SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

INDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN THE USE OF THE MONITOR

The monitor theory refers that adults have two independent systems for developing their ability in second languages; these systems are:

· Subconscious language acquisition

· Conscious language learning

Language acquisition is very similar to the process children use in acquiring first and second languages. They interact meaningfully and are more concerned with the messages they are transmitting and receiving than the form of their utterances. Error correction and explicit teaching of rules are not relevant to language acquisition.

On the other hand, error correction and the presentation of explicit rules are a good help to conscious language learning; students progress from simple to complex structures.

The monitor theory’s hypothesis says that there is an inter-relation between acquisition and learning in the adult. There are important limitations on the use of the Monitor:

· The first condition is that in order to successfully monitor, the performer must have time, and performers normally do not have time to focus on conscious grammatical rules, so this condition is not enough.

· The second condition is that the performer must be “focused on form”, or correctness.

· Finally, the performer needs to know the rule and apply it correctly.

Therefore, it is very difficult to apply conscious learning to perform successfully. Situations in which all three conditions are satisfied are unusual being the most obvious a grammar test.

There are some individual variations in second language performance; mainly there are three types of performer:

§ Monitor “overusers” are performers who feel they must “know the rule” for everything and do not totally trust their feel for grammar in the second language.

§ Monitor “underuser”, who seems to be totally dependent on what he can pick up of the second language, they normally do not perform well on grammar tests; however, they can use quite complex structures.

§ The optimal user is the performer who uses learning as a real supplement to acquisition, monitoring when it is appropriate, they achieve the illusion of native speaker competence in written performance.

ATTITUDE AND APTITUDE

Language aptitude and language attitude are not related to each other. Aptitude may be directly related to conscious learning; it refers to acquirers’ orientations toward speakers of the target language, as well as personality factors. The right attitudinal factors produce two effects: they encourage useful input for language acquisition and they allow the acquirer to be “open” to this input so it can be utilized for acquisition.

If the direct relationship between acquisition and attitudinal factors exists, and if our major goal in language teaching is the development of communicative abilities, then attitudinal factors and motivational factor are more important than aptitude because conscious learning makes only a small contribution to communicative ability.

FORMAL AND INFORMAL LINGUISTIC ENVIRONMENTS

Many studies show that formal learning environments are best for attaining second language proficiency and some others show that informal environments are better. Informal environments are conductive to acquisition, while the formal environment has the potential for encouraging both acquisition and learning.

The domain of the conscious Grammar: The Morpheme Studies

The value of these studies is considerable, these show:

· The order of acquisition

· When performers are using conscious grammar

When performers are focused on communication and not form, adult errors in English are quite similar to errors made by children acquiring English as a second language. This natural order is interrupted when second language speakers monitor focusing on form.

Current research in the “morpheme studies” supports the hypothesis that second language performers use the conscious grammar completely only when they have to do extreme “discrete-point” grammar tests that evaluate knowledge of rules and vocabulary in isolation.

Conclusion

In my point of view, in order to get competence in a second language it is necessary both conscious and unconscious learning, it is important to acquire language and to follow a specific program which can lead to successful learning; one can have a great deal of aptitude to learn a language but if this person does not have attitude it is going to be difficult to achieve this purpose; because attitude has much to do with motivation which is fundamental to succeed.

Children learn quickly in an informal environment their first language; I have experienced that with my daughter, however they learn quickly because they do not have another option, they need to communicate and express their necessities as fast as possible. On the other hand when someone wants to learn a second language needs a more formal environment in which he or she can acquire and learn.

REFLECTING TEACHING

APPROACHES TO CLASSROOM INVESTIGATION IN TEACHING

Teaching is not about delivering knowledge as if it were a kind of merchandise. We teachers have such a huge responsibility to our profession that we must be concerned to be better developing our teaching abilities. Nonetheless, it is not about seeking the perfect formula to be a perfect teacher. We might have heard many times that experienced teachers are better professionals. However, what is experience? Is it just spending time teaching? Is it problems overcome through years practicing?

