T.R.Mersin UniversityEducation Faculty

Foreign Language Teaching DepartmentEnglish Language Teaching

HOW LANGUAGES ARE LEARNEDMid-term Project

From:Melike GAZİOĞLU

07271011

To:Yaşam UMUT BILDIRCIN

MersinOct, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM_________________________3Six Proposals for Classroom Teaching__________________________________________3

1) Get it right from the beginning__________________________________________32) Just listen … and read_________________________________________________43) Let’s talk___________________________________________________________54) Two for one_________________________________________________________75) Teach what is teachable________________________________________________96) Get it right in the end_________________________________________________10

The implications of classroom research for teaching______________________________12Summary________________________________________________________________13

POPULAR IDEAS ABOUT LANGUAGE LEARNING REVISITED__________________14Popular Ideas about Language Learning________________________________________14Conclusion_______________________________________________________________18

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HOW LANGUAGES ARE LEARNED

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM

Six Proposals for Classroom Teaching

The question we are trying to answer in this section is “what is the best way to promote language learning in classrooms?” Researchers try to find the relationship between teaching and learning.

There are six proposals that we will examine about teaching language in classrooms. These are:

1) Get it right from the beginning2) Just listen… and read3) Let’s talk4) Two for one5) Teach what is teachable6) Get it right in the end

1) Get it right from the beginning

“Get it right from the beginning” is a proposal which emphasizes the importance of accuracy in second language learning. This proposal mostly makes the use of structure-based and/or form-based instructions.

Most traditional approaches (grammar translation & audio-lingual approaches) uses this proposal in classroom teaching environment. In this proposal, teachers don’t let learners speak freely because this may cause them to make errors. And as the learning is viewed as habit formation, making errors is believed to cause early fossilization in learners.

Grammar-Translation Method: Students are given explicit instruction of grammar rules and vocabulary lists with translation equivalents. The purpose of this approach is to help students develop in reading literature rather than develop in fluency in spoken language. The aim is to translate both from and to target language accurately. It often ignores the communicative aspect of language use.

Audiolingual Approach: Audiolingualism is behaviorist in its language learning theory. According to this, learning is habit formation through practice, repetition, and memorization. It tries to prevent errors as much as possible to avoid early fossilization of errors. Instead of early speaking, there is controlled practice in this approach. The emphasis is on oral language but students just use language through repetition of oral items not through communicative use.

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In fact, learners beliefs about the best kind of instruction which is best for them influence learners satisfaction, motivation and success. Grammar translation and audiolingual methods fail to produce accuracy and fluency in second language learners on communicative terms.

Get it right from the beginning proposal favors accuracy before fluency in language learning. Grammar-focused instructions don’t favor the comprehension skills, communication abilities and fluency.

“Get it right from the beginning” proposal has some limitations. * Learners given grammar translation and/ or audiolingual instructions are mostly

unable to use language in communicative purposes. * Language is not learned by the gradual accumulation of one item after another.* Errors are not seen as a natural and valuable part of the language learning process.* As the emphasis is on accuracy in the classroom, this leads learners feel inhibited,

uncomfortable and reluctant to take chances in using their language for communication.* Structure-based and form-based instructions do not guarantee that second language

learners will develop high levels of accuracy and linguistic knowledge

MY OPINIONS

I don’t agree with the idea of get it right from the beginning proposal that it sees language learning as a habit formation. Partly, language learning may be seen as habit formation because some words are taken and repeated while learning language. However, learning a language is more complex than just habit formation.

Also, I don’t agree this proposal advocates that errors should be avoided at all costs. Students are not allowed and expected to make errors especially in the beginning. However, errors are a part of natural process in language learning. Avoiding errors at the beginning cause not only learner to use language less, but also students feeling in a stressful environment while learning language.

Get it right from the beginning may be useful for teaching the exact use of language, pronunciation improvement etc. for the advanced learners of language. However, for the beginning learners, it may have no help.

2) Just listen … and read

“Just listen… and read” proposal says that language acquisition takes place when learners are exposed to comprehensible input through listening and reading. Stephen Krashen is closely associated with this proposal. Krashen says that the availability of comprehensible input is essential in instructional setting.

This proposal is controversial in language teaching because it says that L2 learners don’t need drill and practice language, but also that they do not need to speak at all in their learning process.

The material that students read and listen to is not graded in a rigid way; rather, the material is graded on the basis of what teachers consider to be comprehensible for their students.

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Comprehension-based instruction

In the early stages, Students in the comprehension-based program may learn English as much as learners in the regular program. This may be true both for their comprehension skills and for their speaking skills. However, in the long run, students in regular programme may make greater progress in some skills especially in writing. Those students are ones which have teacher feedback, classroom interaction and audiolingual instruction with speaking and writing components.

