Eduardo Hernandez

1. LA-400S ECOND L ANGUAGE A CQUISITION
Eduardo Hernández Rangel
28/05/2011

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Tabla de contenido
Research question .......................................................................................... 2
Introduction ................................................................................................... 2
Theoretical Background ................................................................................. 2
Research method and data collection............................................................. 4
Background of study ............................................................................................ 4
Background of the participant ............................................................................. 5
Methodology and data collection .......................................................................... 5
Findings ......................................................................................................... 6
Reflection on recording ........................................................................................ 6
Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 8
References ...................................................................................................... 9
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RESEARCH QUESTION
Which are the characteristics of interlanguage developed for a ten years old
child while he is in the process of acquiring a second language?
INTRODUCTION
There are some strategies that can help children to acquire a second language
in a monolingual context. Some theories say that the best way to reach a
second language in a child is by exposing him/her in the target language when
they are infants (Kendall King and Lyn Fogle, 2006). Another strategy that
enhances the acquisition of second language is by taking English classes in a
controlled environment, and one more is creating the adequate environment at
home.Taking English classes is one of the best ways to foster bilingualism,
especially if the parents do not speak the target language. Usually this type of
bilingualism is called sequential or successive because it supposes that the
children already know the mother tongue, and the other language should be
learned in preschool or primary school (Rosenberg, 1996). The decision about
taking formal instruction must be taken by the parents and a plan for supporting
the decision is necessary to reach satisfactory outcomes.
THEORETICALBACKGROUND
Children bilingualism or infant bilingualism can be reached in two different ways,
simultaneous and sequential. Simultaneous bilingualism consists in exposing
the children in both languages. For example, one parent speaks one language
and the other speaks a different language, the children may learn booth
language at the same time (Baker, 2001). On the other hand, sequential
bilingualism refers to acquire the language after the children already learnt the
mother tongue. In this case, nursery and kindergarten education help children to
acquire the second language without formal instruction. Moreover children can
become bilingual with a natural way independently whether is simultaneous or
sequential, but in both cases is more effective that an adults. Romaine shows
as six types of bilingualism and show us some strategies that can be
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considered in order to became bilingual. In this summary, it is showed the most
important in terms of its context
According to Romaine, there are six ways of acquiring bilingualism.
Type one: “One person-one language”.
Both parents speak different native languages and one of them speaks the
dominant language of the community to his/her child. As a result, both parents
speak their own language to their child simultaneously since birth.
Type two: “Non-dominant home language”.
Both parents speak two different native languages but they speak the non
dominant language at home and children are exposed to the dominant
language of the community.
Type three: “Non-dominant home language without community support”.
Both parents who share and speak the same native language (non-dominant
language) to the children, so the children obtain the dominant language from
the community.
Type four: “Double non-dominant home language without community
support”.
Both parents have different native languages (one parent Spanish- other parent
English) of the community (German) they are interacting with. Children then are
exposed to three different languages, so the child is exposed to three
languages (trilingual children).
Type five: “Non native parents”.
Both parents speak the same language as the language of the community but
one of parents addresses the child with a different language. I think this is the
case of my son (Eddie).
I am not good English speaker and that is one of the reasons why I am study
the LEI program. I want to teach my soon of this way; however, if somebody
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wants to try this, the person has to have a very good English level; it is difficult
to teach a different language that it is spoken in the community especially if just
one of the parents try to teach the child, and it is not his o her native language.
Type six: “Mixed languages”.
Both parents and the community are bilingual the parents code switch and mix
languages.
Bilingualism is considered a necessity around the world. Families want to reach
bilingualism for their kids or for their young people including adults. Adults and
children can become bilingual taking in consideration these routes: learning two
languages early at home, acquiring a second language in the street, learning
the other language in the neighborhood or taking formal language classes
(Baker, 2001). Independently which route is taken or which strategy is used,
both, children and adults can reach bilingualism later or early.
RESEARCH METHOD AND DATA COLLECTION
Background of study
When I started my English studies, my first idea was to speak the language
fluently. Since then, when I finally understood how the English language
influences our lives, I immediately changed my mind, and I figured out that I had
the commitment to help my child to understand the language. Now, I am in
contact with the language, and I think that it is possible to provide a wide range
of opportunities for my child in order to, he learn the language too, and take
advantage about his age. I do not know how much language he is capable to
acquire and which kind of interlanguage he develops while he learns it. The
finality of this experiment is that my son reaches a second language, but I am
very interested in observing how he develops his own interlanguage system. I
know, It is a complex process, and I have to be constant and consistent if I want
to achieve the goal of my research. My son is ten years old and according to
Kessler (1984), it is possible that a child acquires the language in the school
age. Some other authors say that kids can acquire a second language before
the brain becomes lateralized. Eddie is attending six hours of formal English
classes, and he has six hours per week of instruction.