Years and years working in front of the group does not make experience, it is more about how we have grown as teachers, how we have been aware of our strengths and weaknesses in our daily practice and in what way we have use them to have a development that serves us to improve our performance.

Jack C. Richards and Charles Lockhart 1996 refer to this development through exploring classroom processes; this exploration involves many procedures which will serve us as a starting point to be aware of our own teaching style. These procedures are:

· Teaching journals

· Lesson reports

· Surveys and questionnaires

· Audio and video recordings

· Observation

· Action research

These procedures will lead us through a ‘’critically reflective teaching’’ or ‘’exploratory teaching’’. The most important advantage is that we decide by ourselves based on this what aspects or characteristic of our performance we can change. Since it is us who discover in which aspects we are not fulfilling learners’ expectations and necessities and it is not someone else who tells us. It happens all the time and not only in the teaching area. When we discover something by ourselves, then we accept it and we are more willing to change.

There also are other approaches in which more people are involved, such as collaborative daily keeping where a group of teachers participate and they are supposed to learn from each other, autobiographies where student also participate to collect teaching reactions and peer observation where a colleague is present along the class to later report back his feedback to the teacher. However, I think these approaches have the disadvantage I mentioned above, it is not a total self-evaluation, hence we take the risk to doubt the result.

‘’Critical reflection involves examining teaching experiences as a basis for evaluation and decision making and as a source for change’’ (Barlett 1990, Wallace 1991).

Reflecting teaching is being aware of what we are doing and why we are doing this as Barlett (1990) points out. It appears so simple however most of the time we do not have this awareness of our behavior. Hence, the approaches mentioned above will help us to develop this awareness, it is not the same knowing that we are explaining something as to actually see it in a video, being able to see this since another perspective change our point of view and enable us to make action in order to improve those aspects in which we are not achieving our objective.

To sum up, the reflecting teaching approach is an excellent option in order to develop our teaching awareness and plan strategies to overcome the difficulties or mistakes we make. When we apply the action research after our own feedback then we are gaining experience and growing as teachers.

REFERENCES:

· Towards reflective teaching. Jack. C. Richards. Department of English, City Polytechnic of Hong Kong.

· Reflective teaching in second language classroom. Jack C. Richards and Charles Lockhart. Cambridge. 1996. pp. 1-15

· http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/271/1/Guilloteaux_PhD.pdf

· http://www.ise5 14.org.uk/prim3/new_guidelines/Investigations/Poss_aproach.htm

http://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/you03353.pdf

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

SPEECH ACTS

Speech acts are the pieces of language or utterances that belong to a particular function in communication and what kind of reaction they create on the receiver. Speech acts have an intention and always have meaning to convey. For example when we are requesting or using a command we are performing an act.

Some common speech acts are:

• Promising
• Ordering
• Greeting
• Warning
• Inviting
• Congratulating
• Refusing

Speech acts have three major aspects:

1. Locutionary acts: Are those speech acts that have taken place. E.g. She is coming

2. Illocutionary acts: Are those real actions that are performed by the utterance. For example: When we welcome or warn, we speak and at the same time we are doing it. E.g. ‘’I forgive you’’

3. Perlocutionary acts: Are the effects of the utterance on the listener who accepts the speech act. E.g. let’s go! I will be funny.

Illocutionary acts are divided in five categories:

· Representatives: They represent some state of affairs in varying degrees of truth with respect to the proposition: state, believe, conclude, deny, report.

· Directives: Are speech acts whose intention is to get the addressee to carry out some action: command, insist, dare, request, challenge, ask, request.

Examples:

Pay half of the bill (command)

Be quiet (command)

‘Why don’t we go over there together? (Request)

‘Do you mind if I take one of these? (request)

Do you think I should call the college about my application? (advice)

It might be a good idea letting it go (advice)

• Commisives: Are speech acts that commit –in varying degrees- the speaker to some future course of action: promises, pledge, vow, swear, threat.