Reading for words

While interacting in ordinary conversations, we use mainly 1000 or 2000 most frequent words. Thus, reading is a good source for vocabulary learning. Students who reach an intermediate level may have very little opportunity to learn new words. However, in reading, they have more opportunity to learn new vocabulary.

Simplified readers are reading materials which are graded parallel to the learners’ levels. Students can encounter a number of new words and they can also figure out their meaning from the reading texts through the use of simplified readers.

Total Physical Response

Students participate in activities in which they hear a series of commands in the target language. They listen and show their comprehension through actions. They are not required to say anything. TPR differs from Krashen’s hypothesis in that vocabulary and grammar are carefully graded and organized so that students deal with material which gradually increases in complexity. When students begin to speak, they take over the role of the teacher, give commands and fallows them.

Input Flood

Giving high-frequency input to a particular form is called input flood. Students are given high-frequency input to a particular form. They read series of texts including this form. But they are given no explicit teaching of this form. Also, no error correction is given.

Input flood may help learners to add something new to their interlanguage. However, they cannot get rid of the errors coming from their first language. Exposure to language input may provide learners with information about what is grammatical in second language. However, it fails to give them information about what is not grammatical. So, more explicit information about what is not grammatical may be necessary.

Enhanced InputStudents are given reading passages to draw their attention to a particular form. The

particular form is written in the text in bold type, underlined, italicized, or capital letters. This is called enhanced input.

However, in study, it is shown that there is not much difference between the learners who are given enhanced input and who are not given, in terms of their knowledge and use of these forms.

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Processing Instruction

It is another approach to comprehension based learning. In processing instruction, learners are put into situations where they cannot comprehend a sentence by depending solely on context, prior knowledge or other clues. Rather, they must focus on the language itself.

Students who received processing instruction may achieve higher levels of performance on both the comprehension tasks and the production tasks than students who engaged in production practice doing exercises to practice the form.

MY OPINIONS

I agree that language learning should start with listening and reading and students should be waited for language production. the Access to comprehensible input would lead students to learn the language.

Comprehension-based instruction is a good way to teach language. Learners will be motivated to learn the language. Classroom interaction, peer and teacher feedbacks are certain to improve the language skills of learners.

Reading is a very good way of one’s improving his/her vocabulary knowledge. Readers would learn vocabulary knowledge related to the context of the reading passage. There are also staged books for all levels. Therefore, reading is useful from beginning to advanced. In my opinion, for advanced learners, however, watching movies, listening to English music, online podcasts videos etc. are also good way of learning vocabulary.

Total physical response can have advantage especially in young learners at the beginning level. This approach is also parallel to natural language acquisition stage. Students can learn language through physical actions and comments in the beginning level just as the way young children do while acquiring a language. However, I don’t believe this will help advanced level learners as the linguistic content would be too complex to teach just with the help of TPR. Also, as older learners are not as energetic as young learners, they may not get enjoyment from TPR.

Enhanced input seems as a better way of teaching a specific form than input flood. For the reason that through input flood, there is the possibility of students not realizing the target form. Also input flood may cause some errors of interlanguage to remain.

3) Let’s talk

Let’s talk emphasizes the importance of access to both comprehensible input and conversational interactions with teachers and other students. If students are given opportunity to engage in interaction, they negotiate for meaning (expressing and classifying their intentions, thoughts, opinions etc...)

Negotiation for meaning can be achieved in communicative language teaching (CLT) and task- based instruction. Students work together to accomplish a particular goal by using the target language. Through negotiation, Students can acquire the language forms naturally (words and the grammatical structures).

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The oral interaction hypothesis, proposed by Long in second language acquisition is critiqued. The interaction hypothesis advances two major claims about the role of interaction in second language acquisition: (1) comprehensible input is necessary for L2 acquisition; and (2) modifications to the interactional structure of conversations that take place in the process of negotiating a communication problem help make input comprehensible to an L2 learner.

Corrective feedback helps learners make connections between form and meaning.

Learners talking to learners

In the study by Patricia Porter, language produced by adult learners performing a task in pairs is evaluated. The learners are matched as native speaker –advanced level; advanced level – intermediate level; intermediate – intermediate level etc. It is found that the number of grammar and vocabulary errors and false starts may show no difference across context. Intermediate level learners may not make any more errors with another intermediate level learner than they do with native speaker. This is interesting because it calls for the argument that learners need to be exposed to a native speaking model.

Learner language and proficiency level

When different proficiency-level students interact with each other, the result showed that when low-proficiency learners were in the ‘sender’ role, the interactions were longer and more varied than when high-proficiency learners were the ‘senders’. Based on this, it can be suggested that teachers should sometimes place more advanced students in less dominant roles in paired activities with lower-level learners.

