Activities Chapter 2 (Saville-Troike, 2006)

Questions for self-study

1. List at least five possible motivations for learning a second language at an older age.

According to Saville-Troike (2006, p. 10), motivation for learning a second language may arise from the following situations:

“•Invasion or conquest of one’s country by speakers of another language;

• A need or desire to contact speakers of other languages in economic or other specific domains; •Immigration to a country where use of a language other than one’s L1 is required;
• Adoption of religious beliefs and practices which involve use of another language;
• A need or desire to pursue educational experiences where access requires proficiency in another language;
• A desire for occupational or social advancement which is furthered by knowledge of another language;
• An interest in knowing more about peoples of other cultures and having access to their technologies or literatures.” (As cited in Saville-Troike, 2006, p. 10).

 

2. Sounds that make a difference in the identity of words are called __phonemes__.

 

3. Match the following terms to their definitions:

1 (c) innate capacity

2. (a) sequential bilingualism
3. (b) simultaneous bilingualism

1. (2) when a second language is introduced after the native language has been acquired
2. (3) when young children acquire more than one language at the same time
3. (1) natural ability

 

4. What is the initial state of language development for L1 and L2 respectively?

Answer: Innate capacity is the starting point for L1 acquisition as all children in the world are born with a natural ability to acquire their first language (Saville-Troike, 2006). On the other hand, it has not been proved that older people still have that innate linguistic capacity they were born with, but they do have L1 knowledge which they rely on when learning a second language (Saville-Troike, 2006). Besides, L2 learners have already learned about the world and about communicative skills used when interacting with other people according to the context (Saville-Troike, 2006).

 

5. What is a necessary condition for language learning (L1 or L2)?

Answer: A necessary condition for both L1 acquisition and L2 learning is receiving a lot of language input (Saville-Troike, 2006). Children also need reciprocal interaction when acquiring their L1, but L2 learners do not need to interact with other speakers as they can reach a high proficiency level in the target language by only receiving input from non-reciprocal sources such as watching TV, listening to music or reading (Saville-Troike, 2006).

 

6. Give at least two reasons that many scientists believe in some innate capacity for language.

1) Children acquiring their L1 are able to produce an infinite set of original utterances which they have never heard before (the poverty-of-the-stimulus argument), and they are also able to filter the language input they hear so that the input that is against the grammatical rules of their L1 is not incorporated into their L1 system (Saville-Troike, 2006).

2) Children use their L1 according to general universal rules of language in spite of the fact that they have not developed the necessary cognitive ability to understand these language rules yet because of their age (Saville-Troike, 2006). This means that since children are not cognitively mature enough yet, they cannot understand the grammatical rules of their L1; however, they apply those grammatical rules.

3) There are similar patterns in child’s L1 acquisition of any language in the world that cannot be explained by language-specific input (Saville-Troike, 2006).

 

 

7. Linguists have taken an internal and/or external focus to the study of language acquisition. What is the difference between the two?

The internal focus, which is based on the work of Noam Chomsky and his followers, sets as its goal to study speakers’ internalized, underlying knowledge of language (linguistic competence) paying attention to the role of the innate language capacity every human is born with, according to them (Saville-Troike, p. 25-26). The external focus for the study of SLA puts emphasis on the communicative use of language and on the information content of utterances, including the functions of language realized in learners’ production at different stages of development (Saville-Troike, p. 25-26).

 

Active learning

1. If you can use two or more languages, why is this so? What has been your reason for learning second language(s)? If you can use only one, why haven’t you learned other languages? Compare your response to this question with those of other individuals and make a list of reasons for multilingualism or monolingualism. Categorize these reasons as primarily based on individual preference and need or on social and political circumstances.

I can use three languages. Since I am keen on learning new languages, I acknowledge the importance of speaking more than one language in a globalized world where interacting with people from other cultures can enrich your knowledge and can bring benefits to your professional life and to the health of your brain. According to Muñoz (2014), “The bilingual brain is used to handling two languages at the same time. This develops skills for functions such as inhibition (a cognitive mechanism that discards irrelevant stimuli), switching attention, and working memory.” Muñoz (2014) also adds, “These skills make up the brain’s executive control system, which looks after high-level thought, multi-tasking, and sustained attention.”