Examples:

‘’ I promise to keep the secret’ (promise)

“You’ll have it by tomorrow’’ (promise)

‘If you don’t complain I’ll help you’ (promise)

‘if the pizza is not at your home in a half, it is free’ (promise)

· Espressives: Are speech acts that indicate the speaker’s psychological state or mental attitude towards about a state of affairs: welcome, deplore, greet, thank, congratulate, and apologize.

Examples:

Look, we know you’re busy, but you come late to every meeting!

What a beautiful jacket!

I wish I could have some free time

You are so sweet!

· Declarations: Are speech acts that change the reality in accord with the proposition of the declaration. In Declarations saying the words and doing the action is the same thing. The effect of the words pronounced is depending upon the utterance itself. Example. You are punished.

Some examples of speech acts are everyday exchanges:

Some friends inviting and thanking:

Speaker A: Would you like to take a cup of coffee? (inviting)

Speaker B: It’d be nice. Thank you. (thanking)

At home:

Mom: I need some groceries, Go to the store and bring me what I need. (ordering)

Girl: Mom, I’m busy right now, Can I go later. (refusing)

Mom: If you don’t go now, then you won’t go to that party (warning)

Girl: Ok, ok I’ll go (accepting)

A couple

Man: Hello (greeting)

Woman: How are you? (Greeting)

Man: Actually, I’m desperate. I waited for you for half an hour (complaining)

Woman: I’m so sorry. (Apologizing)

Man: Don’t do this again! (Warning)

The performative utterances are actions that both the sender and the receiver think and consider that could be done, if one of them does not believe so, then that felicity of sincerity is not being fulfilled and the performative utterances cannot take place.

It is very important that the performative utterances follow the conditions listed below:

• The sender believes that the action should be done.
• The receiver has the ability to do the action.
• The receiver has the obligation to do the action.
• The sender has the right to take the receiver to do the action.

For example:

Boss: Could you come to my office please!

Employee: yes, of course

Boss: I spilled the coffee on the floor. Can you clean it?

Employee: Yes

Boss: ok, thanks so much.

The felicity conditions are all the requirements that are needed to fulfill the purpose of the utterance and its intention.

REFERENCES:

· Cook. G Discourse (1989)

· Cook G. “Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education” Editors C.N Candlin and H.G Widdowson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performative_utterance#Austin.27s_definition Austin, J.L. (1962). “How to Do Things with Words Oxford: Clarendon”

· http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/speech-acts/

· http://www.carla.umn.edu/speechacts/definition.html

· http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsASpeechAct.htm

· http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/pragmatics.htm#5

TEACHING GRAMMAR

TEACHING GRAMMAR FROM CONTEXT

Teaching grammar through texts is a good way to let students know how actually a word or a grammar item is used. With this technique they can process it in an easier way as they get immediately the meaning of it not only the form. Many teachers are used to teach since the level sentence, but real communication goes beyond, groups of sentences joined together to construct meaning using different markers and linking words. So if real language is like this we must consider teach with texts.

Texts do not mean only books or plain writings; texts mean all kind of context in written or oral form, for example: street signs, invitations, football commentaries, postcards, jokes, conversations, magazine articles or advertisements to mention some.

We can mention four sources of texts which are the course book, authentic sources, the teacher and the students themselves when they produce language they are producing authentic texts.

I will analyze and evaluate the following lesson plans based on the basic principles for grammar teaching (Scott Thornburny): The Efficiency Factor and The Appropriacy Factor and the criteria for good rules (Michael Swan): Truth, limitation, clarity, simplicity, familiarity and relevance; teacher’s role versus students’ role and correction of mistakes.

