Learning a foreign language in my opinion, shares a few similarities with Learning your first language. For example the sequence of syntactic acquisition is similar in L1 and L2. Both languages require relatively the same learning process. However, L1 is acquired without much thought. Its part of the natural order or this order of language development that starts out when you are an infant or child. Whereas, L2 you are learning this consciously. Overall the differences outnumber the similarities. For example, the amount of time it would take me to learn a foreign language would be much more than when I mastered my L1. Knowing one primary language influences how you learn your second language or third language. I often find myself transferring over my other languages into the new language I am forming. I'm not learning Portuguese blindly, rather using prior experience and background knowledge to aid in the progress and success of this new foreign language. I think the main difference for me is that learning this foreign language is in a different setting with different exposure and comprehensible input than when I learned my L1 and Spanish.
There are more differences than similarities between my foreign language and primary language learning. I feel that learning a foreign language requires more conscious thought and action than learning my primary language, which came naturally and somewhat unconsciously. Also, my motives for learning a foreign language are based on personal curiosity and interest, which differs from my motives for learning my primary language because I had to learn my primary language in order to communicate with others. It is more difficult for me to learn a foreign language compared to learning my primary language. However, I am able to use and transfer my prior language experience and background in my primary language to aid in learning a foreign language. Also, like Cindy, I feel learning a foreign language takes more time than learning my primary language.
While I have studied a few languages in my life, I will refer to my current studies of Portuguese through livemocha.com as my current “L2”. When considering these two languages, my experience learning a second language is very different from my experience learning my first language. That being said, I have found one similarity which I would like to begin by discussing; in both L1 and L2, I utilize hypothesis testing and overgeneralization. Chomsky and other fans of the Nativist view would support the notion that novel utterances in children acquiring their L1 could be accounted for by hypothesis testing. That is, children find a pattern and then attempt to prescribe that pattern to novel utterances. For example, if I have observed a pattern of –ed being added at the end of a verb to make it past tense, I may add –ed to a verb such as “go”. When I started my Portuguese lessons, I saw an example sentence “Eu sou do Brasil” (translation-I am from Brazil) so I thought I could say “Eu sou do California”. I received a correction that I should have said, “Eu sou da California.” Because I wasn’t aware that I needed a feminine marker, I just applied the rule I saw in the example. I also overgeneralized the use of “do” as “from” because there are actually two forms of “from”; “do” and “da”.
However as I previously stated, I find many more differences between my L1 and L2 learning than I do similarities. The biggest difference is that my L1 learning was supported by more modeling and occurred in context. By this I mean that I often learned words as I experienced them. My mother would point to our dog and say “dog.” When I study on livemocha.com, the language is set by an arbitrary lesson plan that is predetermined and set outside of my daily life. I am drilled on sentences like, “The car is yellow. The car is not black” while I am sitting on a chair in my living room nowhere near a car.
In addition, as I was raised speaking English in California, my L1 was inextricably intertwined with my C1. I was surrounded by English all of the time. TV was in English, my parents spoke English, cereal boxes were in English. You get the idea… I am now studying Portuguese in San Diego and outside of my time online, there is no Portuguese linguistic or cultural support surrounding me. This means that there is no incidental vocabulary learning from my environment or incidental opportunities for me to practice my Portuguese. I have supplied a quick outline of similarities and differences between my L1 and L2 acquisition below: Similarities
-Use of hypothesis testing and overgeneralization
Differences
-L1 learning was in context -L1 learning had more modeling -L1 grammar was acquired where L2 grammar needs to be taught explicitly -L1 was part of my C1 -L2 is not part of the culture I am living in now
When I was learning my L1 it was all very natural. Like any small child my parents and family corrected my Spanish. The only moment of direct instruction that I had when learning Spanish was done by my uncle when I couldn’t roll my r’s. He stayed with me and had me practice and practice until I finally could do it. I went from saying “llanton” to “raton” (mouse). Learning a foreign language is very different, I started learning my first foreign language in 4th grade when my teacher had us sing Silent Night in French. We read the English version and then read and sang the French version, I thought I knew what I was saying, but mostly I think we just worked on fluency. In middle school I started my formal study of French. It was a lot of writing out scenes and practicing scenes with partners. By the time I got to high school we were recording our voices and writing our own stories in French. I love French so doing all those tedious tasks, although hard work, was fun. Because French is so similar to Spanish, I felt that I could catch on to it fast. I think the same thing about Catalan, it reminds me of a mix of Spanish, French, and potentially a little bit of German. I find it easy to learn, I don’t know if it’s because it’s a Latin language or because its easier to learn other languages once you’ve already learned a second.
Learning a foreign language is hard, especially because they are usually no large pocket of native speakers with which to practice, as opposed to your L1 which surrounds you. But I think that if the investment is there, if the love of the language is there, learning a foreign language should be as much fun as learning your first.
First –language learners follow a particular pattern. Newborn babies spend close to a year simply listening to those around them. Finally, they begin speaking; sounds and noises, one or two word utterances, then finally short sentences, and so on. Sometime later reading and writing begins. First-language acquisitions does seem to follow a particular order; however, Second-Language acquisition is not like that. When learning a second language it is so much easier to listen, read, and write than it is to speak. I have experienced this myself in my own foreign language experiences. I can pass the tests just fine, but speaking was always a struggle. The interesting difference between first and second language acquisition is that L1 seems to follow a pattern: listening, speaking, and later reading and writing. However, second language acquisition accesses all those skills at the same time. When learning a foreign language, you’re expected to listen, speak, read, and write at the same time. In my high school French class, we would read a passage or learn vocabulary words and were immediately expected to produce those words. In addition, when using Livemocha the four skills are called upon at the same time. I listen to a passage and am immediately expected to answer the questions relating to that passage (listening and reading are taught together in that case). In truth, first language is not like that experience.
Another difference between my L1 and foreign language experiences is that L1 was learned completely in context. I wasn’t worried about a teacher creating “meaningful authentic experiences and context” because I was living that context every day. Language was necessary for communication from “ba-ba” and “mama” to “Can you help me find the store?” L1 is acquired due to necessity. I have thought about this idea a lot throughout this master’s program; trying to learn a new language is difficult and most of the time I am pretty unsuccessful. However, what if I needed it? If tomorrow the national language suddenly became French, I would learn it out of necessity. Six years of French and I have retained little of the language, but if I needed to learn it in order to survive my daily routine I would be able to because I had to. The mindset from learning your L1 and learning a foreign language is completely different. Right now in my Livemocha experience I am learning Portuguese for fun and for the “experience;” not because I have to in order to survive. Having numerous models was another part of my language acquisition that happened in context. Parents, family, and friends were all part of my L1 acquisition; whereas, with an L2 my models are actors or teachers creating experiences for me. When learning a foreign language in high school, my teacher would role play with us. We would pretend to buy clothes or ask for directions or exchange a greeting, and that activity would serve as our model. However, when learning my first language, models where everywhere; they were in every aspect of my life and I was able to observe them. I would go to the store with my mother and observe how she talked to the clerk; the phone would ring and I would observe how you answer a call; if we needed directions, I would observe how to gain that information. All these things happened in context and that is why they were so effective.
The final point in regards to context is access to the language. When learning a foreign language you are not always surrounded by that language or other who speak that langauge. There may not be people for you to talk to and practice speaking the language with. In my French class, we talked to each other; but the second the bell rang and I was in the hallway, I did not have anyone to speak to and no need to use the language. This is why having the language surround you while learning is an essential factor in acquisition. It is for this reason that young children can come to determine grammar rules on their own, whereas a foreign language learner would need to be explicitly taught those rules. When the language surrounds you you become more familiar and begin to pick up on patterns and various rules because you learn them in context. For these reasons learning a language in context is biggest differences between L1 and foreign language learning acquisition.