The Dynamics of pair work

Collaborative instruction consists of two learners fully engaged with each others ideas. Collaborative interaction types are dominant – dominant (unwillingness on the part of either learner to engage or agree with other’s contributions); dominant – passive (one learner is authoritarian and other is willing to yield to other speaker ) ; expert – novice (one learner is stronger than the other, actively supported the other in carrying out the task) .

Collaborative and expert – novice pairs maintains more of their second language knowledge over time. Learners in dominant – dominant and dominant – passive pairs maintain less.

It shows that when pair work functions collaboratively and learners are in an expert – novice relationship, they can successfully engage in the co-construction of knowledge.

Interaction and second language development

Alison Mackey gets learners do different communicative tasks with native speakers of the target language. Students engaged in conversational interactions with native speakers produces more advanced question forms than Students who received pre-modified input (language which had been simplified & scripted) . However, students engaged in conversational interactions with native speakers have no opportunity for

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negotiation of meaning with native speakers. Who are engaged in conversational interactions produce more advanced question forms than the other two.

Learner – learner interaction

Kim McDonough investigates the use of pair and small group activities in English as a foreign language class in Thailand. He tries to see the extent which students use interactional features as negative feedback and modified input.

Learners who use more negative feedback and modified output in interactions significantly improve more. However, none of the students consider pair and group activities useful for learning English.

Interpreting the Research

This research contributes to a better understanding of how to organize group and pair work more effectively in classrooms.

Several studies have shown that implicit corrective feedback in pair-work situations is beneficial. Recasts are more silent in pair work, particularly if one one form is recast consistently.

Through this research, it is difficult to draw a conclusion about the long term benefits of conversational instructions in classrooms.

MY OPINION

This proposal emphasizes the importance of both comprehensible input and classroom interaction. I agree with the importance of these in language learning. Students are given access to speak from the beginning both with teacher and with each other. By this way, I believe especially older learners will feel themselves more secure while interacting with learners of the same proficiency level. They will be in a stress-free environment. However, these students can’t correct the mistakes of each other. For this, teacher can watch over the students and can give feedback at the end of their speech. For more important mistakes, using recasts through the interaction of students may be necessary.

4) Two for one

This approach is referred as content-based instruction. Learners of a foreign language acquire it through studying a subject matter in the target language. The expectation of this approach is that students can get “two for one”. They can both learn the subject matter content and the language at the same time.

In many contexts, it is assumed that students will develop both academic skills and second language skills.

French immersion programmes in Canada

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In terms of popularity and longevity, French immersion programme has a great success. Studies shows that French immersion students develop fluency, high level of listening comprehension and confidence in using the second language, a level of success in academic subjects. However, in the long run, through years, students fail to achieve high levels of grammar even after long years of exposure to language.

There are assumed some reasons for that; Comprehensible input is not enough and there is little language

production as the classrooms are mostly teacher-centered. When students speak, there occurs no difficulty in

understanding the matter because they all share the same interlanguage. This satisfaction in communication causes no need for negotiation of meaning.

Because of content based instruction, students may fail to achieve certain language features.

Learners with only classroom exposure to language in classroom have less opportunity to learn interaction styles of native speakers.

Late immersion under stress in Hong Kong

The content based language instruction in Chinese spoken classrooms. Keith Johnson raises concerns about the ability of educational system to meet demands for such programmes.

He notes students have lacked English proficiency they need to follow curriculum successfully. He also observes teachers difficulty in presenting the content because of the limitations of their English level. They try to use English, Chinese or a mixture of both. Therefore, teacher talk is not well modified. Also, students come without any skills in English, and teachers should compensate for that. They give less vocabulary, more simplified grammar etc. These help students to understand the content but not to understand syntactic and discourse structures in second language.

Inuit children in content-based programmes

In aboriginal community in Canada, Nina Spada and Patsy Lighbown observe the teaching and learning of content subject and language in students.

Nearly all students have difficulty in coping with the subject matter in their second language. Teacher has to work hard to help students to understand a text (repeating, paraphrasing etc.) Despite these, most students understand very little. Also, students don’t get age appropriate academic French in lessons. This is another serious problem.

Interpreting the research

Content based instruction has many advantages; It increases the amount of time for learners to be exposed to the

new language. It builds a need to communicate and it motivates learners in that

they need to learn in order to understand the subject matter.

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For older learners, the content is cognitively challenging. This is mostly missing in English classrooms.

There are also some disadvantages; Students may need more time before ability to use language. Although students may communicate fluently, after many years

of exposure, they may still make mistakes in target language structure.

