Processes in Using Second Languages

Ability to remember and process information at the same time

Holds a small amount of information (7 items or less) for a short period of time (15 seconds to a minute)

The transfer of information from short term memory to long term memory can be facilitated by repetition, giving it meaning, and associating it with other previously acquired knowledge. Motivation is also a consideration.

Phonological short-term memory is used for vocabulary performance.

Long term memory is divided into Declarative and Procedural Memory

Recognition Memory

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups depending on their make up. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo any particular endeavor. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many.

Listening Processes Elements of Listening Access to vocabulary:

To comprehend a sentence you have to work out what the words mean. The mind has to relate the words that are heard to the information that is stored about them in the mind. (Context)

Parsing: Process through which the mind works out the

grammatical structure and meaning of the sentence. (May be Top-down or Bottom-up) Memory Processes: All comprehension depends on the storing and processing of information by the mind. Scripts and Schemas are equally involved in listening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu6vBvnjcOo

Q’s

According to the boy, what is the “Lord of the Flies” about? According to the girl, why does the mommy’s tummy get

real big? According to the girl, why does the stork deliver the babies

to the hospital and not to the home of the mommy?

The teaching of Listening

It is important to get the student’s background scripts working and the appropriate vocabulary active in their minds.

Task-Based teaching of listening: students carry out a task in which they have to listen for information in a short piece of discourse and then have to fill in a diagram, check a route on a map or correct mistakes in a text.

Psychological research shows , the more important the information is to the listener, the more likely it is to be retained.

Listening-based methods of teaching

Listening is a process of decoding speech Listening as a way of learning rather than as a way of

processing languageCodebreaking – working out the Language Code from

the message. Has the aim of discovering the

processes themselves from a message. Decoding – discovering the message using processes

that are already known

Total Physical Response Method (Asher, 1989) Listening to commands and carrying them out was an

effective way of learning a second language. Learning through physical actions Listening is motivated by the need to get messages

out of what is heard.

Code-switching by Second Language Users

Code-switching by Second Language Users

Going from one language to the other in mid-speech when both

speakers know the same two languages

Bilingual Mode: second language user uses two languages.

Monolingual mode: second language user uses a second language , whether their first or second.

Why Code-switch?

Exclamation

Restrictions of Code-switchingShona Poplack (1980) Free morpheme constraint : the

speaker may not switch language between a word and its endings unless the word is pronounced as if it were in the language of the ending.

The equivalence constraint: the switch can come at a point in the sentence where it does not violate the grammar of either language.

Myers-Scotton and Jake (2005) Content morphemes: have thematic

roles, typically nouns and verbs Early system morphemes: have

some content meaning , such as articles “the”/”a”

Late bridge system morphemes: make necessary connections between grammatical parts but contribute no meaning (ie. John’s friend)

Late outsider system morphemes: have connections extending beyond basic lexical units (ie. Tomorrow never comes)

Communication Strategies

Example: Animal for horse Make up word to substitute for the unknown word.

Example: Airball for balloon

Talking your way around the word

Example: the thing that makes wind for

electricfan

Listener does not know L1

Example: I like the color of the porte (French for door)

“What is this?”

Appealing to the other person for

help

Learner tries to solve the

problem without recourse to

others

Green things for vegetables

Animal for rabbit

Thing to cook water in for

kettle

Cars for transport

Making up a word

Brother and sister for sibling

Bird that talks for parrot

Table for desk

Ironise for IroningMiddle for waist

Second Language Learning and Language Styles Academic Style

A.k.a. Grammar Translation Method: traditional academic style of teaching; places emphasis on grammar explanation and translation as a teaching technique.

Explicit grammar itself is the main point of the lesson . Presents students with intellectual challenge; seriousness with

which it view language teaching Values what people know about the language rather than what

they comprehend or produce Conscious understanding of grammar and awareness of links

between the L1 and L2 are seen as vital to learning.

Second Language Learning and Language Styles Audio-lingual Style

Style that stresses language learning as habits and the importance of spoken language

Drill: a form of mechanical practice in which words or phrases are substituted within a frame and practiced until they become automatic

Dialogue: usually a short constructed piece of conversation used as a model of language and top introduce new words or structures

Exploitation activity: the formally structured part of the lesson is followed up with freer activities , allowing the students to use what has been learnt in their own speech.

Heard before seen (say new word aloud before writing it on the black board)

Students must spend a period using only spoken skills before they are introduced to written skills.

Second Language Learning and Language Styles Audio-lingual Style

Active Skills Speaking writing

Passive Skills Listening Reading

Audio-lingual style is learning for actual use , either within the society or without.

Second Language Learning and Language Styles Communicative Style

Basing teaching on communication , both as the target that the students need to achieve , and as the means of acquiring it in the classroom

The goal was the ability to use the language appropriately rather than the grammatical knowledge or the “habits” of the first two styles

Techniques of Communicative Teaching Information Gap Exercise : an exercise that gives different

students different pieces of information which they have to exchange

Guided Role play: students improvise conversations around an issue without the same contrived information gap

Tasks: Students carry out tasks in the classroom with a definite outcome.

Second Language Learning and Language Styles Communicative Style

The teacher takes one step back and hands the responsibility for the activities over to the students, forcing them to make up their own conversations in pairs and groups – learning language by doing.

Teachers using the communicative style must be aware of cultural implications of this teaching style.

3 Variants of Communicative Style Social Communicative: language as communication between

people Information Communicative: transfer of information Task based Learning: reason for talking

Second Language Learning and Language Styles Task-Based learning

The notion that learning and teaching should be organized around a set of classroom tasks.

A task requires learners to use language A task has an emphasis on meaning Students are required to use language to attain a goal FonF (Focus on Form) discussion of grammar and vocabulary arising

from meaningful language in the classroom.

Second Language Learning and Language Styles Task-Based learning

Second Language Learning and Language Styles The Mainstream EFL style

Compromise between academic and the audio-lingual styles A.k.a structural-oral-situational Situation: some teaching uses ‘situation ‘ to mean physical

demonstration in the classroom; other teaching uses it to mean situations where the student will use the language in the world outside the classroom.

Substitution table: a language teaching technique where students create sentences by choosing words from successive columns of a table.

Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP)

Second Language Learning and Language Styles

Second Language Learning and Language Styles Community Language Learning (CLL) : a teaching method in which

students create conversations in the second language from the outset, using the teacher as a translation resource.

Suggestopedia: a teaching method aimed at avoiding the students’ block about language learning through means such as listening to music.

Autonomous Learning: in this the choice of what and how to learn is essentially handed over to the students, whether immediately or over time.