Other Differences: -Stress/fear is not a factor: in L1, mistakes are looked at as part of language development, but in L2 mistakes are stigmatized or corrected. -No issue with language ego and identity -Input: parental input is replaced by teacher input in foreign language
For me, the first difference is the age difference. I started to acquire L1 from my parents at home since I was born, but I did not start to learn L2 (English) from my teachers at school until I was 12 years old, a very interesting age for language acquisition according to CPH. When I started to learn English, the instructions I received were very similar to the instructions of Chinese at the begging stage. We started with letters and phonetic symbols, listening, speaking, reading and writing at the same time. Then, we moved to sentences and passages. No matter L1 or L2, the instructions I received at school could be concluded as rote. However, at this point, there was a difference between L1 and L2 learning as discussed by my classmates before. The social factors and motivations were different. There were hardly any input of L2 except those limited instructions from the L2 classes at school and L2 was almost useless in my life except as a necessity to pass the tests. On the other hand, L1 was spoken by everyone around me and it was an indispensible tool for me to communicate with others. I also find several new differences during my learning experience at Livemocha. First of all, I keep transmitting the syntactical rules of L1 and L2 to the new foreign language, but I did not do this during my L1 acquisition nor did it consciously during L2 acquisition at the beginning stage. Another difference is about the affective considerations. I am more conscious and concerned about the mistakes I made when I am practicing the new language now.
My experience in learning Portuguese through Live Mocha is vastly different from learning English as a baby and young child. First of all, this is a conscious choice. I have decided on the language and put myself in a learning situation. As a young child, I learned English because I was born in an English-speaking home. My motivation came out of a desire to make my needs known to those around me. Without thinking about it, I began speaking. I did not need to sit down at the computer and pull up the flash cards. I learned language through interaction with those around me.
If the theory of a Language Acquisition Device is true, then my brain followed patterns and stages of language acquisition that are shared by all human beings, no matter what their first language is. This time, I am consciously aware of rules of grammar and patterns of pronunciation. I need this awareness to help me learn the language. As a child, the pronunciation and the grammar were acquired without extensive formal training. There was more hypothesis testing and less conscious thought about the rules of the language.
When I was young, the type of vocabulary that I learned arose out of my surroundings and needs. I learned to speak about the things around me and from what others around me were saying. In a language program, such as Live Mocha, the vocabulary has been preselected. Because there is not always a context, it is sometimes difficult to remember.
Lastly, as a child, we are immersed in our home language. It is all around us. Unless we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to live in another country and learn their language, we don’t have the experience of total immersion in a language. Even when we are able to live among native speakers, it is still more difficult to learn the language than when we learned our first language as a child.
I have slowly come to the realization that I am not a good language learner no matter what the conditions are that I'm learning under. I spent 5 years of middle/high school learning French, one year of college learning Italian, and now I'm trying Lithuanian through livemocha.com (I switched from Spanish). From this I think there are some huge differences that I've become aware of. First off, in learning my L1, I had constant support and I was surrounded by it. Children are encouraged to use their skills the best they can and mistakes are not challenged the way they can be in L2 acquisition. Mistakes from children are viewed as a normal progression, and while parents may respond with the correct form as support, in general, those mistakes are not chastised. In my view L1 learing comes from a very nativist approach. The other extremely important aspect is that I was surrounded by English. I heard it from parents, from other family members, friends, etc. I had no choice but to practice my skills.
In learning French as an L2, I atleast moved through the program with the same group of people, and we fostered each other's growth outside of the classroom. The classroom approach was very structured, but in learning with each other, and seeing it as a social aspect as well, it was a more functional/constructivist approach. However since it was still not a demand of the majority of my surroundings, and once I left high school I never used it again, the language is lost to me other than fragments of vocabulary and sentences.
The biggest difference is now being showcased through learning Lithuanian on livemocha. I know absolutely no one who speaks this language, and even though I have some friends in Lithuania from my trip, we only speak through facebook. There is zero demand for me to really learn this language, and the only motivation for me is internal because the next time I go, I want to say more than hello. However, there's only so much of a language you can learn from doing flashcards and regurgitating sentences. Plus it is so completely different to English that I can't formualte a pattern to help me out.
I learned two languages simultaneously when I was very young. My parents only spoke French to me, but my brothers and sister spoke English at home. My parents told my preschool teacher that I spoke no English. When they came to pick me up, my preschool teacher told them I spoke English fluently. I think learning language has so much to do with modeling, context, motivation, and culture. I very much wanted to communicate with my brothers and sister so my motivation was high. I learned both languages in context and within the culture - my parents taught me their culture and my siblings taught me American culture. All of my family members modeled for me. I went through a silent period in English because I didn't practice it with my family but I was carefully taking in the input. Now I am trying to learn Spanish. However, my motivation isn't as strong. I don't need it to communicate to my loved ones. I am not immersed in the culture. I am not learning it in context, but in a prescribed way. I am not getting any authentic modeling. I also know that I am the type of learner who learns best in social environments (Vygotsky). I am not an audio learner who can hear words a few times and remember them. I need to be using the words to communicate with peers in authentic ways. I think this can be recreated in a constructivist classroom, but this method is not used in livemocha. Those who are auditory learners, however, may be fine with the more structural approach. I, like others mentioned, do attempt to transfer knowledge from the languages I know to a new language. I did not consciously do this when learning English and French, but find it very useful now. I have more of a monitor now as well. I don't like to produce output in Spanish because I can hear my own errors in pronunciation and know I'm making grammatical errors. I was not concerned with making such errors as a child. However, if I was in a situation where I needed to communicate in order to express basic needs, I would produce output. So again I think the environment impacts how I learn.
First of all, there are important categories that shape the possible similarities and differences in learning language. In order to find cases of language acquisition, researches draw analogies between age (Child and Adult) and sort of Acquisition (L1 and L2). It is, in one sense, illogical to compare the first language acquisition of a child with the second language learning of an adult (Foster-Coohrn, 2001; Scovel, 1999; Schachter, 1988; Cook, 1973). In general, there are four possible categories, but Brown calls the first category, when an adult learning L1, pathological case of language acquisition o abnormal situation. Logically, it is very rare for an adult (A1) to face learning L1. This way, three possible comparisons are going to be considerable.
1- L1 and SLA in children ( C1-C2) 2- SLA in children and adults(C2-A2) 3- L1 in children and SLA in adult (C1-A2)
First, various ages of children of all above comparison should be taken in consideration. In addition to children’s ages, we should pay close attention to the cognitive, affective, and physical differences between children and adults. The age path of searching generates some questions about the period when language can be acquired and when can not be or difficult to acquire. Brown addressed clearly as critical period: a biological determined period of life when language can be acquired more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to acquire. Moreover the Critical Period Hypothesis stresses that there is a biological timetable. In general similar strategies and linguistic features are present in both L2 and L2 learning in children. However, researches have found that an adult uses his or her first language to bridge the gaps that he or she can not fill within the second language. Based on my experience learning second language, the pros of first language interference have helped me to bridge the gaps though produce utterances in L2 that have the same structure and meaning. On the other hand, the cons of L1 interference have been failed me because of the cultural and grammatical differences, but also have been guided me to be aware of differences. For Example, there is no doubt, regarding, according to, in some cases and so on are literary the same in L1 and L2. This statement provides clear evidence about the LAD (language acquisition device) and universal grammar of Chomsky. In addition to that, I have used imitation to learn additional language in order to produce words, phrase and sentences, but, more importantly, understanding the function and the purpose of certain language.