MY OPINIONS

I think the advantages of content-based language learning are undeniable. Access to more time while teaching and its being cognitively challenging are some reasons for that. However, for younger learners it may not be suitable. The source of motivation of young learners is very different. They may enjoy with rather enjoyable context rather than academic context. Also, young learners can have different interests from each other. At the same time, young learners may also have difficulty in learning academic content in a second language.

Content-based language teaching may be useful for language learning in universities. Students will have the vocabulary knowledge of their department and will have more motivation for language teaching as it will not only be language learning but it also will be development for their own department.

5) Teach what is teachable

Some linguistic structures develop along a developmental path. This is called developmental features. Also, learners acquisition of variation features are depended on motivation, learner’s sense of identity, language aptitude, quality of instruction etc.

Teach what is teachable suggests that while some features of language can be taught successfully at a certain stage, it may not be learned at others. The recommendation is to assess learners developmental level and teach what naturally come next.

Ready to learn

Students cannot be taught what they are not ready to learn. If you skip a stage in developmental stages while teaching, they are less likely to learn.

Readies, unreadies and recasts

Readies in interaction plus recasts group can improve more than the readies in the interaction without recast group. However, the unreadies exposed to recasts don’t show more rapid improvement than those who are not.

Developmental stage and first language influence

Instruction that is timed to match students’ developmental readiness may move them into more advanced stages but their performance may still be affected by other factors, such as first language influence.

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Interpreting the research

In “teach what is teachable”, development features develop along a particular development path.

Targeting instructional and interactional input to learners just when they are developmentally ready is suggested. Other factors, such as input, first language influence (interlanguage) and variation features can influence with learners’ developmental readiness in complex ways.

“Teach what is teachable” is a great potential interest for teachers to evaluate what they will teach and in which sequence.

This proposal is important primarily for helping teachers to understand why students don’t always learn what they are taught, at least immediately.

MY OPINIONS

Teach what is teachable is a proposal that should be considered not only by language teachers but by all teachers. It shows teachers what they should expect their students and how much they should. For this reason, both while teaching adults and young learners, we should arrange our expectations well in all skills of language teaching.

6) Get it right in the end

Advocators of “get it right in the end” proposal put an important role for form-focused instruction, but they don’t assume that everything has to be taught. It is proposed that many language features will be acquire naturally if learners have adequate exposure to the language and a motivation to learn. Also, proponents of this proposal agree with “teach what is teachable” in that some things cannot be taught if teaching fails to take learners’ readiness into account. However, what they say is a bit different from “teach what is teachable” in that it emphasizes that some certain aspects of language must be taught explicitly.

Proponents of this proposal suggest that the focused instruction will allow learners to notice the target features in subsequent input and interaction. Form-focused instruction, in this aspect, does not include explicit metalinguistic explanations. Rather, they should find out how their speech (language) differs from that of a proficient speaker.

“Get it right in the beginning” proposes drawing learners’ attention on errors and form focus in certain linguistic points. However, it is not like what it is in “get it right from the beginning”. Rather, they say it is appropriate for learners to engage in meaningful language in the beginning of their exposure. They say much of language use will develop naturally through meaningful language use, without formal instruction itself at the beginning.

Form-focus experiments in ESL

The effects of form-focus instruction and corrective feedback in ESL classes are studied in French immersion programme.

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Learners who receive explicit instruction on adverb placement dramatically outperform the learners who have not. This is found in all tests in both the immediate and delayed pos-tests. In the following-up tests a year later, the difference disappears and their performance was that of uninstructed learners. This may be because the learners are not supplied enough input through the year.

Also, instructed group make greater gains than uninstructed group in writing tasks both immediately after and six months later. Focus on form also has improved their oral performance over time. Results like this show the importance of considering how instruction may affect language learning features in different ways.

It is found in study that first language influence strongly affects second language learning.

Focusing on the conditional French immersion

Students in experimental groups receive several hours of focused instruction on the conditional over a period. The control group goes on their usual classroom learning without focused instruction.

Learners in experimental class outperform those in control classes on the immediate post tests for written tasks, but not oral.

Students in control group are given explicit instruction and engage in guided practice activities such as role-play etc. The other group continues the regular learning without any focus-instruction. In immediate post-tests, experimental group outperform the control group both in oral and written tasks.

Focusing on gender in French immersion

Six classes of grade 2 children are given focused instruction on grammatical feature that is known to be a persistent problem for French immersion students.

Learners who receive instruction are much better at recognizing and producing accurate gender distinctions for familiar nouns. However, they haven’t generalized what they have learnt about the rule. This is maybe because they are not assessed enough input.

Focusing on verb form in content-based science classrooms

Students who receive corrective feedback make more progress in using past and conditional forms than the comparison group both immediately after the period of focused feedback and two months later.