Sample lesson 1

In this lesson the teacher wants to teach the simple present through a dialogue about daily routines; in step one she plays the conversation and let students to answer some questions about it, they can discuss it in groups. In step 2 they need to arrange some words as they listen to them to test their familiarity to such words, then in step three she focuses on which activity does each one of the speakers in the conversation. In step four and five she works with the frequency adverbs having students match the adverbs with each activity according to the listening. In the previous stages the teacher tried students to get the meaning to later focus on the form of sentences and she starts to write; now the students have a visual aim.

In steps six, seven and eight they focus on the form of sentences to later invite students to write their own following the same pattern. As we can see the teacher gives the rule as follows: subject + adverb + verb + complements; this is very clear and simple to understand after they were in contact with such pattern because they are already familiar with it.

In this lesson the teacher’s role was first of all to choose a text in which they found a lot of good and simple examples according to their level; then she guided them step by step to finally let them express themselves. In the final stage the teacher can observe if the students can use the thought patter or not, since the step eight we can check if they have some mistakes and correct them. The lesson plan do not specify how mistakes were treated however it is important to correct them as they come up because it is a writing activity.

The lesson is effective if we choose the appropriate text, not too difficult to demotivate students but at the same time not so easy. If we do not find the appropriate text we can also write our own of course it will take more preparation time but it is worth.

About the appropriateness, this lesson match students expectations as is developed using a dialogue of a real situation and better they can use this language on their own easily if they wish as it is a daily language used.

Sample lesson 2

In this lesson the teacher is going to present a passive structure and she decided to work with an authentic text. This has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. Even though we can look for authentic texts that at the same time match our necessities for the class, the time of preparation increases of course.

In step one the teacher want students to predict the vocabulary they will see by the topic of the text, in step two the students read silently and answer some comprehension questions; then in step three the teacher extract one sentence of the text and write it on the board, such sentence is in passive voice but she also writes the sentence in an active voice to make students compare the structures. In step 4 the teacher elicits the structure, so students are lead to discover the rule by themselves. Then they retell the story with their own words. Finally students write a similar story.

Sometimes the use of authentic texts had the difficulty that they contain grammar items or vocabulary that is difficult to assimilate, in such case the teacher can adapt the text or explain giving the exceptions of the rule, it will depend of the objective of the class and the time available.

This lesson is economical as it does not require specific material just the text, of course we can always illustrate it with a picture, it is also appropriate if the students have the level required to understand an authentic text, otherwise it could be very difficult for them.

Students’ role was to discover the rule and apply it when necessary; they were guided through the lesson by the teacher to finally write their own stories using the passive voice.

As in the first lesson, this one ends up with the students’ production in a written form where we can test their learning and treat mistakes.

An important aspect to be considered when we choose a text to work in an English class is that such text is familiar to the students, an interesting topic that somehow is related to their lives. It might be interesting, or funny, something that let us to engage students in the activity.

Using these techniques we have a real context to work on, and students understand better because their question what is this for is already answer, it is implicit so they can be more motivated in the class making real uses of communicative language.

REFERENCES

· Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Grammar. Longman. 2002. pp. 69-90, 113-126, 128-138.

TEACHING GRAMMAR

HOW DO WE LEARN GRAMMAR

Teaching the language system

Teaching grammar considering its three perspectives form, meaning and use is a real challenge for teachers. Many times we fail to do it as sometimes we just stick to the form of grammar, but we need to remember that it is easier for learners to pick up the language when it is contextualized and it is used in a purpose way. Our role as teachers is to look for the best techniques in order to present it in a noticeable way so they can intake it into their new language. One important aspect of learning is automatizing; this occurs when the learner uses several times the same structure successfully and in a communicative way, this would not be possible if we do not provide such opportunities in the classroom.

The teacher also has to take important decisions that will affect or benefit the learning process such as what material to present and in what order and how to present it taking into account all the pedagogical implications of grammar acquisition. For example, we as teachers cannot expect that a student acquire something or use it accurately if he is not ready, that is why a deep research on this matter is needed in order to understand these processes.

