14

Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Methods: Chinese

Dr. Meng Yeh

Objectives

As a result of information learned from this lesson, participants will:

1.  understand the major second language acquisition processes and language learning theories

2.  apply various language teaching methods to develop effective classroom instruction and activities

Standards

SBEC: Languages other than English Standards

1.1k, 1.3k, 1.4k, 1.6k, 1.1s, 1.2s, 1.3s, 1.5s, 3.1k, 3.2k, 3.3k, 3.4k, 3.5k, 3.6k, 3.6s, 3.7s


Pre-Test

1.How does Cognitive Approach view the process of second language acquisition?

  1. Language learning is similar to learning to play piano.
  2. Humans have a special cognitive faculty for language learning.
  3. Learning a L2 is easier for adults because of their cognitive development.
  4. Language input process is more critical than language production.

2. What is a Comprehensive Input suggested by Krashen (1982)?

  1. The input is clearly explained in terms of grammar and function.
  2. The input that students can thoroughly understand
  3. The input is a little beyond students’ current level of competence
  4. The input is provided in a large quantity with visual and contextual clues

3. How can the process of language learning be effective in the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky 1978)?

  1. Pedagogical planning takes into consideration of various learning styles.
  2. The teachers provide an anxiety-free learning environment.
  3. Self-learning is emphasized, encouraging students to explore their own learning.
  4. Students are offered the opportunity to interact and negotiate meanings.

4. According to the scaffolding method, a teacher should

  1. design a variety of activities to promote peer-learning
  2. demonstrate the desired outcome of a task through modeling
  3. enhance students’ proficiency by using only the target language
  4. adopt the authentic materials used by the native speakers

5. What is the main principle when designing a cooperative learning activity?

  1. ensure that each student is accountable for his/her individual contribution
  2. provide students opportunities to search for relevant information
  3. evaluate the accuracy of student language output
  4. encourage the application of communicative strategies as a team


Introduction

The focus in this module is on guiding the teachers to design effective language instruction with the understanding of research results on second language acquisition (SLA) and teaching methods. Language instructions should be developed to achieve the standards-based curriculum goals and performance-based assessment.[1] The recent SLA studies and language methodologies have directly impacted on classroom instructions. The research of SLA intends to answer the question ‘How do people learn a second language?’ Language teaching methods center on ‘How do teachers help students learn a second language?’ Hence, the understanding of SLA and teaching methods can lead the teachers to effectively facilitate the student learning in a classroom setting and design meaningful instructional materials and engaging activities.

The first part of the module introduces some major theories and research findings on SLA and discusses the results that shape the current concept of language teaching. The main topics include:

·  Communicative Competence

·  Cognitive Approach

·  Social-cultural Approach

·  Individual Learner Differences

The second part of module demonstrates a number of language teaching methods based on the studies of SLA.

·  Task-based Language Teaching

·  Cooperative Learning Approach

·  Using the Target Language

·  Teaching Chinese Sounds

·  Teaching Chinese characters


Communicative Competence

Language competence, suggested by Chomsky (1965), is the intuitive knowledge of rules of grammar and how the linguistic system of a language operates. In the past three decades, the definition of competence has been expanded to a broader notion of communicative competence. Communicative competence, the ability to function in a target-language community, consists of the following four skills and knowledge (Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei & Thurrell, 1995).

socialcultural competence: the knowledge of social, cultural and non-verbal contextual knowledge of the language studied

linguistic competence: the knowledge of the grammar and forms of the language

actional competence: the functional skills to apply linguistic knowledge to a variety of situations

strategic competence: a set of skills, verbal or non-verbal, assisting the speaker to be understood in order to maintain communication

For instance, your socialcultural competence helps you bring the appropriate gifts, such as fruit, as a guest to a Chinese family in Beijing. You are able to engage in a conversation using correct words and sentence with your linguistic competence. Actional competence helps you apply proper expressions to greet people, give compliments, and thank for the invitation. When you forget certain words or phrases, you can rely on strategic competence to continue the conversation, by using gestures, indirect/alternative ways to express the same things, or know how to ask for assistance.

