Presented by :
Sitti Fatimah Saleng & Uliya Nafida
INTERNAL PROCESSING
There
are three internal factors operate as people learn a second language
acquisition. Two are subconscious processors, which we call the “filter” and
the “organizer”, and one is a conscious processor called the “monitor” (see
Figure 3-A)
A.
THE FILTER
Language learners do not take everything they hear.
Their motives, needs, attitudes and emotional states filter what they hear and
therefore affect the rate and quality of language learning. We use the term filter to refer to these “affective”
factors that screen out certain parts of learners’ language environments.
The filter is the part of the internal processing
system that subconsciously screens incoming language based on what psychologist
call “affect”: the learner’s motives, needs, attitudes, and the emotional
states. It determines:
ü Which target
language models the learner will select;
ü Which parts of
the language will be attended first;
ü When language
acquisition efforts should cease;
ü How fast a
learner can acquire the language
For
example;
§ learners will
select certain types of phrases or vocabulary item to learn and use over
others, like children tend to first learn phrases and sentences that are
essential for social participation.
§ some learners
will apparently stop acquiring the target language at a point before they reach
native-like proficiency, but after they have acquired enough to communicate
o Motivation
Motivation in L2 acquisition may be thought of as
the incentive, the need, or the desire that learner feels to learn the second
language. There are three kinds of motivation affect language acquisition
according to Gardner and Lambert (1959):
§ Integrative motivation
It
may be defined as the desire to achieve proficiency in a new language in order
to participate in the life of community
that speaks the language.
§ Instrumental motivation
It
may be defined as the desire to achieve proficiency in a new language for
utilitarian reasons.
§ social group identification
It
may be defined as the desire to acquire proficiency in a language or language
variety spoken by a social group with which learner identifies.
o Emotional States
§ Relaxation
Georgi
Lozanov in Bulgaria found that “the student’s relaxed mental state, brought
about by classical music, comfortable chairs, and the instructor’s modulation
of voice is believed to increase the receptivity of the student to the new
material.”
§ Anxiety
A number of
studies has shown a relationship between low anxiety and successful language
acquisition; the less anxious the learner, the better language acquisition
proceeds.
B.
THE ORGANIZER
The organizer is that part of a language
learner’s mind which work subsconsciously to organize language system. It
gradually builds up the rule system of the new language in specific ways and it
is used by learner to generate sentences not learn through memorization.
o Transitional Constructions
The
language forms learners use while they are still learning the grammar of a
language – developmental sequences.
o Error Types
*The
omission of grammatical morphemes – I buy
some colouring book
*The
double marking of a given semantic feature
– She didn’t wented
*The
regularization of irregular rules – That
mouse catched him
*The
use of archiforms – Them going to town; I
know them.
*The
alternating use of two or more forms – too
much dolls; many potteries
*The
miss ordering – I don’t know who is it
o The acquisition Order of Structures
In
the common order in which L2 learners acquire the structure of the new
language.
o Attempts to Characterize the Organizer
The
order of acquisition is dependent upon relative complexity, grammatical and
semantic.
· Linguistic
complexity: the amount of discrete linguistic knowledge in a structure.
· Learning
complexity: the degree of difficulty a learner experiences in acquiring a
structure.
C.
THE MONITOR
The monitor is that part of the learner’s
internal system that consciously processes information. When the learner
memorizes grammar rule and tries to apply them consciously during conversation,
for example, we say the person is relying on the monitor. The degree to which
the monitor is used depends on at least:
ü The learner’s
age or level of cognitive development
ü The amount of
formal instruction the learner has experienced
ü The nature
focused required by the verbal task being performed
ü The individual
personality of the learners
o Monitoring and the onset of formal operations
At around
puberty, many adolescents pass through a developmental state Piages call
“formal operations” which also call as
“formal thinker”. Formal thinker has the ability verbally to manipulate
relationship between ideas in the absence of prior or concurrent available empirical propositions, new
concepts are primarily acquired from verbal rather than from concrete
experience, has meta-awareness of developing system of abstractions, and can
also develop general solution to problems.
· Focus on linguistic task
Ø Linguistic
manipulation task: directs the student's attention to the linguistic operation
required by the task.
Ø A natural
communication task: focuses the student’s attention on communicating idea or
opinion to someone rather than on language form themselves.
· Effects of formal Instruction on Monitoring
The
use of monitor does not ensure the application of knowledge rules which
learners produce.
· Linguistic Domain of the Monitor
The
use of monitor is limited to lower-level rules of the language, those that are
easy to conceptualize. Conscious knowledge of a rule, doesn’t guarantee the
learner will use it. Many people can correct grammatical errors or stylistic
flaws “by feel”
· Aptitude, Metalinguistic Ability and the Monitor
According
to Caroll (1973), there are three components of mastering Modern Language
Aptitude Test (MLAT) as following:
Ø Phonetic coding ability: the ability to
store new language sounds in memory.
Ø Grammatical sensitivity: the
individual’s ability to demonstrate his awareness of the syntactical patterning
of sentences in a language.
Ø Inductive ability: the ability to examine language
material and identify pattern of correspondence and relationships involving
either meaning or grammatical form.
While according to Pimsleur
(1966), the components of language aptitude are as following:
Ø Verbal intelligent: familiarity with
words and the ability to reason analytically about verbal materials.
Ø Motivation to learn the language
Ø Auditory ability
Aptitude are
more generally related to the acquisition of metalinguistic skills than the
acquistition of communicative skills. While, research now suggest that
attitudinal and motivational factors have more to do with successfull
attainment of communicative skills in a second language than metalinguistic
awareness does.