The learner needs to make choices for effective interaction and use strategies to benefit from every class, look for opportunities to use the structures, be curious of the language and have a good attitude toward learning and practicing.

Teaching grammar requires first of all a good knowledge of it to give us confidence, if we are not complete sure of something we must investigate it before teaching it, there are always curious and advanced students who we should also help to continue in their level of proficiency. Second we need to think carefully how to present it and how we will provide opportunities to practice the structure within a context that interest students. I think we also need plenty of experience in order to master this area of teaching.

One important aspect that we must not forget is that students can memorize chunks of language and use them to communicate, even if they don’t understand their structure but if they observe how to use them they can communicate effectively and accelerate their learning. I recommend giving selected phrases to beginner students to start communicating in English in the classroom.

Finally, when we present a grammar structure, we can present it in a simple way, then later to recycle it with new functions and extend vocabulary, this help students to continue practicing such structure and not to forget it. This technique works well in my classes.

TEACHING READING SKILLS

READING COMPREHENSION ASSESSMENT

Introduction:

Measuring reading comprehension may be complex, because of all the characteristics we need to take into account when designing tasks to measure students’ ability to decode written messages, to infer meaning from context, to use the necessary strategies to comprehend the whole message. According to Dr. Melissa Farrall different reading tests measure different types of reading skills.

Comprehensive assessment in reading should include: word recognition, silent reading comprehension and oral reading comprehension to demonstrate the development of micro skills such as: understanding the scrip of language, deducing meaning and the use of unfamiliar lexical items, understanding the cohesion devices, interpreting text and distinguishing the main idea.

Another important aspect to consider is the time given to answer the test, given the difficulties test takers may encounter trying to get a meaning out of the reading; it would be a good idea to assign about an hour depending on the type of text it would be a little shorter or longer.

Abstract:

In this document I suggest a set of assessment tasks to be applied to a group of beginner learners from high school education, each of these is designed to measure a certain micro skill in reading comprehension, considering the learners previous knowledge, about the language, the world and the written code.

The main purpose of this sample test is to measure understanding the main idea of the text by asking comprehension questions. I will avoid other kinds of tasks such as cloze items since they just measure how much test takers can remember about the exact words in certain passage. I will also avoid true false questions since they can be answered at random and even get some correctly guessed. At the end of the questions, I suggest to set a summary task in which test takers choose among three options, the one which best summarizes the whole reading.

Keywords: assessment, measure, comprehension, skills, cloze test, summary, reading.

READING COMPREHENSION EVALUATION

TABLE OF SPECIFICATIONS

No. of students: 22 Age: 17-18 Level: Upper Beginner

Reading material: Chapter 1 a strange meeting of the book ‘’How I met myself’’ David A. Hill. Cambridge Readers. Level 3. Cambridge University Press. 2001

Purpose	Micro skills	Type of item	No. of items	Percentage	Estimated time
To measure learners ability to comprehend reading in the form of a story.	Understanding the main idea Deducing lexical meanings from context Understanding the cohesion devices.	Multiple choice questions	5	15% each	10 min
To measure learners ability to distinguish important information	Understanding the main idea		1	20%	5 min
To measure learners ability to summarize the important information extracting the main idea	Understanding the main idea and express it in the written code	Open writing	1	20%	10 min

Test takers characteristics:

The students who will take the test are adolescents that study in a technical high school; they were very reluctant towards reading at the beginning of the course. However step by step they have learned to enjoy some kind of readings as short stories. As they have more experience in these kinds of readings I decided to test them with one of these. I consider this story very interesting for my students since there is suspension and may cause expectation and a desire to continue reading. The language of this extract is not difficult nor so simple, there may be some words students do not understand but which are easily inferred by context that is one of the micro skills I have been working with as well as some cohesive devices which help us to follow the story.

