7/29/2019 How Languages Are Learned 3rd Edition_0194422240Languages

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POPULAR IDEASABOUTLANGUAGE LEARNINGREVISITED

the Introduction, we presented a numberofcommonly expressedopinions about how languages are learned. \7e asked you to indicate howstrongly you agreed with these opinions. Now that you have read aboutsome of the theory and research in second language acquisition, take anotherlook at those ideas. Have you changed yourmind about the importance ofimitation orfeedback on errors, orwhether starting second languageinstruction early is the best approach? Do you feel that yourviews aboutsecond language acquisition have been changed or only confirmed by whatyou've read in the preceding chapters?To conclude this introducdon to second language acquisition research, hereare some ofour own reflections on these popularideas about languagelearning.1 Languages are mainly imitationIt is difficult to are learnedm"ltlilthtqqgh imitaflqn. Forone thing, learner. {'".'d''ie man}' noGl

ofhow the It in childrent sentences as 'I'm hiccing up and I cant stop', and

'It was upside down but I turned it upside right', and with second languagelearners who say'The cowboy rided into town', or'The man that I spoke tohim is angry. These examples and many others provide evidence thatlanguage learners do not simply internalize a great list ofimitated andmemorized sentences.Thi not mea role to in lan

(eThot doloTimltaffirything they hear. Instead, ihey selectively imitatecertaln words orstructures that they are rn the process oflearnrng. lt rs also thewellas thoseFho i*it"t. earmnsstratesv but it is not a uiTilffiil characteristic of lansuase learners.

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sentences that thev could not have heard befbre. These sentences are based

Iearning. Some children imitate a great deal as they acqqt. t!441qt lanUege,itation learn language as ouickllr alld as

7/29/2019 How Languages Are Learned 3rd Edition_0194422240Languages

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tB4 Popular about language learning reuisited

Like first language learners, second language learners produce manysentences that they could not have heard. Some-may lqllIbj{lhglbg4qfitfrom opportunities to imitate samples ofthe new-lt;zuase, and i,rrirarion isclearly important in developing pronunciation and intonition. Forsome

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careful listening and imitation in a language laboratory can be veryvaluable.But for beginning learners, the slavish imitation and rote memorization thatcharacterized audiolingual language approaches to language teaching canlead to a dead end. Learners need to do more than recite bits ofperfectlyaccurate language. They learn as they make the effort needed to understandand make themselves understood in genuinely meaningful interaction.Otherwise, theymayhave acquired limle more than a collection ofsentences,waiting forthe moment when those sentences will be useful!

Parents usually correct young children uilten theymahe grammatical errors

There is considerable variation in the extent to which parenrs correct theiron age-and-

und. tX/henon the oarerGGZiIllfichilclren are very young, parents rarely comment on grammatical errors,altnougn thev mav correct lapses rn poltteness or the chorce ofa word thariloesnt make sensc,Al ch-ildien reafh-tEliooi age, parenrs may corrc.t th.kindi ofnon-standard speech that they hope their children will outgrow, forexample, 'Me and Fred are going outside now'.Extensive observations ofparents and children show that, a r,rle, parent"speech. Thus,Tflf correct an incorrect word choice, an incorrectstaiE?nent ofthe facts, or rude remark, but they do not often reactJo_effors_cln tive feedback in orderto learn the basicstructure (the word order, the grammatical morphemes, the intonationpatterns) oftheirlanguage. Fortunately, they appearto be able to acquire theadult form of the language with little or no explicit feedback.The case forsecond language learners is more complex. On the one hand,both children and adults can acquire a great deal oflanguage without anyformal instruction orfeedback on error-On the orher haqd, the evidene

ln qstlaTljg_ gng-ramma!]l1l ror4s roryears.

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