VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 05:19:50 10/16/05 Sun
Author: Jane Queiroz
Subject: Re: Final draft: Some factors in Second Language Learning
In reply to: Eduardo Ferreira Costa 's message, "Final draft: Some factors in Second Language Learning" on 09:03:14 10/15/05 Sat

Hi Eduardo, here are my comments on your essay. I hope them help you to improve it even more.
Jane

Factors Affecting Second Language Learning.
>When we think about Second Language acquisition, one
>of the question (1) is why a student learns a particular
>language meanwhile another one does not, once they are
>in the same class. This question can be answered when
>we consider that learning is not linear and each
>student has individual learning styles.
>In addition, there are some crucial factors, such as
>Intelligence, Aptitude, Personality, Motivation and
>attitudes, Learners preferences and beliefs and Age of
>acquisition, which influence the whole process. Within
>these factors, we focus our study on those that
>teachers face more frequently.
>When we mention intelligence, we refer to the most
>difficult factor to quantify, once IQ tests do not
>measure precisely many kinds of abilities and
>strengths. In addition, the relation (2) between high
>grades and good second language learners are not
>linear. According to a study conducted by Genesee
>(1976), apud Spada et al. (2001:52), there are aspects
>which prove that even if someone has a good grade in
>IQ tests, he or she has not achieved success as a
>second language learner. This reality takes place in
>different educational contexts from institute of
>languages to regular schools. Our Educational System
>focuses on grade as an instrument to measure
>knowledge, trying to exactly quantify it.
>Another aspect refers to Aptitude, which concerns to
>the individual innative capacity to easily acquire a
>second language. According to Lorraine Obler (1989),
>apud Spada et al. (2001:53), for those individuals
>with this ability, the language learning process
>demands less time. It can be observed when our
>students are interacting in class, by doing exercises,
>having a conversation or listening. Some of them have
>the innative capacity to acquire the language by just
>listening; meanwhile, others have to keep on studying
>a lot. It is also important to consider that aptitude
>is composed by different types of abilities, such as
>the ability to identify and memorize new sounds; the
>ability to understand the function of particular words
>in sentences; the ability to figure out grammatical
>rules from language samples; and memory for new words.
>Moreover, (4)motivation and attitudes (5)are two topics
>which could be considered the most influential ones,
>once a motivated individual is able to change and
>adequate himself to different contexts of learning.
>Here, motivation is considered as an internal force
>that leads the learner towards success. It is
>important to mention that teachers do not motivate
>anybody. However, as teachers, we can provide students
>external factors in order to make them feel
>comfortable and motivated. Therefore, the student role
>in the process corresponds to his/her attitude. An
>active role is essential, once students will learn by
>doing.
>Equally important is the learner’s age. It is the
>easiest topic to measure and a lot of people believe
>the age interferes drastically in the process. A lot
>of researchers(6) are developed concerning this topic and
>there is not a definite answer yet. Some theories,
>such as the Critical Period Hypothesis, investigate
>the age and its influence. According to this view, to
>be a good second language learner, the individual
>should learn the second language before his/her
>puberty. Although, age cannot be considered as a
>singular factor, once an older person can learn much
>better than a younger one depending on the attitudes.
>(7)On the other hand, some researches later proved that
>the younger one will have more similarities with a
>native speaker; referring to pronunciation and accent.
>These aspects mentioned above are too important for
>those teachers which want to understand the whole
>process concerning with (4)second language acquisition.
>
>Bibliography:
>LIGHTBOUN, Tatsy M., SPADA, Nina. How language are
>acquired? Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

1 - I didn't understand this part very well. I mean, are there other questions and you're going to focus on this one? Maybe you can rewrite it in a clearer way.
2 - If I understood it correctly, the relation ...IS not linear.
3 - I would write HARD instead of A LOT. I believe it's more formal.
4 - Capital letters.
5 - If I'm not wrong, in the beginning of your essay, you mentioned Motivation and attitudes as just one topic, and here you divided it in two topics. It's a bit cofusing.
6 - Wouldn't you mean RESEARCHES?
7 - I think this sentence is conected with the previous paragraph. Why don't you put them together?

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

  • Re: Final draft: Some factors in Second Language Learning -- Jefferson Canaverde da Silva, 09:57:10 10/16/05 Sun
    [ Contact Forum Admin ]

    Forum timezone: GMT-8
    VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
    Before posting please read our privacy policy.
    VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
    Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.