The broad view of communicative competence recognizes that students need more than grammatical and linguistic knowledge to function in a communicative setting. They need to be able to apply the linguistic forms correctly and functionally. They should be familiar with social-cultural factors, so they can speak and behave in culturally appropriate ways. Students should be given ample opportunities to engage in spontaneous conversation in various real-world situations and learn the conversational strategies to avoidcommunication breakdowns.


Cognitive Approach

Cognitive Approach views second language acquisition (SLA) similar to other kinds of learning. This approach characterizes acquisition of knowledge in terms of input and output. Learning, from the perspective of cognitive psychology, involves processing information input, through constructing the working memory to internalizing the knowledge in the long-term memory, and finally production (using the knowledge) (Eysenck 2001). The studies on language input and output seek to explain how students process the language input and produce the output based on their L2 knowledge.

A. Comprehensible Input

Krashen’s (1982) hypothesis of comprehensible input initiated the discussion of what kind of input best assisting students to learn a second language. Comprehensible input is an optimal quantity of input that helps student’s acquisition of the language. The input is not defined by grammatical sequence, but should be interesting, understandable and a little beyond their current level of competence (i + 1). “i” is viewed as the current competence of the learner, and “1” represents the next level of competence that is little beyond where the learner is now. The implication for classroom instruction is that the effective input has to be meaningful and purposeful, challenging but not overwhelming.

Krashen’s hypothesis has sparkled a great deal of thought and discussion in the profession in regard to the role of input in language learning. For example, Long (1983) suggested three ways that input can be made comprehensible:

·  by modifying the input, using familiar structures and vocabulary

·  by using linguistic and extralinguistic features, such as gesture, prior knowledge

·  by providing the interactional structure of the conversation, i.e., students interacting with each other toward mutual comprehension

In the next topic, we will focus on the input processing strategies used by the learner and the modified input that the teacher can provide for their students.

B. Processing Input

Processing language input, according to Lee and VanPatten (2003), involves connecting grammatical forms with their meanings. Learners use automatic and controlled processing in their comprehension and production of the second language. In automatic process, students do not analyze the linguistic elements, but use them automatically. For example, the response ‘You’re welcome’ to ‘Thank you’ is automatized. In contrast, students activate controlled processing to think consciously how to produce correct sentences. Controlled processing becomes automatic processing when learners practice regularly and what they practice becomes part of the long-term memory.

The study done by Lee and VanPatten suggested a set of processing principles used by learners. For example:

·  Learners process content words in the input before anything else.

·  Learners prefer processing lexical items to grammatical items for semantic information.

·  Learners prefer processing more meaningful morphology before less or non-meaningful morphology, for example, simple past regular endings rather than redundant verbal agreement.

Lee and VanPatten (2003: 142) defined structured input as ‘input that is manipulated in particular ways to push learners to become dependent on form and structure to get meaning.” The guidelines for developing structured input activities include:

·  present one thing at a time

·  keep meaning in focus

·  move from sentences to connected discourse

·  use both oral and written input

·  have the learners do something with the input

·  keep the learner’s processing strategies in mind

For example, in a Chinese class, students are learning the vocabulary of a variety of activities (watch TV, go to a movie, swim, dance, etc.) and the sentence pattern of using frequency adverbs, such as often, rarely, once a while, every week. A structured input activity may require students to do a survey among the classmates. They have to use Chinese to ask the following questions and find out the answers from their fellow classmates. In this activity, students engage in a meaningful survey using new words and patterns to form questions.

