Transcript שקופית 1
Oranim Academic College Overcoming age-related differences Gloria Luque agullo (an article summary) Maha Khouriyeh ID 028161917 Issues in Language Teaching Prof. Penny Ur April 2009 Overcoming age-related differences Gloria Luque Agullo A controversial issue: At what age should language learning start? Research into maturational constraints: early is advisable. But there are disagreements. Political, educational and economical changes are involved in language learning. Example: the two reforms in Spain This paper has three aims: 1. To establish if there is a critical or sensitive period that applies to FL learners 2. To determine the particular linguistic and cognitive aspects affected by this period 3. To make a pedagogical proposal to overcome the age-related problem CPH (Critical Period Hypothesis) * a Canadian neurosurgeon- plasticity of a child's developing brain, the age of nine is the cut-off point. * Lenneberg(1967), language ability would be affected after puberty * Krashen(1973) reduces the age to five. * Long (1990), concludes: 1. There are sensitive periods that govern L1and L2 development 2. The age-related loss in ability is not limited to phonology and it is cumulative. 3. The deterioration starts by the age of six and has its culmination in adolescence. Still all these assertions come either from L1 or L2 contexts. The FL situation is still in process of being attested. Note: Literacy skills in L1 are more important than L2 instruction in the elementary school, for ultimate literacy and academic achievements in the L2. Four hypotheses receive strong confirmation from the research: 1. Rate of learning 2. Ultimate attainment 3. Developmental processes 4. Age in connection with other factors Conclusion: For FL contexts where the final aim is not to achieve native-like competence, older is faster when formal instruction and extensive exposure are provided. It is recommended to provide intensive phonetic instruction. Pedagogical implications and learning differences Children are better learners when teachers focus on the children's implicit acquisition processes, emphasize their memory traits, foster holistic processing of meaning in context and provide massive amounts of input. Adults are better learners when they use their high analytical verbal skills at explicit acquisition processes, and benefit from conscious reflection on the form of the language. Both: benefit from explicit phonetic instruction, input enhancement and feedback. A sample activity A proposal of two lesson plans; one for children the other for adults, learning the same material (an extract from the film Shrek). Both having pre-, while doing and post-tasks, in different teaching techniques. In the pre-listening activities: children (oral input)/ adults (write a summary in English) In the while-listening activities, there are two sessions: 1. Children (use speaking rather than writing or comprehension)/ adults (focus on writing as a linguistic process). 2. Children (use their memory to fulfill some tasks, through repetition, imitation and memorization)/ adults (focus on the linguistic and phonetic form and analyze different samples). In the follow-up activities: children and adults carry out oral and written linguistic tasks. Conclusion Agullo wanted to show in her paper that it is probably true there are critical periods for L1 and L2 acquisition in naturalistic settings, but appropriate teaching, by adapting suitable strategies and mechanisms, can overcome any starting difficulty. As a result: deciding when to start is a very complex issue: 1. Final achievement. 2. Covering material. 3. The ‘drip-feed' access to FL. • Therefore: • *'younger is better' should not be taken too literally, and it probably simply isn't true when applied to FL situations. • The key points: • * The question shouldn't be when to start but how to adapt our teaching to the learner's age. • We, as teachers, cannot influence decisions as to when FL studies start, but at least we can try to teach appropriately.