Muñoz, M. A. (2014). Does being bilingual make you smarter? Retrieved January 4, 2017, from https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/does-being-bilingual-make-you-smarter

Kruschewsky, G. (2014). 6 Multilingual Benefits That You Only Get If You Speak Another Language. Retrieved January 4, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/02/multilingual-benefits_n_5399980.html

Reasons for being monolingual

Reasons for being multilingual

-According to Muñoz (2014), “Bilingual people tend to produce fewer words of any given semantic category than people who only speak one language fluently. In other words, their individual vocabularies in each language tend to be smaller than that of people who only speak one of those languages.” à Individual preference   -Muñoz (2014) also states, “Another study has shown that bilingual people also experience ‘nearly twice as many’ tip-of-the-tongue moments (when you can’t find the exact word you want to describe something) than their monolingual peers. These cognitive costs don’t just affect the lexical level (i.e., vocabulary) but also the syntactic one (i.e., grammar).” à Individual preference

-As Muñoz (2014) asserts, “The bilingual brain is used to handling two languages at the same time. This develops skills for functions such as inhibition (a cognitive mechanism that discards irrelevant stimuli), switching attention, and working memory.” à Individual preference   -Muñoz (2014) also says, “Taking part in stimulating physical or mental activity can help maintain cognitive function, and delay the onset of symptoms in people suffering from dementia.” à Individual preference   -By speaking more than one language, it is possible to understand and appreciate cultural differences and meanings that are lost when translating (Kruschewsky, 2014). à Social circumstance   -Being multilingual increases job opportunities and facilitates travelling (Kruschewsky, 2014) àIndividual need

 

2. Think about the facilitating conditions to language learning discussed in this chapter. Have you had any of these experiences facilitate your own learning? If so, which ones? Have there been other factors as well that influenced your learning? In your answer to question 2 in Chapter 1, did you consider any of these conditions?

Answer: Yes, I have. I have been given feedback during my learning process, whose value I appreciate as I get aware of the mistakes I make and I can correct them. I also have the aptitude to learn because, thanks GOD, I consider I have memory capacity and analytical ability including phonemic coding ability, grammatical sensitivity and inductive language learning ability (Gass & Selinker, 2008, p. 418). Besides, I feel very motivated to learn a new language because I know that learning and using another language different from my L1 is beneficial not only for my professional life but also for the health of my brain. Furthermore, I have also received explicit instruction about languages in academic settings and I also like having exposure to the target language in informal contexts such as listening to music, watching TV and reading books. In my answer to question 2 in Chapter 1, I considered these conditions.

 

3. Based on your personal and educational experience, do you expect to prefer or feel more comfortable with one of the perspectives on SLA (linguistic, psychological, social)? Why or why not? If so, what are some strategies you can use to keep an open mind to the perspectives you might not privilege?

Answer: From my point of view, all of these three perspectives are important when studying SLA as they provide a bigger picture of the process of acquiring a second language when they are integrated. As Saville-Troike (2006, p. 3) states, “Ultimately, a satisfactory account of SLA must integrate these multiple perspectives (…). As in the fable of the elephant, three different perspectives are presented here: linguistic, psychological, and social. I make no presumption that any one perspective among these is ‘right’ or more privileged, but believe that all are needed to provide a fuller understanding of the complex phenomena of SLA.”

 

4. It is a matter of debate what level of proficiency is needed before one claims to have multilingual competence, or to ‘know’ a second language. How did you decide what to count as L2(s) in question 1 of Chapter 1? Do you have exposure to other languages that you did not list? If so, explain why you did not list those languages. Now that you have read Chapter 2, have your ideas changed about how proficient one must be to be considered to have an L2?

Answer: I decided to count English and Portuguese as my L2s because I consider that I am able to use those languages: I consider that I have a high proficiency level in English and an intermediate proficiency level in Portuguese. No, I do not have exposure to any other language; nonetheless, I am planning to start learning French and Italian during 2017. After reading the chapter 2, I drew the conclusion that the proficiency level that learners reach is highly variable as some of them reach a “native-like” competence in L2 and others stop making progress at some point and get a “fossilized” L2 system where structures which a native speaker would not produce are included (Saville-Troike, 2008, p.21).

 

References:

Muñoz, M. A. (2014). Does being bilingual make you smarter? Retrieved January 4, 2017, from https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/does-being-bilingual-make-you-smarter

Kruschewsky, G. (2014). 6 Multilingual Benefits That You Only Get If You Speak Another Language. Retrieved January 4, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/02/multilingual-benefits_n_5399980.html

Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing Second Language Acquisition. New York: Cambridge University Press.