UNIT 12 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN L1 AND L2 LEARNING

Differences between L1 and L2 learning

Learning our mother tongue is something more natural and it does not require a lot of effort. While learning a second language it is a little bit more complicated, well it depends on the age, the context and ways of learning.  First, let’s differentiate the learning based on age, in L1 the learning process starts when the learner is a baby, continues through the early years of childhood and lasts into adolescence. Furthermore, babies learn language at the same time as their cognitive skills. And learners learn the language because they need to communicate with other people. On the other hand, in L2 the learning process usually starts in the classroom, for instance, primary learners are still developing their cognitive skills; secondary school learners have already developed many of their cognitive skills when they are learning a second language; and adult learners have fully developed cognitive skill, they are likely to show maturity in their attitudes to language learning. Second, the context and ways of learning, in L1 learners are exposure and pick up the language as much as they can. Obviously, learners need to be motivated and interact with their family or relatives, through the silent period, they also need to experiment with language,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                simplified speech help them to understand meaning better, it is not necessary to make corrections, additionally, could be better to avoid reformulation from the child phrases to acquire the language. Nevertheless, in L2 which also occurs in the classroom, teachers should motivate students to learn, also interaction between teachers and classmates is important, talking about life outside the classroom, making role-plays is a good example of the experimenting the language; it is recommendable to practice L2 about three hour per week. “An important way in which L2 learning is different from L1 learning is the influences of the mother tongue on second language learning. The mother tongue plays an important role in the process of L2 acquisition”. (Mey)

 This is something I will be aware when teaching a new language. I would like to let my students to practice the language as much as possible.

Bibliography

Mey, J. L. (1998). Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics. United Kingdon.

UNIT 11 THE ROLE OF ERROR

                                                 THE ROLE OF ERROR

Everybody in the world has an important role; in this case let´s talk about the role of error in to the learning process, but errors occur when learners are not paying attention or are not concentrated on what they are learning, the good thing here is that if students realize those errors they can be corrected. There are two main reasons why learners make errors. The first one is because it is influenced their mother tongue or first language, especially into the grammatical structures or into the sounds. This error is called interference. The second reason is because they do know or they do not realize that errors are there when they speak or when they write about something. In this case we call this error as developmental error. For example three-year old children usually say tomorrow instead of yesterday. Something good at this pion is that while learners are growing up, they are improving the way they speak. ”In most teaching situations a frequent appearance of errors is consider as failure either in the process of learning or in the process of teaching. However, focusing on errors can provide very telling and informative insights regarding the process of SLA”. (Llach, 2011) It means that failure is something found at any situation. Eventually, errors are an inseparable part of the learning process, therefore the only way to avoid errors would be avoiding writing or speaking when learning a foreign language. Also, having errors and correcting them is an excellent way to show progress of learning a language

How will you apply that knowledge in a teaching situation?

As errors cannot be avoided, we as teachers cannot avoid correcting them, for this reason students need to be exposure to the language. I would like to work on it through games for example in oral presentations while student is talking about something I may record it without letting that student to notice that he or she is being recorded, and later give general feedback in order not to make that student to feel bad but I would like him or her to notice that everybody can make those mistakes so nobody will feel upset or ridiculous. Another strategy is to take note of the mistakes and at the end make them reflect on what the correct way to say or write something is, it would be perfect if some of them can notice their own errors. I will motivate my students to accept that errors are a normal part of learning process. 

Bibliography

Llach, M. P. (2011). Lexical Errors and Accuracy in Foreign Language Writing.

http://www.antimoon.com/how/mistakes-in-learning.htm

http://www.encuentrojournal.org/textos/16.8.pdf