Moreover, the Classic method did not meet my learning style. Therefore, I have been learning English as second language outside the classroom. In other words, I prefer TPR (Total physical Response by moving, looking and so forth) classroom in which the teacher plays a role of directive in orchestrating performance. “The instructor is the director of a stage play in which the students are the actors” (Asheer, 1977, p.43). Krashen and Terrell stresses that learner should be as relax as possible in the classroom, and that a great deal of communication and “ acquisition input “ should take place. In fact, the Natural Approach called for TPR activities in the beginning classes.
Core component in learning L1 presents in the cultural, functional and social matrix under the umbrella of natural approach.
In short, Ellis’s Statement (2002) have captured my thoughts, in the case of second language learning, it appears that contextualized, appropriate, meaningful communication in the second language seems to be the best possible practice the second language learner could engage in. in conclusion, L1 and L2 learning analogies have shaped by internal and external factors and they are different just as human beings different but serve the learning journey.
From my experience, learning my first two languages were much different from learning a new language in high school and now. I grew up speaking English and Greek. When I was little I was in a household that used both languages so I acquired both very naturally. I heard and spoke Greek quite a bit, but used and spoke English much more, especially outside of my house. I went to afternoon Greek school as a child for a few years, and although the alphabet was different I was still was able to acquire and develop the language (especially grammar), in a faster and more natural way than I did when studying French in high school or Portuguese now. Those are two languages I had not heard or associated with until the day I began learning them. Everything was foreign, and the acquisition takes a lot longer. I find myself memorizing clues to remember words and phrases. I also find myself relating these languages to the languages I am most familiar with. If it is not close to English, I try to compare to to the Greek I know. It is definitely not as natural, and I am not in an environment that requires me to use the language 100% of the time. If I was in a situation where I had to use the language in a way to communicate, or I was surrounded by it all the time I am sure my development and learning would increase tremendously. I would be using the language in a more natural environment, as learning my L1, and have the classroom time to develop my L2.
I find that there are many differences in learning an L2 in comparison to my L1 of English. The big one is that there is a great deal of interference occuring for me. Too often I try and mkae connections between Czech and English that just aren't possible becasue they are too different. Also, I am aware that there is universal grammar and this is actually distracting. I am constantly trying to make sense of the sentences by translating back into English to try and make a connection. As for making connections- that's another hard part. This rote instruction online thats designed to be about memorization- doesn't allow me to make cognitive connections and build meanginful schemas that would move the language to my long term memory. As Danielle mentioned above, in language classrooms I have previously been a part of, I did activities, practiced in front of others, used communication a lot, combined computer activities and our teacher brought in native speakers. I didn't stick with French, but it did stay in my long term memory. Nowadays I often hear it and it all comes back to me out of the recesses of my brain. Ausebel's subsumption theory is correct for me- in my mind, I have forgotten many pieces but stored it all away under a smaller conceptual system that takes up less room. I also n ote a diference between my language learning in the modeling. As Christina mentioned above- livemocha doesn't provide enough of this. In my L1 I obviously had many models to copy which also allowed my to create a natural accent which is no longer possible due to research at my age for my L2 language of Czech. Vygotsky would also note that I don't have the correct social interaction necessary for learning. There is no one for me to practice with or learn more from in Czech. Finally, there is no pressure or pressing need for me to learn Czech because I can communicate and get needs without it. As a baby, I needed to learn English to become a part of my family and society and get my wants and needs met. My affective filter is low, and I am a person who needs a little stress in order to learn and get things done.
Learning an L2 and learning L1 currently seem like night and day to me. In learning English, it was a natural process that proceeded in a similar pattern to that of other infants learning their mother tongue. As a child, I know I had a lot of input as my parents read stories to me for hours on end, and, my mother who is an educator, knew the importance of hearing her voice speaking English so would spend all her time talking to me about everything. This specific type of input was very contextualized and meaningful for me, not only because it came from my family members, but because it was coming out of necessity. Humnas have a natural tendency to seek out understanding - and the process of language is no different. I naturally learned my mother tongue in order to understand and make sense of the world around me.
The process of L2 is quite different for me. ALthough there is a great amount of input during the course of the language program that I am doing while driving to work everyday, it is an input that is starkly different from the input I received in my L1 acquisiton. THis makes me severely wish that I had made any type of effort to learn Italian while I lived in Italy, because I now realize that the input I would have receivied would have been so much more meaningful than that that I am receiving now. As a result, I am aware that the little output that I am producing from call and response rote drills is not receiving any sort of assessment, evalutation, or response from actual people. Had I learned in Italy, I would have been better able to develop a monitor in ITalian based on the language that I heard around me.
I am noticing that my experience learning an L2 is nothing at all like my experience learning my first language. While I picked up English naturally, like most children, I am finding that Italian is much more challenging. Part of this can be attributed to motivation. As a child, we learn to speak to get our point across and have our basic needs met. But now, I am trying to learn Italian as a hobby; I have no pressing need to learn it, nor do I have immediate plans to enter into Italian culture. Secondly, when I learned English in America, where that is the national language and it is what my entire family speaks, I was surrounded by English constantly. On the other hand, as I learn Italian, my only exposure to the language is during my weekly lesson. Another major difference in learning L2 from L1 is that I am older and have additional cognitive capacities. I can use what I know about English grammar to try to make sense of Italian grammar, and I can use the words I remember from Spanish to think about comparable words in Italian. I am able to use my knowledge from Spanish verb conjugation to help me when I see the multiple forms of a verb like "stare." I recognize that "Io sto" is similar to "Yo soy" which means I am in both languages. I remember when I was in middle school and my friend took Italian and I took Spanish and she used to always tell me how similar the two languages are. Now, being able to consciously process these similarities is helping me advance in learning a new language. Finally, in attempting to pick up Italian at age 21, I am well past the critical period for language acquisition. While I understand that it is not impossible to learn a language after puberty, I know that it is far more difficult to ever sound like a native speaker. I also find that I have trouble getting my mouth to form sounds that emulate the online instructor's. Certain sounds that are common in Italian are foreign to me, and I truly believe that my muscles cannot figure out how to make those sounds come out. I do my best to sound out each part of the word, but my accent never sounds nearly as fluid as if I learned Italian as my first language. I think that Lenneberg's Critical Period Hypothesis is so interesting, because I am witnessing first-hand how difficult it is to become proficient in a language after the "critical period."
My experience learning a foreign language has been very different from learning my L1. Learning a foreign language requires conscious thought, conscious effort and conscious practice. Learning your L1 on the other hand, happens unconsciously.
Learning your first language is necessary to communicate with others around you. Therefore, it occurs almost with a sense of urgency. The sense of urgency to acquire L1 is not evident in my L2 learning experience. There is no urgent need for me to acquire Spanish. Similarly, during L1 acquisition, a child is constantly being spoken to in their target language. A child is also usually immersed in that language speaking culture. In my current language learning experience, I spend an hour per lesson, but am then speaking English for the remainder of the day.
Age also effects language acquisition. According to the critical period hypothesis, there is a biologically determined period of life when language can be acquired more easily. This lasts till puberty. I think the difference in my experiences have a lot to do with my age. As I am over the age of puberty, it is very hard for me to get a good grasp on my L2. Acquiring your L1 comes with more ease than L2 acquisition.
One aspect that is similar to my L1 acquisition is that both L1 and L2 acquisition involve imitation, input from your parents and peers, discourse and practice.
