EDU 704

“THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ACQUISITION OF A SECOND LANGUAGE’’

The Factors that Influence the Acquisition of a Second Language

Second-language acquisition is the process by which people learn a second language. Some students learn a new language more quickly and easily than others. This simple fact is known by all who have themselves learned a second language or taught those who are using their second language in school. Clearly, some language learners are successful by virtue of their sheer determination, hard work and persistence. However there are other crucial factors influencing success that are largely beyond the control of the learner.

Age

Second language acquisition is influenced by the age of the learner. Adults feel it difficult to recognize sounds of foreign language, to remember what is heard and also to produce sounds. This happens mainly because of the problem of transfer of habits of the native language. Children, who already have solid literacy skills in their own language, seem to be in the best position to acquire a new language efficiently. A 3 year old child has great facility in imitating foreign sounds and remembering them. Teaching writing is not a pre-requisite for pronouncing sounds and words. High school children are at a transition stage in which limited use of special symbols can be of some help. Greater flexibility of vocal organs, spontaneous oral imitation, sensitivity to the forms of speech heard and natural love of repetition of the six to ten year old student favour learning a new language. A small child would be less conscious and more an extrovert. This will favour easy language learning. It has been observed that ten year old students are passionately interested in the study of languages. Motivated, older learners can be very successful too, but usually struggle to achieve native-speaker-equivalent pronunciation and intonation. Research has shown that the starting age does not affect the route of the second language acquisition (S L A) but it does influence the rate of acquisition. It has been established that adults will acquire proficiency levels rapidly because of their cognitive abilities, but children are more successful as far as pronounciation is concerned.

Sex

Many studies have found that gender can have a significant impact on how students learn a language. Although the study of gender as a variable in language learning is still at an early stage, studies of individual language learner differences related to sex (biological) or gender (socially constructed) have shown that females tend to show greater integrative motivation and more positive attitudes to L2, and use a wider range of learning strategies, particularly social strategies. In all phases of language learning, i.e., articulation, word use, length of utterance, complexity, grammatical correctness of sentences etc. girls are found to excel. The difference was highly reflected in the case of adolescents. It was also found that girls use more personal pronouns than boys and minimum number of slangs. Again, the singletons are proved to be superior in producing long talks, long sentences, clear articulation etc. when compared to twins, triplets and quintuplets. Studies of actual results suggest females are typically superior to males in nearly all aspects of language learning, except listening vocabulary.

Personality

Studies have shown that extraverts (or unreserved and outgoing people) acquire a second language better than introverts (or shy people). Introverted or anxious learners usually make slower progress, particularly in the development of oral skills. They are less likely to take advantage of opportunities to speak, or to seek out such opportunities. Extroverts will be willing to try to communicate even if they are not sure they will succeed. Logically, anxiety will cause students not to try and advance their skills, especially when they feel they are under pressure. Just the lack of practice will make introverts less likely to fully acquire the second language.

A number of personality traits in aggregate constitute the personality of an individual

Self – esteem

Research has shown that the feeling of self worth an individual possesses correlates significantly with his/her performance. In other words, if a learner thinks well of himself, he also learns better.

Extroversion

It is generally believed that extrovert’s research has been inconclusive in this regard. The popular belief may have gained credibility due to the fact that extroverted learners find it easier to make contact with other L2 users and consequently obtain more input.

Anxiety

While all learners do experience anxiety, some may tend to be more anxious than others and thus be faced with impediments in the process of language learning. Anxiety could result in either positive or negative results. ‘Facilitating anxiety’ helps the learner to face the challenge of the new task successfully. ‘Debilitating anxiety’ discourages the learners and forces them to avoid the learning task.

Tolerance of ambiguity

Very often, in the process of language learning, things are not clear. Some learners feel frustrated and appeal to the teacher for clarification; these learners are said to have a low-level tolerance of ambiguity. Research has shown that learners with a higher level of tolerance of ambiguity are more successful.

