Second Language Acquisition: Methods and Theories
Incidental Language Learning
Incidental Language Learning is used to describe the extent to which exposure to the target language (TL) outside the classroom may lead to its knowledge and acquisition. There are three types: self-directed learning, incidental learning, and socialization or tacit learning.
- Formal learning: Regular language classes attended either voluntarily or as an academic requirement. Takes place in a formal (physical or virtual) context.
- Non-formal learning: Use of professionally produced learning materials in a non-academic context (textbooks, websites, CD-ROMs, etc.).
- Informal learning: Occurs naturalistically and mainly in an unconscious way. It uses resources not specifically tailored for educational purposes and is not situated in an institutional context.
Location-Based Classification (LBC) main dimensions (descriptive model):
- Location: Where the learning takes place (in/out of the class)
- Formality: Degree of structure (formal-informal)
- Locus of control: Who makes the major decisions about learning (self/other-directed)
The Input Hypothesis
The Input Hypothesis (Krashen) states that a large quantity of comprehensible input is necessary but insufficient in language learning. The affective filter is a combination of anxiety, self-image, and motivation. In Incidental Language Learning, there is a lack of pressure.
Output Hypothesis
Output Hypothesis (Swain): Social networking sites encourage users to react by commenting in a written and oral way.
Usage-Based Approach
Usage-based approach: CREED: A cognitive view of language acquisition which states that learning is Construction-based, Rational, Exemplar-driven, Emergent, and Dialectic.
Mayer’s Multimedia Learning Theory
Mayer’s Multimedia Learning Theory: Human cognition has two independent systems (verbal and imaginary) called the dual-channel assumption (learners learn better from words and pictures presented together) which simultaneously support each other. It is the active-processing assumption. The limited capacity assumption is when people pay attention for a limited span of time if the information is received via one channel.
Sweller’s Theory of Cognitive Load
Sweller’s Theory of Cognitive Load: By exposing learners to several modes simultaneously (visual, textual), it is simpler to memorize information. This complementary system reinforces language meaning.
Interlingual Subtitles
Interlingual subtitles lead to better comprehension, and reading the subtitles is an automatic behavior which does not prevent viewers from listening to the audio. It is more appropriate for beginners, and it is linked with motivation, confidence, and interest, avoiding pressure and anxiety.
Intralingual Subtitles
Intralingual subtitles facilitate the effect of visualizing what viewers hear. They are more suitable for advanced learners as they access comprehensible input.
Usage-Based Approach
The Usage-based approach states that language can be learned from language itself by means of social skills and powerful generalization mechanisms. A child is able to learn through a genetic and environmental component. No one is born with a specific language. Innate structures are derived from the input over a number of years. In this approach, it is assumed that language structure can be learned from language use by means of powerful generalization abilities. There is no innate faculty for the acquisition of grammar, but patterns of L2 are discovered by L2 through exposure and experience.
Entrenchment
Entrenchment: The repeated encounter of a unit becomes stabilized in memory (routinization and automatization). In order to generalize and form categories, learners recognize similarities and dissimilarities. For example, children generalize structures based on their experiences.
Emergence
Emergence: Linguistic knowledge emerges from the child’s interaction with the environmental language. Therefore, the linguistic structure emerges from language use. It permits us to understand that universal behavior is not linked with innate representation.
Generative Grammar
Generative grammar relies on innate universal representation as the prerequisite for language development.
- Nativists (innateness): Children display linguistic abilities at a very young age where learning is unlikely to occur.
- Emergentists (usage-based approach): Even children are sensitive to statistical generalizations in language they are exposed to.
- Token: How a particular word appears in input, leading to entrenchment.
- Type: Recognition of analogies between constructions, leading to abstraction.
CLIL vs. Immersion Programs
- The role of the language: Foreign Language (FL) in CLIL vs. Second Language (L2) in immersion programs.
- Teachers: Native Speakers (NS) in immersion programs and Non-Native Speakers (NNS) in CLIL.
- Learners: CLIL learners start later.
- Materials: Adapted in CLIL; are the same for natives in immersion.
- Language outcomes: NS competence in immersion vs. NS competence is not an expectation in CLIL.
More research has been undertaken in immersion programs than in CLIL.
CLIL vs. Content-Based Instruction
Content-Based Instruction (CBI) is applied in several programs (bilingual, immersion, and theme-based programs). It is considered similar to CLIL in terms of the use of L2 as a medium of instruction, linguistic and educational aims, and types of learners.
English-Medium Instruction (EMI) vs. CLIL
English-Medium Instruction (EMI) is teaching the content through the medium of English but not necessarily with a dual focus. There are many approaches with overlapping features which are labeled differently, but the best option is CLIL. It covers a wide range of approaches in which content and language are combined. It is a set of pedagogical approaches and options for combining content and L2 for FL instructions, taking into account CBI, CLIL, Immersion, or EMI programs.
Points of CLIL Programs
- CLIL is using a foreign language or lingua franca, not L2. The language of instruction is found in class.
- The dominant CLIL language is English.
- Teachers will normally be NNS of the TL.
- Lessons are timetabled as content lessons while TL continues as a separate subject taught by language specialists.
- CLIL is implemented when students have acquired literacy skills in their L1.
The 4Cs Framework
The 4Cs framework (Coyle) helps to understand that CLIL involves a complex conceptualization of learning, including cognitive demands and intercultural understanding (four components: content, cognition, communication, and culture).
- Culture: Subject matters and cross-cultural themes which involve knowledge and understanding.
- Cognition: Learning and thinking processes which involve higher thinking and problem-solving skills. (Bloom’s taxonomy vs. Anderson and Kratwohl).
- Communication: Language use (medium and message) and language learning (grammatical and communicative development).
Language Triptych
- Language of learning: Subject-specific terminology of each discipline.
- Language for learning: Used by students to participate in class.
- Language through learning: Emerges during the student’s learning process.
- Culture: Developing students’ plurilingual competence and pluricultural awareness, interest in the role of culture in learning.
Scaffolding
Scaffolding: Offering temporary support for students in realizing tasks to access the content or subjects matter through TL. Providing graphic and visual support, multimedia, and ICT.
Pluriliteracies
Pluriliteracies: CLIL needs a theory to integrate content and language, and it involves knowing and thinking articulated to demonstrate cultural awareness and subject-appropriate discourse. They are processes about developing subject literacies across languages in which students make connections in their everyday communicative skills and academic language (L1 and CLIL), which is key to deep learning.
Teacher Proficiency in CLIL
The status of English as a global language and the use of CLIL in different countries has created a demand for qualified and effective teachers. People lack appropriate qualifications (subject-matter knowledge and language proficiency). Content teachers saw themselves as experts in their subject but co-learners with students in the L2, as there is little formation for teachers. This impacts classroom teaching procedures, teachers’ authority and self-confidence, and teachers’ performance.
Kind of Proficiency Needed to Teach English Through English
- Content knowledge: Teacher’s understanding of their teaching subject. Essential knowledge to access the profession, specific training, professional recognition, and part of professional education.
- Pedagogical knowledge ability: Teacher’s knowledge of teaching (techniques and activities and the source) includes understanding students’ needs, diagnosing learning problems.
- Discursive skills: Essential to perform these activities correctly, professional development, language proficiency, and professional participation.
Implicit vs. Explicit Learning
- Implicit learning: Language processing based on frequency and probabilistic knowledge.
- Explicit knowledge can seed language acquisition, and it is more effective.