Find out from your classmates, if they

·  go a movie every week

·  watch TV often

·  go dancing once a while

·  …

C. Interlanguage

Interlanguage is the language of the learner (Selinker 1974), a system in development and not yet a totally accurate approximation of native speaker language. The characteristics of interlanguage are:

·  interference from the native language

·  overgeneralization of grammatical rules, such as applying the past tense rule to goed

·  strategies involved language learning

·  strategies involved in second language communication, such as circumlocution

The following diagram depicts the role of interlanguage in the language input processing (Lee and VanPatten 2003). Structured input becomes intake when the language is comprehended and used by learners to develop a linguistic system (interlanguage) that they then use to produce output in the language.

structured input è intake è interlanguage (developing system) è output

Ellis (1999) suggested that learners construct interlanguages in the long-term memory to represent what they have processed from the input. An interlanguage consists of a network of form-function mappings rather than grammatical rules. When the learner processes the input and identify the meaning (function) of a specific grammatical feature (form), he/she is mapping a form-function connection. This view stresses that teachers should guide the learners to focus on input and comprehension before production.

Interlanguage studies describe the linguistic system developed in the mind of the learner. Since it is a system in development, learners make errors when using the target language. It is a natural part of the learning process. Teachers provide correct input and engage learners in attending to that input, which help learners improve their interlanguage to incorporate new and/or more accurate feature.

D. Language Output

Krashen (1982) only focused on input for language acquisition. Swain (1985) argued that comprehensible input is not sufficient for students to learn the target language. They need to be provided opportunities to produce output, using the language to communicate and achieve higher language competence. In the process of producing language output, students use the new words and rules, discover the gap between what they want to say and what they are able to say, and reflect what they know about the system of the target language. Ellis (1999) examines the L2 production in terms of fluency and complexity (such as word-order). The result suggests that the learners cannot attend to all aspects of L2 production (i.e., fluency, accuracy, complexity) simultaneously.

Thus, it is important that the teachers design a variety of tasks that strengthen different skills of L2. The tasks should also produce the language output that is meaningful, purposeful and motivational. The output from mechanical drills is not beneficial for language acquisition, since there is no communication purpose. Language production acquires more than linguistic knowledge. Students need to learn to use various communication strategies, such as gestures or circumlocution. In communicative type of output activities, students consolidate what they know about and realize what they need to learn. Through repeatedly using the language in communicative situations, students move from analyzing the linguistic rules and develop automatic process.


Social-cultural Approach

In the social-cultural approach, language acquisition is considered to best occur in a social setting. Learning with others exceeds what the learner is able to do alone. From Vygotsky’s (1978) viewpoint, social interaction is critical for learning and development of one’s language competence. Learners can perform tasks at actual developmental level without any assistance from others. Completing a task at potential development level, learners need assistance from his/her peers or teacher. Through interaction with others, the learner progresses from the ‘actual development’ to ‘potential development.’ In this process, potential development of the learner becomes next actual development. Between the two levels is what Vygotsky called the learner’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), the grey area, as illustrated in the following diagram.

actual
development / scaffolded interaction (assistance, guidance)
ZDP / potential
development
LEARNING PROCESS

Language learning occurs in ZPD when the learner receives scaffolded assistance from the teacher. In scaffolding, the teacher simplifies a complex task into manageable small steps based on students’ language development. During the scaffolded interaction in the ZPD, the teacher is not the traditional authority figure who provides the solution. Instead, the teacher facilitates the learners’ search for solution, by highlighting relevant features, pointing out the discrepancy between what has been produced and the possible solution, reducing stress and frustration, and modeling appropriate use of the language.

The interaction among peers in ZPD also promotes language learning. In a language class, the interaction continues through negotiation of meaning, which are the exchanges between learners as they attempt to resolve communication breakdown and to work toward mutual understanding (Pica 1987). To reach a clear understanding of each other, the two parties must use the language to seek clarification, check comprehension and request confirmation that they have understood or are being understood by others.

Collaborative dialoguing (peer-peer dialogue) has positive effect on language learning, in which students in groups or pairs use collective resources to produce the language and construct a solution. Ohta (2001) demonstrated that students were able to produce utterance collaboratively that were beyond them individually. However, students do not always produce error-free utterances working in groups. Thus, to enhance language development in ZPD, on the one hand, students should be encouraged to be active conversational participants who interact and negotiate meaning. On the other hand, there are situations in which assistance and guidance should be provided by the teachers.