Risk

The willingness to take risks is closely related to a high tolerance for anxiety-inducing situations. Good language learners take risks in different ways: they make guesses : they are not ashamed of making mistakes and appearing foolish in the process of trying to communicate: they use their minimal knowledge of the target language to achieve maximal communication.

Cognitive Style

In general, it seems that students with greater cognitive abilities will make the faster progress. Some linguists believe that there is a specific, innate language learning ability that is stronger in some students than in others. Each individual leaner has his own way of processing information or approaching a task. This is known as his cognitive style. The processing of the ’input’ depends on the cognitive style of each student. The particular aspect of the presented material to which each student listens, will be different and thus the difference in the intake. If there is any compatibility with respect to the learning style and the instructional style, again, there will be anxiety, lack of confidence, de-motivation, all of which will affect the learning process adversely. According to Ellis, ‘cognitive style is a term used to refer to the manner in which people perceive, conceptualize, organize and recall information’. There are two types of cognitive style: field independent and field dependent.

Field independent learners display the following characteristics

They rely on an internal frame of reference in processing information They are analytical and look at a language in terms of its parts. They are not socially very much aware and are not so skilled in interpersonal

relationships.

Aptitude

Aptitude is a combination of characteristics indicative of an individual’s capacity to acquire (with training) some specific knowledge, skill or set of organized responses such as the ability to speak a language. It is the present potentiality. Only by understanding where the learner is, what his language potential is, the teacher can predict where he will reach. Aptitude in the foreign language can be measured and the teacher can, within his limits, try to individualize teaching.

Carrol proposed that foreign language aptitude consisted of four independent abilities

Phonetic coding ability, which consists of the ability to perceive and memorise new sounds. Grammatical sensitivity, which is the individual’s ability to demonstrate awareness of the

syntactic patterning of sentences of a language. Rote learning ability, which is the ability to learn association between sounds and meanings

rapidly. Inductive ability which consists of the ability to notice and identify similarities and differences in

grammatical form and meaning.

Intelligence

Intelligence is related to the development of L2 reading, grammar, vocabulary but unrelated to oral productive skills. Intelligence may be a strong factor when it comes to learning in terms of linguistic analysis and grammatical rules. However, intelligence plays a minor role in classrooms with more focus on communication and interaction. Learning a language is quite different from learning an ‘intellectual’ subject like Physics or Civics. At the same time, teaching a foreign

language is an intellectual task which depends on the teacher’s abilities. Verbal or linguistic intelligence is accepted to be one of the components of multiple intelligence. Language learning fosters intelligence. At lower levels, intelligence is found to be highly related to acquisition of vocabulary. Experiments have proved that emotional intelligence also has a significant role in foreign language development. Language ability is a combination of verbality (fluency, confluence etc) cerebro-vocal ability, memory and perception, reasoning, speech and writing.

Attitude

An attitude is a dispositional readiness to respond to certain situations, persons or objects in a consistent manner which has been learned and has become one’s typical mode of response. It

represents ones views regarding something. Attitude can be defined as a set of beliefs developed in a due course of time in a given socio-cultural setting. Although it necessarily so not determine behaviour but can have some impact on it. Language learning is affected by the attitude and motivation. Motivated, demotivated and amotivated students have different perceptions of their class, teacher and curriculum. Their perceptions are responsible to their attitudes. An individual’s perception of the class, perception of the teacher, peer group,syllabus and his/her awareness for future needs effect hi/her attitude to language learning.

Attitude can range from extreme positive to extreme negative grade. It is studied that positive attitude facilitates learning. If the learner is reluctant to learn or he/she does not have a positive attitude, he/she does not produce any result. Learning of a foreign language is not so easy when compared to many other school subjects. A positive attitude is to be developed towards the language. This can be done by applying a variety of techniques like games, film shows, dramas, simulations etc.

Conclusion

The success in second language acquisition depends on many factors. Age and motivation factors are among the most important ones. In studies, it has been found that if a learner has a competency in his or her own language, he or she is more advantageous than those who have not completed his first language. As to motivation, it has been found that motivated students are more successful in second language acquisition than those who are not motivated.