Recasts and prompts in French immersion programme

There are three experimental groups and one comparison groups in research. Three of the experimental groups get form focused instruction (FFI). Two of the experimental groups also receive corrective feedback in the form of either recast or prompts.

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Prompts include clarification requests, repetitions, elicitation, metalinguistic clues etc…

On the post test all three FFI groups are significantly more accurate than the comparison group. In addition FFI + prompts group do significantly better than FFI + recast group in written measures. However, there is no significant difference between the three FFI groups in oral tasks.

Focus on form through collaborative dialogue

The development of two grade 7 French immersion students are observed motivated by sociolinguistic theory and the idea language occurs in dialogue.

Teachers conclude that multiple choices for learners to engage in collaborative talk on the language features in questions lead them to a greater understanding of correct use.

Focus-on form in task based instruction

Virginia Samuda explores ways of guiding adult ESL learners’ attention to form-meaning relationships by focusing on expression of possibility and probability (could, might etc..)

During this phase, teacher acts as co-communicator and maintains the focus on meaning but gradually shifts to form by using the language the learners have produced on their own by providing them with alternative ways of expressing uncertainty. This is done implicitly.

According to research findings, by form-meaning relationships, and this kind of instruction, there is evidence of improvement in that many more of modal auxiliaries are present in learners’ speech.

Interpreting the research

Form-focused instruction and corrective feedback within communicative and content-based programmes can help learners improve their knowledge and use of particular grammatical features.

The effects of instruction may not always be long-lasting. This may be related to whether there is continued exposure to a linguistic feature in regular classroom input or not.

Teachers are not the only source for students to provide information on language forms. Students can get help from each other if they are given adequate guidance and a supportive structure in which to do so.

Learners benefit more from feedback that pushes them self-correction rather than feedback providing them correct form. (prompts rather than recasts)

Form-focused instructions may be more effective with some language features than others.

When students have difficulty with language features that do not have a major impact on clarity or accuracy, form-focused instruction may be necessary (particularly in the form of corrective feedback)

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MY OPINION

I agree that form-focused instruction and corrective feedback can help learners improve their knowledge and use of particular grammatical features. However, the limit of form focused instruction and the type of corrective feedback may change according to students’ level, interests, age and the subject matter.

For example, some subjects may need focusing on form. However, some subjects may be understood easily by the students. Even, the type of form-focus can change according to the subject matter and students. Some subjects may need explicit form focus instruction while for the others, input flood or enhanced input is enough.

Corrective feedback is also very essential for students’ learning at all level. Type of corrective feedback also changes according to type of students. Using recasts and prompts are good ways of learning for different purposes and circumstances. For example, it may not be suitable for very young learners to give them only recasts. Learners may think this as a confirmation of their sentence. They may skip that teacher has corrected their sentence. However, this may be useful for older learners because their attention may be more focused. Also, recast is a way for older learners to correct their mistakes without offending them.

The implications of classroom research for teaching

Exclusive focus just on meaning or exclusive focus on form is not recommended. Approaches that integrate attention to form within communicative and content-based instruction receive the most support in the classroom.

Get it right in the beginning: GTM and ALM leave many learners frustrated and unable to participate in ordinary conversations, even after years of classes. “Get it right from the beginning” does not correspond to the way majority of successful second language learners have acquired their proficiency. Learners still continue to have difficulty with basic structures of the language in programmes that offer little or no form focused instruction.

Just listen… and read, Two for one: While there is good evidence that learners make progress in both comprehension and production in comprehension-based programmes, we can find evidence for the hypothesis that language learning will be complete itself without guided attention to language features as a component of instruction.

Let’s talk: Engaging in conversational activities within group or pair work can enable students increased fluency and ability to manage conversations. However, students have slower progress in acquiring more accurate linguistic features. Let’s talk emphasizes meaning and tries to simulate natural communication in conversational interaction. However, when learners are given feedback in form of recasts or repetitions, they may think it as a continuation of conversation or they may not catch the corrected unit.

Content-based courses and communicative ESL strongly advocate that learners develop higher levels of fluency through meaning based instruction rather than grammar based instruction. The problem is certain aspects of language features and performance can develop through such programmes.

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Teach what is teachable: what is most important about this proposal is that it gives an idea to teachers about why students cannot learn some units and guide teachers to set more realistic expectations about the learners language progress.

Get it right in the end: classroom activities should be built primarily on creating opportunities for students to understand and express meaningful language. This proposal says that form-focused instruction and corrective feedback are also essential for learners development. The important point is to find a balance between meaning-based and form-focused instruction. While finding this balance, it is important to consider learners’ motivation, prior educational experiences, age, metalinguistic awareness etc.

Some language features are learned easily while the others are learned with difficulty. This is related to the frequency of features, the interlanguage of the learner. So, some difficult features of language may need form-focused instruction and corrective feedback.