This is a very interesting question to me because I never thought about how I acquired my first language. If I take a look back to when I was young I remember learning English in several ways. My first thought is in my 4th grade grammar class. I had a teacher that was dedicated to teaching us the structure of the English language. We studied semantics rigorously so that we always knew where certain parts of speech belonged in a sentence. This kind of teaching would fall under the structural method. Not only do I have memories if structural methods, but memories of behavioral approaches. I remember as a child associating the word “sock” with “off”. This is because my mother always said to me over and over again take your shoes and socks off. I hated wearing shoes as a child and still do as an adult, I prefer flip flops. So for me sock-off was a phrase associated with freedom. Yes, I meant that my feet were free of my shoes!
As I am learning a second language my learning process seems more advanced. I am constantly engaging in “transfer” from my L1 to my L2. This is not something that I did in my L1 because I had nothing to compare my L1 with. In some ways utilizing L1 is very helpful when I am practicing things such as structure. But it is also a curse because I want to spend a lot of my time looking up every word I come across which will waste time and focus on valuable lessons. I find that compartmentalizing my L2 studies into very specific grammar points helps me learn. When I compare this to L1 it is very similar. Whenever I had my grammar class as an elementary student we always focused on one grammar function at a time to fully learn it and become an expert before moving on to the next. I need to remember this as I am studying my L2. The basics seem to be the most important part of learning a language. I need to slow down and really become an expert before I move on to the next section.
The greatest difference for me is that I learned the basics of my first language as a child, during the more concrete years of my development. As an adult who enjoys thinking in the abstract, I find it challenging to simplify my thoughts in order to express myself in my second language. I am never able to fully express myself in my second language and this is frustrating. It is very easy to revert back to English when trying to communicate with someone who is bi-lingual hindering my second language learning. Learning my first language was more intrinsic, I needed it for communication. I suppose the frustrations that I feel in not being able to express myself in my second language are similar to those I felt when first trying to communicate in my first, but I can not of course remember those frustrations! Learning my second language I am now able to conceptualize my learning in a way that I never did learning English, even advancing in English as an adult. I suppose the greatest difference is that I think about my learning and the progress I am making now, whereas I never really thought too much about learning English, I always just learned.
Learning a foreign language, for me is totally different from when I compare it to learning my first language. I think that one of the biggest differences is that I was able to naturally learn English right when I was born. I was able to socially construct meaning over the years in school, with my friends and family. As we talked about in class, age is another aspect that also plays huge role in second language acquisition. Being 23 years old and having never learned a new language, most of my schema is based around English speaking people. I think that one similarity is imitation. In learning English and Italian I have been able to imitate both languages. However, in doing so, I have automatically used my knowledge of pronunciation in English to help sound out the words in Italian. For example when they say "come" in Italian I hear that word being said as "comb may". I use English words to create Italian sounds. Also the word "come" in Italian means how, but is spelled exactly the same in English, which has a completely different meaning. This can be seen as negative transfer if I start to make those mistakes. Even though my grammar isn't wonderful in English, my cognitive capacity is more advanced for me to learn Italian. Overall I think it comes down to timing and what Lenneberg discusses about the critical period one has to truly be proficaint and sound like a native speaker.
Unfortunately I can’t remember how I acquired Chinese. If I remember something, there is means I had acquired some basic Chinese and using that to thinking. So in my mind, I learned my primary language naturally. But I do remember the first time my father taught me how to write Chinese characters. That was my birthday when I was 4 years old. He taught me a Chinese sentence like “Today is my birthday.” And asked me remember how to write it. I couldn’t understand and asked “I can speak, why I need to learning how to write?” That is the time I aware I was learning my first language. But when I went to elementary school and took my English class first time, I knew clearly what I am doing- learning another language. So I think the first difference according my experience is unconscious vs. conscious.
And second difference is about strategies I used. I could not remember did I use any strategy to learning how to pronounce Chinese or how to understand it. That is because I had acquired the language itself before I learnt the strategies. With I grew up I began to use some strategies help me learning higher level Chinese. Learning first language may need some strategies only when people want to master it. However I knew from the first day I learnt English I was using some strategies. I once used Chinese phonetic alphabets to mark my English textbook. And my students also used English letters to mark Chinese when they learnt Chinese with me. And every time I learnt second language, I used strategies to remember, to understand, to communicate…
For me, learning a foreign language is quite different from learning my L1. Like other people, I acquire my first language unconsciously. I just picked up Chinese naturally as everybody else. I listened and imitated my parents and everybody around. But when I learn foreign languages, English and Japanese, I learn it consciously. I attend classes or make study plans for myself. I am conscious with the concept that I am learning another language now.
Another difference is the language environment. I was born in the Chinese dominant environment, which provides me native pronunciation to imitate every day and authentic social contexts to communicate and practice. I can practice and interact with people every single second of the day. However, as a foreign language learner, the only chance I can get in touch with English or Japanese is the class time. And it is hard for me to find a native speaker to communicate, or an authentic context to practice. It is one of the main factors that make my second language learning slower and harder.
One of the most important factors we should considered in L1 and L2 acquisition is the age. Conscious or not, have or have not cognitive capacity, whether or not builds the underpinnings on the form of grammar all relate to age. And one of the factors of “age problems” is Critical Period. I learn my L1 in critical Period but not when it comes to foreign language (even though I learn English before puberty, in age 11, I did not pay enough attention and the pedagogics was not suit for me). According to the Critical Period Hypothesis, it would be harder for me to gain a native accent after puberty. I must pay much more effort to speak English LIKE a native speaker. But for Chinese, I just imitated and gained the native accent.
Besides, I should also consider the interferences of L1 when I learn foreign language. As I am more efficient and fluent of L1, I am likely to think in L1 and translate in mind between L1 and L2. This some times helps my foreign language learning but sometimes interferences. For example, when I saw a tree I first came up with the Chinese character “tree” and then translate to the English word “tree” when I began learning English. So it will slow down my reaction speed.
There are also similarities between L1 and L2 learning, for example. When I learn Japanese words or characters I have to repeat again and again to remember just as I learn my L1. And I imitate the native pronunciation in both L1 and L2 learning.
There are so many differences between my first language learning and second language learning. Firstly, I learned my first language totally naturally and I did not even realize that I was learning Chinese. But I learned English by purpose. Secondly, the age is different. I started to learn Chines when I was born and started to learn English when I was about 12 years old. I felt difficult to learn English at first. To me, learning English was a very hard job. Thirdly, the learning environment and motivation are different. My first language learning was in context; everyday I was immersed in my mother tone. I learned it because I need to communicate with my families, friends and teachers. I have to learn it. Otherwise I could not live in the society. However, I learned English because I need to pass the examinations and go to the university. I did not need to speak English everyday and there was no one spoke English around me in daily life. Fourthly, when I was learning English I used my first language to learn it. I needed to translate English words into Chinese meaning to memorize them. And teachers in the classrooms were always using Chinese to teach us English. And finally, I learned Chinese very quickly, because I practiced it everyday, and I did not practice English very often.
There are several noticeable differences in my experience of learning Portuguese via Live Mocha vs my experience with my L1. First of all, context was/is major; my L1 was defined and developed in context to the culture I was living in, the people I conversed or was exposed to at the moment. In Live Mocha I am not exposed at all to that experience therefore making the learning process different and slower. Another important aspect to note here is that I do not pretend to use my Portuguese in context in the near future at all thus eliminating or decreasing the motivation I have or had to learn the language.
With the little I can remember about my experience in learning my L1 I can say I was not stressed, worried or concerned about how I said things; language happened naturally and was supported by context. In my journey to learn Portuguese I struggle with pronunciation, structure, and even when repeating words that are being drilled to me. I am conscious about every mistake I make, I am poorly guided and constantly disappointed at the fact that I am learning very little Portuguese.
