Language Acquistion and Language Learning

Blog #6 Language Acquisition & Language Learning
My Personal Experience
The topic of language acquisition and language learning has fascinated me for years. Currently, I teach Spanish and speak Spanish at home even though I live in the United States and English is my first language. I began learning Spanish in high school with a model that definitely followed a language learning methodology. The instruction was delivered in English and we learned about the language. We read some passages in Spanish and memorized dialogues. We took tests on grammar and we studied verb conjugations. I didn’t take Spanish my Senior year in high school or my first year in college, so I forgot a lot. At that time, I didn’t identify with the speakers of the language much. Oddly, one of the few things I retained from two years of high school Spanish was “limpia para brisas” which means “windshield wipers.”
I remember being in line at a Cinco de Mayo celebration with a bunch of Spanish speakers and feeling very out of place.

Something drastic began to changed when took Spanish my sophomore year in college. My motivation for taking the first two classes was to prepare me for a short-term mission in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. I was going with a team of college students to teach vacation Bible school along with the young adults in the pueblos we visited. At UCSC, they used an immersion methodology. The Immersion method combined elements of language acquisition and language learning. The professor used photos, pictures and physical objects to show us things instead of translating. We could not really much on English (except for our knowledge of language) to learn Spanish. I needed to make a lot of hypotheses, confirm or refute them and take the language in context. Of course, we did use a textbook and we learned formally about the grammar, syntax and spelling of Spanish.

When I went to Mexico, suddenly I had to apply what I learned in a social context. I also lived with three different Mexican families in three villages. Although I struggled and went through different stages of culture shock, I remember in our last week in Yucatan understanding a sermon for the first time. It was like the clouds had cleared. Something came over me after that summer. I got an insatiable desire to learn Spanish and to hang around Latino people. I continued to take classes to learn the language, but I also looked for opportunities to speak with Hispanic people, volunteer or work with them. I think that the psychologist, Guiora has a point about the “language ego.” “Older learners who acquire a second language and speak with little or no foreign accent are often people who admire and identify with people who live in a country where the language is spoken” (Freeman & Freeman, 2004). I was an older learner (in the formal operational stage) and I suddenly could relate to the speakers of Spanish after living and working with them for six weeks. I felt accepted by them and I felt like a member of their “group.” I think this is a significant part of becoming fluent in a second language- feeling like you are a member. The fact that I associated with people who shared similar beliefs allowed me to be member of their cultural group despite the fact I was still acquiring the language and this transferred eventually to becoming a member of the larger group of Spanish speakers.
I am an usual breed. When I was a teen, I would have never dreamed that I would be bilingual or that I would teach Spanish. I taught my children my second language as their first language. I spoke to them exclusively in Spanish and developed a social context for them through a Spanish language pre-school so that they would develop Spanish early and acquire it naturally before formal instruction. So, I have observed and been an active part in their process which has been different than my own. It was an experiment. It was an experiment that I do not regret and that has been very successful. My only disappointment is that they currently don’t have many peers to speak Spanish with in the community that we are in presently. I  have felt a salmon, swimming against the current, to make gains in their language acquisition without the supportive context (outside of the home) they had when they were young. Yet now, in a Cinco de Mayo celebration, I feel like one of the participants and I may be even one of the organizers!

Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach
by David Freeman &Yvonne Freeman
In chapter 2 of this book, there is an activity on page 48 to identify activities of students or teachers as following a language learning (L)or a language acquisition (A)model. Below, I will make a two column analysis of each activity. In the second column, I will justify my decisions for their classifications.
(I had a few formatting issues with the columns...sorry.)

Student activities:Look up words in the dictionary                               This is a formal, analytical activity.
and provide definitions (L)

Make a Venn Diagram to compare                            It is language learning because
two stories (L &A)                                                     it is formal and analytical. It is
                                                                                 language acquisition because
                                                                                  it gives an opportunity for students to
                                                                                express their ideas &                                                                                 reflect their understanding about ideas
                                                                                 in a greater context.

Practice sounding out words.(L)                                It is conscious, formal practice.

Read in a round-robin fashion. (A)                            Round-robin is a structured reading experience,
                                                                                but the learner has no control over
                                                                                what he may be asked to read.
                                                                                The reader needs to have “learned” to
                                                                                 read well before having success in this activity,
                                                                                 but the activity itself isn’t a learning activity.

Correct peers when they make
a mistake during reading (L)                                       This is conscious activity which requires                 
                                                                                   analyzing correct syntax and vocabulary.

Identify words on a big book page                             This is a directed, school-type of activity which re-
that start with the same sound. (L)                               qures breaking down words into parts.

Group cards with classmates’
names classified by first letter                                       The activity requires analyzing graphemes.
or last letter. (L)

Write rhyming poetry and then                                       This requires phonemic awareness brought to
discuss different spellings for                                          a formal, conscious level through spelling and
The same sound. (L)                                                      then analyzing spelling in a formal way.

Ask the teacher how to spell                                         This involves a preoccupation about correct
a word they don’t know. (L)                                          form.

Read a language experience                                           Language experience writing ex-
story they have created with a                                        presses natural oral language production.
teacher. (A)

Work in pairs to arrange words                                     This is a learning experience developing familiarity
from a familiar chant into sentences.                                with syntax.
(L)

Divide words into syllables. (L)                                     This requires consciously analyzing words.

On a worksheet, draw a line to the
picture that starts with the same sound. (L)                   This is a formal exercise in phonemic aware-
                                                                                   ness.

Make alphabet books on different topics.(L)              Requires formal learning of the alphabetic
.                                                                                 principal and phonics
The teacher’s activities
Preteaches vocabulary (L)                                          Formally teaching out of context

Does shared reading with a big                                    It is context embedded. Formal
book. (A)                                                                  learning may have contributed to
                                                                                 accurate decoding, but it could be a natural
                                                                                  shared literacy activity.

Makes sure that students read                                  First, it is learning activity because
only books that fit their level. (L &A)                       the child is limited to being exposed to books
                                                                              Only at a certain level. It could still be                                                                         be  an acquistion activity because in reading a lot of
                                                                              spontaneous language learning occurs, the                                                                          the books provide context and could be in the zone                                                                      zone  of proximal development of the learner.

Has students segment words into                          A formal learning experience.
phonemes. (L)

Asks students to look around the room
and find words that start with a certain letter. (L) This requires formal, analytical phonemic awareness skills.

Uses decodable texts (L & A)                                Both. The texts may be structured for language     
                                                                              learning.The texts also may allow children to advance     in                                                                            in their zones of proximal development in a lnatural                                                                    natural (although controlled) way through                       
                                                                              comprehensible input.

Sets aside time for SSR (A)                                 Informal, natural, self-selected reading

Teaches Latin and Greek roots (L)                        Requires formally analyzing language.

Has students meet in lit circles (A & L)                 The spontaneous conversation that emerges around       literature creates an language acquisition experience. Some lit. circles are highly structured and require specific linguistic tasks. Under those circumstances, they would be learning experiences.

Conducts phonics drills (L)                                    Formal language activity invoking memorization.

Chooses predictable texts (L & A)                      Aids in children acquiring the language more easily.
                                                                           May be formalizing the reading experience.
Teaches students different compre-
hension strategies (L)                                             Metacognative & analytical

Does a picture walk of a new book (A)                   Doesn’t control language. Provides context for understanding & developing background knowledge & personal connections to a text.


Uses a variety of worksheets for different
skills. (L)                                                                Formal school activities.