Also some rules in the language are simple and some are difficult. Simple ones may not need form-focused instruction and learners can discover them through the practices. Whereas, difficult rules may need a form-focused instruction in a communicative context.

Summary

Form-focused instruction and corrective feedback provided with a communicative context and content-based programmes are more effective in prompting second language learning than programmes that are limited to exclusive emphasis on comprehension, fluency or accuracy alone.

Teachers can provide guided, form-focused instruction and corrective feedback in certain circumstances. Teachers should not hesitate to correct persistent errors that learners do not seem to notice without focused attention. Teachers should be aware of the errors majority of the class make. Also, teacher should be aware of the errors whose source is the first language (interlanguage) of the learner.

It can be useful to encourage learners taking part in process by creating activities with form attention that they use in communicative activities. They can create a context in which they share feedback, questions about language and corrections with each other.

Communicative teaching methods sometimes result in full rejection of attention to form and error-correction in second language teaching. Rather, the challenge is to find the best balance of these two orientations.

POPULAR IDEAS ABOUT LANGUAGE LEARNING REVISITED

Popular Ideas about Language Learning

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1) Languages are learned mainly through imitation

It is difficult to find evidence that language learning is mainly through imitation. Instead, Learners produce many novel (original) utterances in addition to language they've heard before. Language learners do not simply internalize a great list of imitated and memorized sentences.

This does not mean that imitation has no role to play in language learning. Imitation may be an individual learning strategy but it is not a universal characteristic of language learners.

Imitations can be a good way for advanced learners to improve their pronunciation. Careful listening and imitation can be a good and valuable practice. However, for beginners, imitation and rote memorization can lead a dead end.

MY OPINION

I certainly don’t agree with the title. Language learning is more complex than just repeating like parrots. I agree with the last paragraph. Imitation can be good way to develop pronunciation, intonation and stress in advanced learners. For example, I watch movies and repeat some words on my own and this helps me developing intonation.

For younger learners, they can practice the pronunciation of new words. However, repetition will have no use in production and teaching process.

2) Parents usually correct young children when they make grammatical errors

Parents tend to focus on meaning rather than form when they correct their children’s mistakes. They may correct an incorrect word choice, statement or a rude remark. They don’t try to correct errors as long as they don’t interfere communication. This shows that learners don’t depend merely of corrective feedback to learn basic language structures.

The case is more complex in second language learners. Both children and adult learners can acquire a great deal of language without any correction or formal instruction. However, in some cases, without correction, learners may use incorrect form for many years.

MY OPINIONS

As long as I see, parents don’t correct their children’s grammatical mistakes as long as these don’t cause any communication breakdown. They just correct the mistakes of students in discourse. For example, when they use rude words, they correct their children’s mistakes. However, correcting the grammar don’t occur so much unless there is a communicative breakdown.

3) Highly intelligent people are good language learners

The kind of intelligence measured by IQ is a good predictor for success in classroom. It can be considered effective in learning form and structure. However, in natural language

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learning settings and in classrooms where interactive language use is emphasized, learners with different intellectual abilities can be more successful.

Teachers should not exclude learners from opportunities to learn other languages on ground that they don’t have academic ability to succeed. Teachers should engage different kinds of ability students bring to the learning environment.

MY OPINIONS

High intelligence may be an advantage for language learners in learning grammar, vocabulary etc.. However, in sociolinguistic and communicative perspective, different types of intelligence rather than IQ may be more advantageous. There are also some people who are naturally gifted to learn a language. These people learn language very easily regardless of the teaching way you use.

4) The best predictor of success in second language acquisition is motivation

Learners who want to learn tend to do better than those who don’t. But we should not interpret this too rigidly. Factors such as age, individual differences etc. are also related to success.

Teachers have no influence over learners’ intrinsic motivation for learning a second language. Teachers can influence learners’ motivation by making a supportive environment in the classroom which students engage in activities suitable for their age, background, cultural knowledge etc.

MY OPINIONS

Motivation is a very advantageous element in language learning. However, this does not mean that all learners with high motivation can achieve better than the others. There are also many other elements which affect the learning process, such as intelligent, age, social standards etc.

5) The earlier a second language is introduced in school programmes, the greater is the likelihood of success in learning

If the objective is native-like speech in second language, it may be better to begin to exposure to language as early as possible. However, this may lead some bad effects. Early start means that children will have little opportunity to continue to develop their first language. Also, children who begin schooling in a language they already know will have more self-confidence.

When the goal of the educational programme is basic communicative skill for all students, it can be more efficient to begin second language teaching later. Older children are able to catch up quickly to those who began earlier. This is especially true if the foreign language course includes a period of more intensive exposure to the new language.