Ni hao! Buenos diaz, ciao! I love learning languages. I can't say L2 acquisition is as easy as L1, far from it! But will say, I am a socially motivated individual, and love to pick up terms in other languages. I grew up in an era when children were spoken to mostly in directives. Sure, I had chatter with parents, and learned L1 mainly from my mom, my main care taker. But as far as putting language to the world around me out side the house, like most kids in blue collar neighborhoods, it was very limited. My mother had an eighth grade education, and my father grew up with immigrant parents who spoke mainly Croatian and learned English from their kids. I struggled with reading, writing and comprehension language skills in early education, a time when whole language learning was tried. The "Whole language" learning process and limited exposure to language (my mother didn't read stories to us, she would tell us stories), made for a career of education k-12 a long and tedious process. As a mom, I read to my kids since they were very young, in fact, I read to my baby Kyra when she was an infant. All the kids went through school as advanced in language arts.:) I really don't remember my mom practicing sounds with me, to sound out words. I remember just looking at words and not knowing where to start in how to pronounce and read them (it felt awful). I learned Spanish in high school and it was my best subject. Recently learning Chinese, although most of the process I've been to learn Chinese has been through rote learning. For me formal language education as a child, age five was much harder for me now as an adult. This is due to my much advanced cognitive abilities, low affective filter, high motivation, and knowledge of my first language, forms and function, in addition to 50+ years experience with a variety of discourse in my L1. I think I would benefit from classroom instruction in Chinese, and hope to add it to my schedule at some point. Rote practice is one learning strategy which help with the pronunciation. I am deriving some benefit from this practice. As far as the difference in learning experiences for L1 and L2, L1 was for the most part subconscious learning until the age of 6, and any learning experience in an L2 have been consciously learned.
The most obvious difference between learning the first language and the second language is that I was unaware that I was learning when I was picking up my first language. It was just acquiring it. What I learned first is listening and speaking and everybody around me was my instructor. As long as I grow up, the learning of the first language is not focus on only communication, but more focus on how to elaborate the language, how to make the language sounds more beautiful. When I started to learn a foreign language, no matter English I learned or Spanish I am learning right now, I should put a lot effort in it and remind myself to practice and remember the grammar and vocabulary. And I know why I am learning this language and how can it helps me in the future. I need an instructor who has professional knowledge with the target language in grammar and vocabulary to help me with my foreign language study. The main goal of learning a second language is to communicate and elaboration of this language becomes optional.
Learning a foreign language in my opinion, shares a few similarities with Learning your first language. For example the sequence of syntactic acquisition is similar in L1 and L2. Both languages require relatively the same learning process. However, L1 is acquired without much thought. Its part of the natural order or this order of language development that starts out when you are an infant or child. Whereas, L2 you are learning this consciously. Overall the differences outnumber the similarities. For example, the amount of time it would take me to learn a foreign language would be much more than when I mastered my L1. Knowing one primary language influences how you learn your second language or third language. I often find myself transferring over my other languages into the new language I am forming. I'm not learning Portuguese blindly, rather using prior experience and background knowledge to aid in the progress and success of this new foreign language. I think the main difference for me is that learning this foreign language is in a different setting with different exposure and comprehensible input than when I learned my L1 and Spanish.
ReplyDeleteThere are more differences than similarities between my foreign language and primary language learning. I feel that learning a foreign language requires more conscious thought and action than learning my primary language, which came naturally and somewhat unconsciously. Also, my motives for learning a foreign language are based on personal curiosity and interest, which differs from my motives for learning my primary language because I had to learn my primary language in order to communicate with others. It is more difficult for me to learn a foreign language compared to learning my primary language. However, I am able to use and transfer my prior language experience and background in my primary language to aid in learning a foreign language. Also, like Cindy, I feel learning a foreign language takes more time than learning my primary language.
ReplyDeleteWhile I have studied a few languages in my life, I will refer to my current studies of Portuguese through livemocha.com as my current “L2”. When considering these two languages, my experience learning a second language is very different from my experience learning my first language. That being said, I have found one similarity which I would like to begin by discussing; in both L1 and L2, I utilize hypothesis testing and overgeneralization. Chomsky and other fans of the Nativist view would support the notion that novel utterances in children acquiring their L1 could be accounted for by hypothesis testing. That is, children find a pattern and then attempt to prescribe that pattern to novel utterances. For example, if I have observed a pattern of –ed being added at the end of a verb to make it past tense, I may add –ed to a verb such as “go”. When I started my Portuguese lessons, I saw an example sentence “Eu sou do Brasil” (translation-I am from Brazil) so I thought I could say “Eu sou do California”. I received a correction that I should have said, “Eu sou da California.” Because I wasn’t aware that I needed a feminine marker, I just applied the rule I saw in the example. I also overgeneralized the use of “do” as “from” because there are actually two forms of “from”; “do” and “da”.
ReplyDeleteHowever as I previously stated, I find many more differences between my L1 and L2 learning than I do similarities. The biggest difference is that my L1 learning was supported by more modeling and occurred in context. By this I mean that I often learned words as I experienced them. My mother would point to our dog and say “dog.” When I study on livemocha.com, the language is set by an arbitrary lesson plan that is predetermined and set outside of my daily life. I am drilled on sentences like, “The car is yellow. The car is not black” while I am sitting on a chair in my living room nowhere near a car.
In addition, as I was raised speaking English in California, my L1 was inextricably intertwined with my C1. I was surrounded by English all of the time. TV was in English, my parents spoke English, cereal boxes were in English. You get the idea… I am now studying Portuguese in San Diego and outside of my time online, there is no Portuguese linguistic or cultural support surrounding me. This means that there is no incidental vocabulary learning from my environment or incidental opportunities for me to practice my Portuguese.
I have supplied a quick outline of similarities and differences between my L1 and L2 acquisition below:
Similarities
-Use of hypothesis testing and overgeneralization
Differences
-L1 learning was in context
-L1 learning had more modeling
-L1 grammar was acquired where L2 grammar needs to be taught explicitly
-L1 was part of my C1
-L2 is not part of the culture I am living in now
When I was learning my L1 it was all very natural. Like any small child my parents and family corrected my Spanish. The only moment of direct instruction that I had when learning Spanish was done by my uncle when I couldn’t roll my r’s. He stayed with me and had me practice and practice until I finally could do it. I went from saying “llanton” to “raton” (mouse). Learning a foreign language is very different, I started learning my first foreign language in 4th grade when my teacher had us sing Silent Night in French. We read the English version and then read and sang the French version, I thought I knew what I was saying, but mostly I think we just worked on fluency. In middle school I started my formal study of French. It was a lot of writing out scenes and practicing scenes with partners. By the time I got to high school we were recording our voices and writing our own stories in French. I love French so doing all those tedious tasks, although hard work, was fun. Because French is so similar to Spanish, I felt that I could catch on to it fast. I think the same thing about Catalan, it reminds me of a mix of Spanish, French, and potentially a little bit of German. I find it easy to learn, I don’t know if it’s because it’s a Latin language or because its easier to learn other languages once you’ve already learned a second.
ReplyDeleteLearning a foreign language is hard, especially because they are usually no large pocket of native speakers with which to practice, as opposed to your L1 which surrounds you. But I think that if the investment is there, if the love of the language is there, learning a foreign language should be as much fun as learning your first.
