional (teacher-centered) to more innovative learner-centered approaches
• The goal of teaching and learning a language is to produce individuals who are effective communicators, critical thinkers, collaborators, and creative
• The study of approaches and methods provides teachers with a view of how the field of language teaching has evolved