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MY OPINIONS

Starting language learning at an early age is better to have more native-like speech. I am not sure if the early exposure to second language learning will effect the first language development. At least, in our country, as the students will not have much chance to expose to second language outside classroom environment, and as they will use their mother tongue in their immediate environment, I don’t think learning second language at early age will lead them to have problems with mother tongue.

6) Most of the mistakes that second language learners make are due to interference from their first language

The transfer of patterns from the native language is one of the major sources of errors in learner language. Some errors caused by the similarity between the first and second languages can be difficult to overcome.

Aspects of second language different from the first language can be acquired with more difficulty than aspects that are similar.

It should not be forgotten that the first language is not the only influence on second language learning. Second language errors are evidence of learners efforts to discover the structure of the target language itself rather than attempts to transfer patterns from their first language.

MY OPINIONS

I agree that the first most of the errors in second language learning comes from the first language. Similarities and differences in L1 and L2 are the reasons for that. For example, Turkish students may mispronounce “television” because of the effect of their first language.

7) The best way to learn new vocabulary is through reading

This statement is absolutely true. Children expand their vocabulary during their school years, and reading is major source of this growth. Second language learners benefit from opportunities to read material that is interesting and important to them. Those who receive guidance forum instruction and develop strategies for learning vocabulary will benefit more than those who simply focus on getting the main ideas from a text.

MY OPINIONS

The best way to learn new vocabulary is through reading. Reading books lead learners to learn vocabulary in a permanent way. However, there are other ways of learning new vocabulary, listening to music in target language, watching movies, online videos, news are also good source of learning new vocabulary. Also, these would lead learners to learn new vocabulary while improving their listening skills. And in movies especially, they come across with vocabulary in communication.

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8) It is essential for learners to be able to pronounce all the individual sounds in the second language

Speakers’ ability to make themselves understood depends more on their ability to reproduce the phasing and stress pattern then ability on each individual sound.

Learners need to learn to understand and produce language varieties in a way which will enable them to communicate effectively and in a way that will cause no communicative breakdown.

MY OPINIONS

I don’t think it is easily possible for students to realize and pronounce all sounds individually. I am also not sure if it will have essential need and use for learners Rather it would be better for them to learn pronunciation of individual sounds within words and in sentences. This would lead them to learn pronunciation with correct rhythm and intonation.

9) Once learners know roughly 1,000 words and the basic structure of a second language, they can easily participate in conversations with native speakers

Most conversational language involves only relatively limited numbers of words and sentence types.

It is important to know the pragmatics of words. It is useful to focus attention on suck things as politeness, respect, apology etc.

MY OPINIONS

Learning most commonly used 1000 words would lead learners to communicate effectively in conversational units. However, I agree that they should also know the pragmatics of words and phrases to convey their messages correctly.

At a different perspective, knowing about 1000 words cannot be enough in some circumstances. This sufficiency may change according to the subject of conversation. If you don’t have enough vocabulary knowledge, of course, you have difficulty in conversations about politics, science, history etc.

10) Teachers should present grammatical rules one at a time, and learners should practice examples of each one before going on to another

Language development is not just adding one rule after another. Rather, it involves process of integrating new language forms and patterns into existing interlanguage.

That second language development is a sort of accumulation of rules is a false assumption.

Isolated presentation and practice of one structure at a time does not provide learners with an opportunity to discover how different language features compare and contrast in normal language use.

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MY OPINIONS

I don’t believe learning language is just accumulation of rules. However, it may be true that learners should learn language from simple through complex units.

Students should not learn language units in isolation. Rather, they should learn in communicative means by the help of a context. (contextual learning)

11) Teachers should teach simple language structures before complex ones

Certain structures are acquired before others. Second language learners benefit from the efforts of native speakers and fluent bilinguals to modify their speech to help second language speakers understand.

Teachers should teach simple language structures before complex ones. Teachers should increase the complexity of their language intuitively as the learner’s proficiency increases.

MY OPINIONS

I certainly agree that some language structures are more easily learnt than others. Students should learn simple structures before complex one. Also, natural language learning process should be taken into account while teaching a second language.

12) Learners errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation of bad habits

Errors are natural part of language learning. This is true both for the development of child’s first language acquisition and for second language learning of adults and children.

If errors are persistent, especially when they are shared by most of the students in a class, it is important to bring the problem to their attention.

Excessive feedback on error can have a negative effect on motivation and teachers should be sensitive to their students’ reactions to correction. The type, the amount of correction is related to the characteristics of students and the subject.

Immediate error correction in oral communication may embarrass some students and discourage them from speaking. Therefore, teachers should be careful.