First –language learners follow a particular pattern. Newborn babies spend close to a year simply listening to those around them. Finally, they begin speaking; sounds and noises, one or two word utterances, then finally short sentences, and so on. Sometime later reading and writing begins. First-language acquisitions does seem to follow a particular order; however, Second-Language acquisition is not like that. When learning a second language it is so much easier to listen, read, and write than it is to speak. I have experienced this myself in my own foreign language experiences. I can pass the tests just fine, but speaking was always a struggle. The interesting difference between first and second language acquisition is that L1 seems to follow a pattern: listening, speaking, and later reading and writing. However, second language acquisition accesses all those skills at the same time. When learning a foreign language, you’re expected to listen, speak, read, and write at the same time. In my high school French class, we would read a passage or learn vocabulary words and were immediately expected to produce those words. In addition, when using Livemocha the four skills are called upon at the same time. I listen to a passage and am immediately expected to answer the questions relating to that passage (listening and reading are taught together in that case). In truth, first language is not like that experience.
ReplyDeleteAnother difference between my L1 and foreign language experiences is that L1 was learned completely in context. I wasn’t worried about a teacher creating “meaningful authentic experiences and context” because I was living that context every day. Language was necessary for communication from “ba-ba” and “mama” to “Can you help me find the store?” L1 is acquired due to necessity. I have thought about this idea a lot throughout this master’s program; trying to learn a new language is difficult and most of the time I am pretty unsuccessful. However, what if I needed it? If tomorrow the national language suddenly became French, I would learn it out of necessity. Six years of French and I have retained little of the language, but if I needed to learn it in order to survive my daily routine I would be able to because I had to. The mindset from learning your L1 and learning a foreign language is completely different. Right now in my Livemocha experience I am learning Portuguese for fun and for the “experience;” not because I have to in order to survive. Having numerous models was another part of my language acquisition that happened in context. Parents, family, and friends were all part of my L1 acquisition; whereas, with an L2 my models are actors or teachers creating experiences for me. When learning a foreign language in high school, my teacher would role play with us. We would pretend to buy clothes or ask for directions or exchange a greeting, and that activity would serve as our model. However, when learning my first language, models where everywhere; they were in every aspect of my life and I was able to observe them. I would go to the store with my mother and observe how she talked to the clerk; the phone would ring and I would observe how you answer a call; if we needed directions, I would observe how to gain that information. All these things happened in context and that is why they were so effective.
The final point in regards to context is access to the language. When learning a foreign language you are not always surrounded by that language or other who speak that langauge. There may not be people for you to talk to and practice speaking the language with. In my French class, we talked to each other; but the second the bell rang and I was in the hallway, I did not have anyone to speak to and no need to use the language. This is why having the language surround you while learning is an essential factor in acquisition. It is for this reason that young children can come to determine grammar rules on their own, whereas a foreign language learner would need to be explicitly taught those rules. When the language surrounds you you become more familiar and begin to pick up on patterns and various rules because you learn them in context. For these reasons learning a language in context is biggest differences between L1 and foreign language learning acquisition.
ReplyDeleteOther Differences:
-Stress/fear is not a factor: in L1, mistakes are looked at as part of language development, but in L2 mistakes are stigmatized or corrected.
-No issue with language ego and identity
-Input: parental input is replaced by teacher input in foreign language
(Sorry, my response could not fit in one post)
For me, the first difference is the age difference. I started to acquire L1 from my parents at home since I was born, but I did not start to learn L2 (English) from my teachers at school until I was 12 years old, a very interesting age for language acquisition according to CPH. When I started to learn English, the instructions I received were very similar to the instructions of Chinese at the begging stage. We started with letters and phonetic symbols, listening, speaking, reading and writing at the same time. Then, we moved to sentences and passages. No matter L1 or L2, the instructions I received at school could be concluded as rote. However, at this point, there was a difference between L1 and L2 learning as discussed by my classmates before. The social factors and motivations were different. There were hardly any input of L2 except those limited instructions from the L2 classes at school and L2 was almost useless in my life except as a necessity to pass the tests. On the other hand, L1 was spoken by everyone around me and it was an indispensible tool for me to communicate with others.
ReplyDeleteI also find several new differences during my learning experience at Livemocha. First of all, I keep transmitting the syntactical rules of L1 and L2 to the new foreign language, but I did not do this during my L1 acquisition nor did it consciously during L2 acquisition at the beginning stage. Another difference is about the affective considerations. I am more conscious and concerned about the mistakes I made when I am practicing the new language now.
My experience in learning Portuguese through Live Mocha is vastly different from learning English as a baby and young child. First of all, this is a conscious choice. I have decided on the language and put myself in a learning situation. As a young child, I learned English because I was born in an English-speaking home. My motivation came out of a desire to make my needs known to those around me. Without thinking about it, I began speaking. I did not need to sit down at the computer and pull up the flash cards. I learned language through interaction with those around me.
ReplyDeleteIf the theory of a Language Acquisition Device is true, then my brain followed patterns and stages of language acquisition that are shared by all human beings, no matter what their first language is. This time, I am consciously aware of rules of grammar and patterns of pronunciation. I need this awareness to help me learn the language. As a child, the pronunciation and the grammar were acquired without extensive formal training. There was more hypothesis testing and less conscious thought about the rules of the language.
When I was young, the type of vocabulary that I learned arose out of my surroundings and needs. I learned to speak about the things around me and from what others around me were saying. In a language program, such as Live Mocha, the vocabulary has been preselected. Because there is not always a context, it is sometimes difficult to remember.
Lastly, as a child, we are immersed in our home language. It is all around us. Unless we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to live in another country and learn their language, we don’t have the experience of total immersion in a language. Even when we are able to live among native speakers, it is still more difficult to learn the language than when we learned our first language as a child.
I have slowly come to the realization that I am not a good language learner no matter what the conditions are that I'm learning under. I spent 5 years of middle/high school learning French, one year of college learning Italian, and now I'm trying Lithuanian through livemocha.com (I switched from Spanish). From this I think there are some huge differences that I've become aware of. First off, in learning my L1, I had constant support and I was surrounded by it. Children are encouraged to use their skills the best they can and mistakes are not challenged the way they can be in L2 acquisition. Mistakes from children are viewed as a normal progression, and while parents may respond with the correct form as support, in general, those mistakes are not chastised. In my view L1 learing comes from a very nativist approach. The other extremely important aspect is that I was surrounded by English. I heard it from parents, from other family members, friends, etc. I had no choice but to practice my skills.
ReplyDeleteIn learning French as an L2, I atleast moved through the program with the same group of people, and we fostered each other's growth outside of the classroom. The classroom approach was very structured, but in learning with each other, and seeing it as a social aspect as well, it was a more functional/constructivist approach. However since it was still not a demand of the majority of my surroundings, and once I left high school I never used it again, the language is lost to me other than fragments of vocabulary and sentences.
The biggest difference is now being showcased through learning Lithuanian on livemocha. I know absolutely no one who speaks this language, and even though I have some friends in Lithuania from my trip, we only speak through facebook. There is zero demand for me to really learn this language, and the only motivation for me is internal because the next time I go, I want to say more than hello. However, there's only so much of a language you can learn from doing flashcards and regurgitating sentences. Plus it is so completely different to English that I can't formualte a pattern to help me out.
This is Ilana...
ReplyDeleteI learned two languages simultaneously when I was very young. My parents only spoke French to me, but my brothers and sister spoke English at home. My parents told my preschool teacher that I spoke no English. When they came to pick me up, my preschool teacher told them I spoke English fluently. I think learning language has so much to do with modeling, context, motivation, and culture. I very much wanted to communicate with my brothers and sister so my motivation was high. I learned both languages in context and within the culture - my parents taught me their culture and my siblings taught me American culture. All of my family members modeled for me. I went through a silent period in English because I didn't practice it with my family but I was carefully taking in the input.