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Background of the participant
Eddie is studying at the primary school and after class he attends a classes in a
English school. He is eleven years old and is in fifth grade. When he finishes
the school, he goes back at home, and at 5:30 he attends his English classes
from 5:30 pm to 7:00pm every day except on Fridays. He has taken almost one
year of English Instruction and almost 300 hours during the whole year.
Methodology and data collection
This case of study consists of analyzing the interlanguage developed by a ten
years old child exposing in a formal English class. He is attending to private
English classes in which he has 300 hours of instruction. The type of instruction
he has been exposed is entirely using the communicative approach, no
grammar classes are given in the class.
According to Gebhard and Oprandy, teaching exploration is the opportunity that
every teacher has to analyze, think, understand, and discovery the process of
teaching even though they have years of experience. Teachers can explore and
discovery things, about their teaching that has been hidden for years, and they
never realize whether something is wrong or good for their own teaching until
we pay conscious attention.
Gebhard and Oprandy explained the way to explore our teaching by observing
us. I am going to use this methodology used for observing teachers in order to
observe my son. I decided to record the class because he does not want to talk
with me. He is always reluctant to talk at home and said to me “Puesve a la
escuelaparaque me veashablar”. I cannot convince him to participate in this
project, of course he does not know about it. I talked with the teacher, and she
permit to me recording the class in order to analyze the set of vocabulary my
son developed.
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FINDINGS
Reflection on recording
My first intention with this work was to talk at home with my son Eddie but some
troubles were present, and I changed the way I was going to do this work. He
constantly is reluctant to talk in English at home. I try to encourage him in order
to keep a conversation or to interact in English but when I attempt to do it, he
feels uncomfortable, and starts to say “no se lo que me dices” and stops talking.
Due to he always avoids talking in English at home with me; I decided to record
the class and analyze the content in order to observe and reflect about the
interlanguage system Eddie has created. I request for permission to the
teacher, and she accepted, and I got the video.
I saw three videos and it was a little difficult to see the interlanguage that my
son has developed because during the classes just were conducted as a
question-response. I mean the teacher make a question and my son response.
The first question the teacher did during a class was “How old is she?”, showing
a picture. Eddie answered, “She has 24 years old” after a time she asked the
same question with another picture, and Eddie answered, “She has 20 months”.
I saw that he is using “has” instead of “am/is/are”.
Eddie said, “He have glasses” when he was describing a picture. In this part, he
forgot to change the verb “have” to “has”. I do not know whether he is omitting
using the third person or this is another kind of rule he has created.
In another section of the video, I realized that Eddie forgot to add the “s” in the
third persons. I am confused because he said, “He live in San Javier” and the
teacher corrected him but in the other hand after a time he said, “He has two
brothers”, in this occasion, he produced the correct sentence, although I believe
that he made a mistake in the use of the verb “Have/has” because, after that he
did not make that mistake again.
According to Ellis, R. errors are difficult to identify, and I agree because after
watching the video I could not identify exactly whether he made mistakes or
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errors. He made them but after using the same structures he produced the
corrected sentence but after, he made them again. He went back and forward
with the errors.
Eddie was talking about describing himself, and he said “I am eleven years old”,
“I am from Guanajuato”, “I live in Pueblito the Rocha”, “I like hamburger,
palomitas etc.” but when he wanted to express something that dislikes to him,
he said “I’m not like something”. Here is a very clear form of interlanguage
because he created his own rule using the verb “like” with the negative “not”. I
suppose that he thaught that join “like” with negative it would be the correct
form.
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CONCLUSIONS
In these days, factors such as the expansion of educational provision to many
more levels of society, massive population shifts through migration, and
technological advances in communication have served to accentuate our sense
of a visibly and audibly multilingual modern world (Milroy and Muysken, 1995:1).
As a result of over half the population of the world is bilingual and many people
are multilingual. They acquire a number of languages because they need them
for different purposes in their everyday interactions (Holmes, 2008:74).
According to Baker (2001) there is an initial distinction between simultaneous
and sequential childhood bilingualism that separates children who are exposed
to two languages from birth, from those who acquire a second language later
(Holmes, 2008:87). As a consequence of those distinctions, the importance of
implementing strategies proposed by Romaine (1993) as ways of fostering
bilingualism in children are essential in the development of bilingualism.
Independently, which type of bilingualism, all learners are going to produce a
language system between mother tongue and target language called
interlangauge system that is considerate as a natural process in the process of
learning of a second language.
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REFERENCES
Bahtia, T. K., & Ritchie, W. C. (2006). The habd book of bilingualism. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Baker, C. (2001). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Gebhard, J., & Oprandy, R. (1999). Language teaching awareness. A guide to
eploring beliefs and practices. Cambridge.
Ho, B. (1995). ELT Journal. ELT Journal, 4911.
Holmes, J. (2001). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Pearson Education.
Ricards, J. a. (2002). Lognman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied
Linguistics (3 ed.). London: Logman.
Richards, J., & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective teaching in second language
classrooms. Cambridge.
Rod, E. (2003). Second Language Acquisition (9 ed.). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Romaine, S. (1994). Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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