Report:

The students’ reactions towards the test were of some anxiety at the beginning, once I told them it was just an activity they were more relaxed. They normally relate tests as something difficult to achieve, so I prefer to call them exercises.

I assigned them fifteen minutes to read the story before they started to answer the questions, they finished before I expected. The results were not excellent but not bad either. The main difficulty they had in the first part was that they did not understand the word colleague, so may answered that he was argued with his boss which is a word they are familiar with. In the second part of the test some answered with the wrong option, many chose the letter a, which would be acceptable just for one detail, he was not Hungarian. Just some of them understood that he was arrived there, so if he arrived, then he was from another place. They needed to assimilate that. In the third part most of them answered correctly, however it was difficult to me to interpret their writings.

Observations:

Students tried to understand all the information in the story, I observed when there were a difficulty in understanding because of his body language. Sometimes they went back the reading; we can see it in their face when there is something they want to recheck because of a gap of information necessary to assimilate the meaning. We can also observe when someone wants to peek at a partner’s answer to be sure mainly if it is individual and it is not allowed to share answers.

Conclusion:

Measuring reading comprehension needs a good plan, we need to know exactly what we want to measure, what skills are we going to weight, what is the purpose of it, what kind of items will be set in the test, what percentage are we going to assign to each one and how much time will we give to answer.

In this reading there are many features to exploit for those who want to test other students abilities, for example what happened before what, or to interpret it may cause different suppositions in different students, we can ask the student to continue the story or to give a rationale of the event. The options are many, but the more important thing is to know exactly what we want students to do and that they have that knowledge to complete it successfully, if not it would be better to simplify the exercises according to their level.

APENDIX 1.

HOW I MET MYSELF

A strange meeting

I was walking home from my office one January evening. It was a Monday. The weather was very cold, and there were some low clouds around the tops of the buildings. Once I’d left the main road, there weren’t many people in the dark, narrow streets of Budapest’s Thirteenth District. Everything was very quiet. It felt as if the city was waiting for something.

As I walked I thought about what had happened at work. I had argued with one of the Hungarians I worked with. It was the first serious problem since I’d arrived. I was trying to think what to do about it, and I was also hoping that my wife, Andrea, had made one of her nice hot soups for dinner.

After about five minutes it started to snow heavily, so that the streets were soon completely white. As I was walking along a very dark part of one street there was the noise of a door shutting loudly inside a building. Then I heard the sound of someone running.

Suddenly, the street door opened and a man came out of it and ran straight into me. I fell over into the snow, shouting something like, ‘Hey, watch where you’re going!’-my words were loud in the empty street. The man turned to look at me for a moment. ‘Sorry’, he said very quietly, in Hungarian, before walking quickly away.

What I saw at that moment, in the dark winter street was very strange, and I felt very afraid. Because what I saw was me. My face looking down at me. My mouth saying sorry.

APENDIX 2.

Sample questions:

I. Instructions: Underline the correct answer

1. - Where was he walking?

a) In a street

b) In a path

c) In a little park

d) In his house

2. - Who did he argue with?

a) A friend

b) His wife

c) His boss

d) A colleague

3. - When did it start snowing?

a) In the morning

b) In the afternoon

c) In the evening

d) At night

4. - Why did the man fall over into the snow?

a) Because he was very tired

b) Because he was drunk

c) Because a man ran into him

d) Because he slipped in the snow

5. - How many people were there in the street?

a) A lot o people

b) Just police officers

c) Some tourists

d) Nobody

II. Instructions: choose the statement that best summarizes the story.

a) A Hungarian man was walking when suddenly a man ran into him making him fell over the snow, this man was himself.

b) Someone meet a person in an accident realizing he was that person.

c) A man was running when he crashed with another man who results to be someone he had met in the past.

III. Instructions: Write the main idea of the text with your own words.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

REFERENCES:

Reading Tests: What They Measure, and Don't Measure
by Dr. Melissa Farrall at: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/test.read.farrall.htm