Now I am trying to learn Spanish. However, my motivation isn't as strong. I don't need it to communicate to my loved ones. I am not immersed in the culture. I am not learning it in context, but in a prescribed way. I am not getting any authentic modeling. I also know that I am the type of learner who learns best in social environments (Vygotsky). I am not an audio learner who can hear words a few times and remember them. I need to be using the words to communicate with peers in authentic ways. I think this can be recreated in a constructivist classroom, but this method is not used in livemocha. Those who are auditory learners, however, may be fine with the more structural approach.
I, like others mentioned, do attempt to transfer knowledge from the languages I know to a new language. I did not consciously do this when learning English and French, but find it very useful now. I have more of a monitor now as well. I don't like to produce output in Spanish because I can hear my own errors in pronunciation and know I'm making grammatical errors. I was not concerned with making such errors as a child. However, if I was in a situation where I needed to communicate in order to express basic needs, I would produce output. So again I think the environment impacts how I learn.
First of all, there are important categories that shape the possible similarities and differences in learning language. In order to find cases of language acquisition, researches draw analogies between age (Child and Adult) and sort of Acquisition (L1 and L2). It is, in one sense, illogical to compare the first language acquisition of a child with the second language learning of an adult (Foster-Coohrn, 2001; Scovel, 1999; Schachter, 1988; Cook, 1973). In general, there are four possible categories, but Brown calls the first category, when an adult learning L1, pathological case of language acquisition o abnormal situation. Logically, it is very rare for an adult (A1) to face learning L1. This way, three possible comparisons are going to be considerable.
ReplyDelete1- L1 and SLA in children ( C1-C2)
2- SLA in children and adults(C2-A2)
3- L1 in children and SLA in adult (C1-A2)
First, various ages of children of all above comparison should be taken in consideration. In addition to children’s ages, we should pay close attention to the cognitive, affective, and physical differences between children and adults. The age path of searching generates some questions about the period when language can be acquired and when can not be or difficult to acquire. Brown addressed clearly as critical period: a biological determined period of life when language can be acquired more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to acquire. Moreover the Critical Period Hypothesis stresses that there is a biological timetable. In general similar strategies and linguistic features are present in both L2 and L2 learning in children. However, researches have found that an adult uses his or her first language to bridge the gaps that he or she can not fill within the second language.
Based on my experience learning second language, the pros of first language interference have helped me to bridge the gaps though produce utterances in L2 that have the same structure and meaning. On the other hand, the cons of L1 interference have been failed me because of the cultural and grammatical differences, but also have been guided me to be aware of differences. For Example, there is no doubt, regarding, according to, in some cases and so on are literary the same in L1 and L2. This statement provides clear evidence about the LAD (language acquisition device) and universal grammar of Chomsky. In addition to that, I have used imitation to learn additional language in order to produce words, phrase and sentences, but, more importantly, understanding the function and the purpose of certain language.
Moreover, the Classic method did not meet my learning style. Therefore, I have been learning English as second language outside the classroom. In other words, I prefer TPR (Total physical Response by moving, looking and so forth) classroom in which the teacher plays a role of directive in orchestrating performance. “The instructor is the director of a stage play in which the students are the actors” (Asheer, 1977, p.43). Krashen and Terrell stresses that learner should be as relax as possible in the classroom, and that a great deal of communication and “ acquisition input “ should take place. In fact, the Natural Approach called for TPR activities in the beginning classes.
Core component in learning L1 presents in the cultural, functional and social matrix under the umbrella of natural approach.
In short, Ellis’s Statement (2002) have captured my thoughts, in the case of second language learning, it appears that contextualized, appropriate, meaningful communication in the second language seems to be the best possible practice the second language learner could engage in. in conclusion, L1 and L2 learning analogies have shaped by internal and external factors and they are different just as human beings different but serve the learning journey.
From my experience, learning my first two languages were much different from learning a new language in high school and now. I grew up speaking English and Greek. When I was little I was in a household that used both languages so I acquired both very naturally. I heard and spoke Greek quite a bit, but used and spoke English much more, especially outside of my house. I went to afternoon Greek school as a child for a few years, and although the alphabet was different I was still was able to acquire and develop the language (especially grammar), in a faster and more natural way than I did when studying French in high school or Portuguese now. Those are two languages I had not heard or associated with until the day I began learning them. Everything was foreign, and the acquisition takes a lot longer. I find myself memorizing clues to remember words and phrases. I also find myself relating these languages to the languages I am most familiar with. If it is not close to English, I try to compare to to the Greek I know. It is definitely not as natural, and I am not in an environment that requires me to use the language 100% of the time. If I was in a situation where I had to use the language in a way to communicate, or I was surrounded by it all the time I am sure my development and learning would increase tremendously. I would be using the language in a more natural environment, as learning my L1, and have the classroom time to develop my L2.
ReplyDeleteI find that there are many differences in learning an L2 in comparison to my L1 of English. The big one is that there is a great deal of interference occuring for me. Too often I try and mkae connections between Czech and English that just aren't possible becasue they are too different.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am aware that there is universal grammar and this is actually distracting. I am constantly trying to make sense of the sentences by translating back into English to try and make a connection.
As for making connections- that's another hard part. This rote instruction online thats designed to be about memorization- doesn't allow me to make cognitive connections and build meanginful schemas that would move the language to my long term memory. As Danielle mentioned above, in language classrooms I have previously been a part of, I did activities, practiced in front of others, used communication a lot, combined computer activities and our teacher brought in native speakers. I didn't stick with French, but it did stay in my long term memory. Nowadays I often hear it and it all comes back to me out of the recesses of my brain. Ausebel's subsumption theory is correct for me- in my mind, I have forgotten many pieces but stored it all away under a smaller conceptual system that takes up less room.
I also n ote a diference between my language learning in the modeling. As Christina mentioned above- livemocha doesn't provide enough of this. In my L1 I obviously had many models to copy which also allowed my to create a natural accent which is no longer possible due to research at my age for my L2 language of Czech. Vygotsky would also note that I don't have the correct social interaction necessary for learning. There is no one for me to practice with or learn more from in Czech.
Finally, there is no pressure or pressing need for me to learn Czech because I can communicate and get needs without it. As a baby, I needed to learn English to become a part of my family and society and get my wants and needs met. My affective filter is low, and I am a person who needs a little stress in order to learn and get things done.
Learning an L2 and learning L1 currently seem like night and day to me. In learning English, it was a natural process that proceeded in a similar pattern to that of other infants learning their mother tongue. As a child, I know I had a lot of input as my parents read stories to me for hours on end, and, my mother who is an educator, knew the importance of hearing her voice speaking English so would spend all her time talking to me about everything. This specific type of input was very contextualized and meaningful for me, not only because it came from my family members, but because it was coming out of necessity. Humnas have a natural tendency to seek out understanding - and the process of language is no different. I naturally learned my mother tongue in order to understand and make sense of the world around me.
ReplyDeleteThe process of L2 is quite different for me. ALthough there is a great amount of input during the course of the language program that I am doing while driving to work everyday, it is an input that is starkly different from the input I received in my L1 acquisiton. THis makes me severely wish that I had made any type of effort to learn Italian while I lived in Italy, because I now realize that the input I would have receivied would have been so much more meaningful than that that I am receiving now. As a result, I am aware that the little output that I am producing from call and response rote drills is not receiving any sort of assessment, evalutation, or response from actual people. Had I learned in Italy, I would have been better able to develop a monitor in ITalian based on the language that I heard around me.
