Since we read about the psychology of SLA, I thought this question seemed appropriate and rather fitting.
For those of you that speak second languages, have you ever taken the time to try and figure out your mental process when you listen, speak, read or write in your L2? As hard as I try, I cannot figure this out. For example when I read, I think I read the words in Spanish, but then what? How does my mental process work? Surely a study couldn't be done to tell me this (at least, I don't think).I know I have to read things multiple times sometimes to understand. I Does my brain change it to English somewhere in there and switch it back to English? When asked to translate though, I have found that it is much more difficult. IThe same goes with speaking. I could tell someone that I have an understanding of the reading, but directly translating takes so much more effort. Interesting.
When I speak, I feel as though I think in English and somehow manage to convert the words to Spanish while thinking in my L1 at the same time.
Do you understand your mental process? Have you taken the time to consider it? I understand that our reading addresses different theories of acquisition, but it doesn't really explain mental process. What do you think?
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Ooops, and I forgot to mention about Victor! I really enjoyed the movie and found it to be very interesting and unfortunate all the while. I believe that Victor benefited most from when his teacher rewarded him with water. He had to mimick the action his teacher did, and then received a break and his water.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
The Three Theories
I, by far, found the most interesting pieces of information in this week's readings to be the 3 different theories of language acquistion introduced to us in Chapter 1 of Lightbrown and Spada.
Behaviorism
Linguistics have defined this theory of learning as language acquistion comes to us through observation and imitation. In other words, children hear what others are saying around them, then imitate those words, sounds, and sometimes actions.
For example, many people always say that you must not say certain words around small children, for they will pick them up and then use them in public without actually understanding the degree to which these words affect our social world. That means no cuss words.
I can't say for sure whether or not I entirely agree with the behaviorist theory. I understand that a lot of language acquistion is through what our parents teach us and through observation and listening. But what accounts for error correction, and being able to decipher if a sentence has be stated grammatically correct or not? Is it because we have heard people talking correctly (because not all people do), or is it for some other reason?
Noam Chomsky: The innatist perspective
Noam Chomsky believed that, in order to acquire language, it simply had to be available, and the rest would be taken care of. Before I get too far into describing it, I would just like to pose a question. Isn't that sort of the same thing as behaviorism? Behaviorism requires that there are people around nurturing the child's language. Doesn't this sort of fall under the same umbrella?
Chomsky came up with the notion of Universal Grammar. The chapter did not go very in depth, but from what I can gather is that we, as human beings, have the capacity to learn every language out there; we simply have to access it. Simple? Not so much.
The Critical Hypothesis Period
Researchers have hypothesized that we must acquire language before a certain period in our life, otherwise it will be hardly attainable. I happen to agree with this statement. From what I know, especially the story of Genie, I can see that human interaction is both crucial and necessary. While she was able to learn more aobut language, she never fully developed to her maximum capabilities. It's heartbreaking to hear her story but at the same time all very interesting.
Behaviorism
Linguistics have defined this theory of learning as language acquistion comes to us through observation and imitation. In other words, children hear what others are saying around them, then imitate those words, sounds, and sometimes actions.
For example, many people always say that you must not say certain words around small children, for they will pick them up and then use them in public without actually understanding the degree to which these words affect our social world. That means no cuss words.
I can't say for sure whether or not I entirely agree with the behaviorist theory. I understand that a lot of language acquistion is through what our parents teach us and through observation and listening. But what accounts for error correction, and being able to decipher if a sentence has be stated grammatically correct or not? Is it because we have heard people talking correctly (because not all people do), or is it for some other reason?
Noam Chomsky: The innatist perspective
Noam Chomsky believed that, in order to acquire language, it simply had to be available, and the rest would be taken care of. Before I get too far into describing it, I would just like to pose a question. Isn't that sort of the same thing as behaviorism? Behaviorism requires that there are people around nurturing the child's language. Doesn't this sort of fall under the same umbrella?
Chomsky came up with the notion of Universal Grammar. The chapter did not go very in depth, but from what I can gather is that we, as human beings, have the capacity to learn every language out there; we simply have to access it. Simple? Not so much.
The Critical Hypothesis Period
Researchers have hypothesized that we must acquire language before a certain period in our life, otherwise it will be hardly attainable. I happen to agree with this statement. From what I know, especially the story of Genie, I can see that human interaction is both crucial and necessary. While she was able to learn more aobut language, she never fully developed to her maximum capabilities. It's heartbreaking to hear her story but at the same time all very interesting.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Entry #1
First of all, I would just like to say, isn't language amazing? I just find it fascinating how we acquire it and are able to express ourselves in ways that others can understand us, but then, at the same time, we are not able to understand others because they have their own language. I look forward to learning more about the ways that we acquire language (as in Chomsky's Theory), because it certainly does puzzle me.
I'm glad the book gave us an overview of definitions of concepts and introduced us to what we would be learning about. I was unaware that 'secondary' and 'foreign' languages were two different things, and found their definitions to be useful, especially since I am going to be a Spanish teacher. As I continued reading the chapters and the article, I thought of a family I had met before, and how this pertains to them. The mother moved to the United States from Germany in her mid 20's, met her husband (an American) who learned German and now speaks it fluently, and had 3 children. All 3 children are fluent in both English and German, but also Spanish because they grew up in a very Hispanic neighborhood. The girls were very easily able to pick up the languages, because they all learned them during that critical period when their brains were like sponges. However, it was clearly more difficult for the dad to adopt an L2. This raised another question in my mind -- which would be the dominant language for the girls? Has the mother's linguistical process changed at all after being in the United States for 25 years? And finally, would you teacher a 30 year old man the same way you would teach a 12 year an L2?
I'm glad the book gave us an overview of definitions of concepts and introduced us to what we would be learning about. I was unaware that 'secondary' and 'foreign' languages were two different things, and found their definitions to be useful, especially since I am going to be a Spanish teacher. As I continued reading the chapters and the article, I thought of a family I had met before, and how this pertains to them. The mother moved to the United States from Germany in her mid 20's, met her husband (an American) who learned German and now speaks it fluently, and had 3 children. All 3 children are fluent in both English and German, but also Spanish because they grew up in a very Hispanic neighborhood. The girls were very easily able to pick up the languages, because they all learned them during that critical period when their brains were like sponges. However, it was clearly more difficult for the dad to adopt an L2. This raised another question in my mind -- which would be the dominant language for the girls? Has the mother's linguistical process changed at all after being in the United States for 25 years? And finally, would you teacher a 30 year old man the same way you would teach a 12 year an L2?
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