EFFECTS
OF PERSONALITY AND AGE ON SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Although everyone has the same innate language
processing mechanism, certain individual characteristics affect how much
individual learners use each processor. That is why some learners acquire
second language better or faster than others. This chapter provides information
about the effect of age and personality toward second language acquisition.
A. Effects of Personality
Personality is an aggregate of
traits characteristic of a particular individual. In this study, personality
traits are including self confidence level, capacity to empathize, and the
degree of logicality or tendency to analyze.
1. Self-confidence
Two measures of
self-confidence are anxiety level and extroversion. researchers have concluded
that lower anxiety levels and a tendency to be out-going were connected with
successful L2 acquisition. Self-confident people have the advantage of not
fearing rejection as much as those with high anxiety levels. The filter of the
self-confident person has a larger screen. Self-confident people are less
hampered by the conscious operation of the monitor because they are not so
worried about how they appear.
2.
Empathy
According
to Webster, empathy is the capacity
for participation in another’s feeling or idea. L2 learners with authoritarian
dispositions do not seem to learn a second language as easily as less rigid
personalities. Empathy is more likely to be manifested in the development of
communication skills.
3.
Analytical
Tendency
There
are two types of “analytic personality”, they are field independent and field
dependent. Field independent persons are able to perceive individual items
that may be relatively distinguish from their visual background. They are
considered as more analytical (left-brained) cognitive style. On the other
hand, field dependent persons tend to perceive all part of the organized field
as a total experience (Naiman in Dulay et al., 1982: 76). Field dependence has
been associated with the emphatic and open personality. From several studies,
it is known that more analytical, field independent characteristics appear to
be related to the acquisition of metalinguistic skills through conscious
learning, while the field dependent persons seems to be more apt to acquire
communication skills through subconscious learning.
Personality
and Monitor Use
There are three
types of monitor users: overusers, underusers and optimal users. Overusers rely
a great deal on their consciously acquire rule knowledge when they speak, and
they tend to place correctness ahead of communication. Optimal users tend to
have selective monitoring that can increase accuracy without significantly
interfering with communication. Underusers rely on no monitoring at all. They
are typically not embarrassed at their own errors.
B. Effects of Age
Adults may
appear to make greater progress in acquiring second language initially, but
children nearly always surpass them. According to some research and anecdotal
evidence, children are better at language acquisition than adults. The available research comparing aspects of
L2 performance in children and adults is basically of two types; (1) that which
compares the level of proficiency eventually attained by learners who arrived
in the host country at different ages, comparing especially those who arrive
before and after puberty, and (2) that which compares the rate at which aspects
of language are acquired by younger and older L2 learners.
1. Proficiency and Age of Arrival
Pronunciation an grammar have been the
primary focus on the studies comparing attained L2 proficiency and age of
arrival in the house country
Pronunciation
Some
studies in the area of proficiency and age of arrival found that the longer
ones live in the host country, the better the accent they achieve. Age of
arrival is a powerful determinant of ultimate success in accent acquisition,
and all confirm that puberty is an important turning point with respect to this
aspect of language learning. Another study conducted in the area of age and
acquisition of phonology by Scovell (1977) found that the age of arrival give a
great impact on dialect acquisition. The younger the learners, the better the
dialect acquired.
Grammar
The
degree of native-like pronunciation depends largely on the age of arrival of
the learner in the host country. The younger the learner upon arrival, the more
likely that native-like pronunciation will be attained, and the available data
suggest that this is also true for syntax (Patkowski in Dulay, 1980)
2. Rate of Acquisition
According to the
evidence of some studies, it is believed that children are more successful than
adults in learning a second language. However, children are not always faster.
Several studies suggest that adults seem to progress faster, especially in
their very early stages in acquiring syntax an morphology, although older
children, around ten years old, the fastest of all.
Sources
of Age Differences
Several plausible sources for the
observed differences have been proposed. Biological factor, the cognitive
explanation, affective factors and differences in language environment may
result in differences in the success attained by children and adults.
Biological
Factors
Adult brain is fundamentally different
from the child’s brain from the perspective of language acquisition mechanisms.
In the theory of lateralization by puberty, Lenneberg hypothesized that the
ability of the organizer to subconsciously build up a new language system
deteriorates after puberty, when the brain’s left and right hemisphere have
develop specialized functions. Laterization by five proposed by Krashen argued
that right hemisphere brain damage producing speech disturbance appears to be
limited to ages five and under. Lateralization by zero gave evidence of more
electrical activity over the left hemisphere in infants presented with speech
stimuli. It has been proposed that there is no development of cerebral
dominance at all.
Cognitive
Factors
Viewing from the cognitive maturity,
adults are better and faster conscious learners than children. Adults can talk
about rules like subject-verb agreement, or relative clause formation. Some
children do have some degree of meta-awareness of language, but it is typically
restricted to the most elementary rules of grammar.
Affective
Factors
Adults filter out more of the available
language input than children do because they gain greater ability to imagine
what other people are thinking about. According to Elkind, this state of mind
may lead to the increased self-consciousness, feeling of vulnerability, and
lowered self image that are associated with this age, and that contribute to an
increase in strength of the filter
Differences
in Language Environment
The differences between adult and children
environments may also results in differences in the success attained by
children and adults. Children receive much more concrete “here-and-now” input,
which facilitates language acquisition; in contrast, adults typically are
exposed to conversation about topics whose referents are not obvious from the
non-linguistics context. On the other hand, older students may be better at
“managing conversation”.
