Introduction: What is meant by SLA?

SLA – Second Language Acquisition.

Not just how people learn a language but also how they acquire it. SLA is about
learning a language and TEFL is about teaching English.

What is meant by SLA?

1. The Role of SLA in the world:

- School setting:
 Bilingual Education. Implies being educated in two languages at the
same time. Refers to the program that we have in our own countries
and deciding which subjects are taught in Spanish and what in English.
In Valencian, we have some mixture of Spanish, Valencian and English.
 Immersion programmes. Bringing the system of the other country to
another. Everything would be as the country of origin. Where the
children receive all their instruction in the L2 and only at further levels
do they receive some education in their native language.
- Other circumstances:
 International language. English is considered to be the L2 of most of the
people in the world and become a type of lingua franca used for
business, science, technology, international diplomacy… English has
become the lingua franca (ELF).
 Migrant workers. Because of the movements among countries, the
language that they had to use at work and in society is also important.
There is no previous knowledge of the L2 or intention to learn the
language per se, their main aim being to seek employment.
 Multilingual societies. Where different languages are spoken in the
same country benefit from the study of SLA.

Why study SLA?

- It is interesting in its own right (Linguistics, Psychology, Anthropology,

Sociology, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics and Neurolinguistics).
- Understanding of SLA is beneficial for the second language teaching profession
since knowing about the language learning process will undoubtedly help
teachers to make their teaching more effective by focusing on the learner’s
needs.
- Teaching field.
- Corder (1981:71): “Efficient language teachers must work with, rather than
against, natural processes, facilitate and expedite rather than impede learning”.

The teaching field triangle:

 - Teachers’ expectations must be modest.
- Report by L2 learners that have studied SLA research. SLA was very beneficial to
the teaching practice.
- SLA helpful for other areas:
1. Mentally retarded individuals.
2. Non-native speaking children’s learning disabilities.
3. Deaf individuals.

Development of the Field of Study of SLA.

- SLA goes first than TEFL. Language teaching methods.

- 1960s: shift from the teaching process to the learning process due to:
1. Inconclusive findings from the comparative studies. Behaviorism and
conductivism were very important.
2. A debate in psychology over the nature of learning. The main thing they did in
the 1960s is analyze pairs of languages and try to find out similarities and
differences to see what languages were easier to learn. The nature of language
and this was based on behaviorism, looks like we can control people’s behavior,
and reactions to some stimulus that were given to them.
3. A revolution in linguistics (Chomsky). He is the main reason for SLA appearance.
There was something in particular that he criticizes this view and starts a
revolution in linguistics.
- Birth of the field with Corder’s or Selinker’s publications. Corder talked about
errors in the language. With him, it started to analyze the mistakes and what
occurred with them. Selinker talk about interlanguage what is interring
language and grammar that you have when you are learning a foreign
language. Your L1 is going to have a huge influence in the process of learning
L2.

The Scope of SLA Research.

 - The effect of instruction. The way of teaching can affect your way of learning.
Depending on the type of method you use can be positive or negative in the
acquisition process.
- SLL vs. SLA. Second Language Learning, you are learning because someone is
teaching you, and Second Language Acquisition, you are picking up the
language naturally, no one has to teach you. The first one can occur when you
go to language lessons and the second one can happen when you are in
another country and you begin to live with the other language.
- EFL. English as a foreign language.
- Acquisition as superordinate term for all settings . A superordinate term is a
word that can involve other words and it is the term we use every time that the
language is not the L1, so acquisition is the superordinate term to refer to all
that.
- L2 as a general term for both L2 and FL . There is a difference between a second
language and a foreign language. When we are talking about L2 is a general
language and is a language spoken in my country. FL is a language that is not
spoken in my country. If I learn English in Spain, it is a FL, but if I learn Catalan
in Spain, is a L2. If you learn English in Canada, is a L2. A L2 can be a foreign
language besides a second language.

Learner variables.
 - Age. Children are the best learners only when it comes to pronunciation, but
they are not very good at grammar or with vocabulary. The earlier you began
learning a language, you will have a better pronunciation. Teenagers are the
best learners from a cognitive point of view.
- Aptitude. It refers to knowledge, cognitive behavior… it is nor deterministic
because everyone has their capacity to acquire naturally their L1, so everyone
is capable of acquiring a L2.
- Motivation. It can be one of the biggest factors. A very strong factor and there
are various types of it.
- Attitude. It is important and it is linked to motivation most of the times.
- Personality. It is not as strong factor as people think.
- Cognitive style. There are different types of learners. Depending on the type of
learner you are, you will have a different cognitive style and will learn in
different ways.
- Hemisphere specialization. The different sides of the brain. Children are not
specialized on one side or the other but at certain age loses its plasticity and
you specialize on one side or the other.

Questions about the video.

- What are the main ideas shown in the video?

The traditional way in which languages were taught was not very realistic nor
useful. Everything is changing very rapidly and using languages to communicate
is vital now.
- How has the teaching of languages changed in the last years?
Now people “learn by doing”; it is what teachers call learning by construction as
opposed to learning by instruction.
- What is globalization?
Things are speeding up and everything is interconnected. Globalization seemed
to be a distant concept, but now it has gone global. Things are speeding up and
societies across Europe are adjusting. We need to rethink how we do what we
do in order to not just cope with change but also enjoy the opportunities it
presents.
- What is CLIL?
It involves competence building in languages and communication at the same
time as developing vocational and professional knowledge and skills. It’s not
language learning and it’s not subject learning: it’s a fusion of both. Teaching a
content subject in a foreign language.