MY OPINIONS

I don’t believe learners errors can cause them to form bad habits if they are not corrected immediately. Getting corrective feedback prevent learners from building fossilization of mistakes. Fossilization may occur if you never correct students’ mistakes. However, not having immediate correction does not mean these errors would be fossilized.

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Especially in speaking lessons, it would be better to correct students’ mistakes at the end if they don’t cause any communicative breakdown. Otherwise, interrupting students may cause students to feel under stress and may prevent their oral communicative improvement.

13) Teachers should use materials that expose students only to language structures they have already been taught

There will be a loss of motivation if students are not sufficiently challenged. Students also need to deal with ‘real’ material if they are eventually going to be prepared for language use outside the classroom.

When a particular form is introduced for the first time or when the teacher feels there is a need for correction, it is good to use narrow-focus materials ( isolation of one element in a context where others seem easy)

MY OPINIONS

If students have come across with a new language structure for the first time, narrow-focus materials can be a good source of teaching structure. However, after the very first presentation of new structure, it is essential to come across with this structure through an authentic material in a context.

14) When learners are allowed to interact freely, they copy each others mistakes

Pair and group work provides more practice in speaking and participating in conversations than a teacher-centered class. It is found that learners don’t produce more errors than they do while talking to a proficient or native speaker. To the contrary, they feel more comfortable while in groups with people at the same level with them. However, learners at similar levels cannot ordinarily provide each other with information what would help them correct errors.

Group and pair work is valuable addition to the variety of activities that encourage and promote second language development.

MY OPINIONS

I also agree that language learners will feel more comfortable while interacting with the learners at the same level with them. I don’t think they will copy each others mistakes. However, at the same time, they will not have the chance to correct their own mistakes if they have. For this reason, the learners should interact freely but at the same time, their communication should also be controlled and checked by the teacher and corrective feedback should be given at the end if needed.

15) Students learn what they are taught

Some aspects of the second language develop according to ‘natural sequences of development and learners may be more likely to learn certain sequences of development and learners may be more likely to learn certain language features when they are developmentally ‘ready.’ Other aspects of language, however, for example, vocabulary, can be taught at any time, as long as the learners are interested in the opportunity to learn and the teaching

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methods are appropriate to the learner’s age, interests, and learning styles. Learners can learn a great deal that no-one ever teaches them.

MY OPINIONS

I believe students learn everything they can. The teacher should have reachable expectations and s/he should know the characteristics of his/her learners. There is a natural developmental sequence in language learning and teacher should take it into account. Also, the students’ age, level, interests, types of motivation etc. should not be neglected.

16) Teachers should respond to students errors by correctly rephrasing what they have said rather than by explicitly pointing out the error

This kind of feedback is called recast. It is found to be the most common feedback type in second language teaching. It is seen as an indirect and polite way of giving students the information they need without embarrassing them.

Research with adults shows that learners are responsive to this kind of feedback. However, in content-based instruction with younger learner, learners may sometimes not notice that there is a feedback and correction. Rather they see it as a confirmation of the meaning. Therefore, they may need more explicit forms of feedback.

MY OPINIONS

This kind of feedback can be helpful. However, this also changes according to the complexity of the target structure and the characteristics of students. Some errors may need explicit feedback as they may skip to get attention. Also, some learners may see recast as a confirmation of what they have said. For these reasons, recasts may be a good way of feedback, but prompts may be needed under some circumstances.

17) Students can learn both language and academic content simultaneously in classes where the subject matter is taught in their second language

There is more motivation in learning language with content based instruction. There is more opportunity to spend more time in contact with language. The range of vocabulary and language structure students come across are more varied.

Students in content-based and immersion classes develop comprehension skills, vocabulary and general communicative competence in the new language. However, as there is no form-focused instruction, sometimes there can be structural developmental errors. Addition of form-focused instruction is helpful.

MY OPINIONS

Content-based instruction is a good way of teaching language. Firstly the motivation of this kind of instruction is very high. Students’ interest is raised and they learn language in a meaningful context and for a meaningful goal. At the same time, they can improve their language skills.

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However, not having enough proficiency may corrupt also their academic knowledge. Also, as there is not explicit instruction of specific units in this kind of instruction, students may go on without realizing their mistakes and they may go on with fossilized errors after years of language learning.

For this reason, content-based instruction should be arranged in a way that will also sometimes enable teachers to give explicit structural instruction. This instruction type may be useful especially in universities where students would need both academic knowledge and learn English for academic and departmental knowledge. This would be very motivational.

Conclusion

Language learning is affected by many factors. Personal characteristics, learners’ experiences, social and cultural environment, structure of target and native languages, age etc. are among these factors.

Teachers cannot have control on all of these factors. However, a better understanding of them will permit teachers and learners to make the most of time spend together in twin processes of teaching and learning a second language.

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