I am noticing that my experience learning an L2 is nothing at all like my experience learning my first language. While I picked up English naturally, like most children, I am finding that Italian is much more challenging. Part of this can be attributed to motivation. As a child, we learn to speak to get our point across and have our basic needs met. But now, I am trying to learn Italian as a hobby; I have no pressing need to learn it, nor do I have immediate plans to enter into Italian culture.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, when I learned English in America, where that is the national language and it is what my entire family speaks, I was surrounded by English constantly. On the other hand, as I learn Italian, my only exposure to the language is during my weekly lesson.
Another major difference in learning L2 from L1 is that I am older and have additional cognitive capacities. I can use what I know about English grammar to try to make sense of Italian grammar, and I can use the words I remember from Spanish to think about comparable words in Italian. I am able to use my knowledge from Spanish verb conjugation to help me when I see the multiple forms of a verb like "stare." I recognize that "Io sto" is similar to "Yo soy" which means I am in both languages. I remember when I was in middle school and my friend took Italian and I took Spanish and she used to always tell me how similar the two languages are. Now, being able to consciously process these similarities is helping me advance in learning a new language.
Finally, in attempting to pick up Italian at age 21, I am well past the critical period for language acquisition. While I understand that it is not impossible to learn a language after puberty, I know that it is far more difficult to ever sound like a native speaker. I also find that I have trouble getting my mouth to form sounds that emulate the online instructor's. Certain sounds that are common in Italian are foreign to me, and I truly believe that my muscles cannot figure out how to make those sounds come out. I do my best to sound out each part of the word, but my accent never sounds nearly as fluid as if I learned Italian as my first language. I think that Lenneberg's Critical Period Hypothesis is so interesting, because I am witnessing first-hand how difficult it is to become proficient in a language after the "critical period."
My experience learning a foreign language has been very different from learning my L1. Learning a foreign language requires conscious thought, conscious effort and conscious practice. Learning your L1 on the other hand, happens unconsciously.
ReplyDeleteLearning your first language is necessary to communicate with others around you. Therefore, it occurs almost with a sense of urgency. The sense of urgency to acquire L1 is not evident in my L2 learning experience. There is no urgent need for me to acquire Spanish. Similarly, during L1 acquisition, a child is constantly being spoken to in their target language. A child is also usually immersed in that language speaking culture. In my current language learning experience, I spend an hour per lesson, but am then speaking English for the remainder of the day.
Age also effects language acquisition. According to the critical period hypothesis, there is a biologically determined period of life when language can be acquired more easily. This lasts till puberty. I think the difference in my experiences have a lot to do with my age. As I am over the age of puberty, it is very hard for me to get a good grasp on my L2. Acquiring your L1 comes with more ease than L2 acquisition.
One aspect that is similar to my L1 acquisition is that both L1 and L2 acquisition involve imitation, input from your parents and peers, discourse and practice.
This is a very interesting question to me because I never thought about how I acquired my first language. If I take a look back to when I was young I remember learning English in several ways. My first thought is in my 4th grade grammar class. I had a teacher that was dedicated to teaching us the structure of the English language. We studied semantics rigorously so that we always knew where certain parts of speech belonged in a sentence. This kind of teaching would fall under the structural method. Not only do I have memories if structural methods, but memories of behavioral approaches. I remember as a child associating the word “sock” with “off”. This is because my mother always said to me over and over again take your shoes and socks off. I hated wearing shoes as a child and still do as an adult, I prefer flip flops. So for me sock-off was a phrase associated with freedom. Yes, I meant that my feet were free of my shoes!
ReplyDeleteAs I am learning a second language my learning process seems more advanced. I am constantly engaging in “transfer” from my L1 to my L2. This is not something that I did in my L1 because I had nothing to compare my L1 with. In some ways utilizing L1 is very helpful when I am practicing things such as structure. But it is also a curse because I want to spend a lot of my time looking up every word I come across which will waste time and focus on valuable lessons. I find that compartmentalizing my L2 studies into very specific grammar points helps me learn. When I compare this to L1 it is very similar. Whenever I had my grammar class as an elementary student we always focused on one grammar function at a time to fully learn it and become an expert before moving on to the next. I need to remember this as I am studying my L2. The basics seem to be the most important part of learning a language. I need to slow down and really become an expert before I move on to the next section.
The greatest difference for me is that I learned the basics of my first language as a child, during the more concrete years of my development. As an adult who enjoys thinking in the abstract, I find it challenging to simplify my thoughts in order to express myself in my second language. I am never able to fully express myself in my second language and this is frustrating. It is very easy to revert back to English when trying to communicate with someone who is bi-lingual hindering my second language learning. Learning my first language was more intrinsic, I needed it for communication. I suppose the frustrations that I feel in not being able to express myself in my second language are similar to those I felt when first trying to communicate in my first, but I can not of course remember those frustrations! Learning my second language I am now able to conceptualize my learning in a way that I never did learning English, even advancing in English as an adult. I suppose the greatest difference is that I think about my learning and the progress I am making now, whereas I never really thought too much about learning English, I always just learned.
ReplyDeleteLearning a foreign language, for me is totally different from when I compare it to learning my first language. I think that one of the biggest differences is that I was able to naturally learn English right when I was born. I was able to socially construct meaning over the years in school, with my friends and family. As we talked about in class, age is another aspect that also plays huge role in second language acquisition. Being 23 years old and having never learned a new language, most of my schema is based around English speaking people.
ReplyDeleteI think that one similarity is imitation. In learning English and Italian I have been able to imitate both languages. However, in doing so, I have automatically used my knowledge of pronunciation in English to help sound out the words in Italian. For example when they say "come" in Italian I hear that word being said as "comb may". I use English words to create Italian sounds. Also the word "come" in Italian means how, but is spelled exactly the same in English, which has a completely different meaning. This can be seen as negative transfer if I start to make those mistakes.
Even though my grammar isn't wonderful in English, my cognitive capacity is more advanced for me to learn Italian.
Overall I think it comes down to timing and what Lenneberg discusses about the critical period one has to truly be proficaint and sound like a native speaker.
Unfortunately I can’t remember how I acquired Chinese. If I remember something, there is means I had acquired some basic Chinese and using that to thinking. So in my mind, I learned my primary language naturally. But I do remember the first time my father taught me how to write Chinese characters. That was my birthday when I was 4 years old. He taught me a Chinese sentence like “Today is my birthday.” And asked me remember how to write it. I couldn’t understand and asked “I can speak, why I need to learning how to write?” That is the time I aware I was learning my first language. But when I went to elementary school and took my English class first time, I knew clearly what I am doing- learning another language. So I think the first difference according my experience is unconscious vs. conscious.
ReplyDeleteAnd second difference is about strategies I used. I could not remember did I use any strategy to learning how to pronounce Chinese or how to understand it. That is because I had acquired the language itself before I learnt the strategies. With I grew up I began to use some strategies help me learning higher level Chinese. Learning first language may need some strategies only when people want to master it. However I knew from the first day I learnt English I was using some strategies. I once used Chinese phonetic alphabets to mark my English textbook. And my students also used English letters to mark Chinese when they learnt Chinese with me. And every time I learnt second language, I used strategies to remember, to understand, to communicate…
For me, learning a foreign language is quite different from learning my L1. Like other people, I acquire my first language unconsciously. I just picked up Chinese naturally as everybody else. I listened and imitated my parents and everybody around. But when I learn foreign languages, English and Japanese, I learn it consciously. I attend classes or make study plans for myself. I am conscious with the concept that I am learning another language now.
ReplyDeleteAnother difference is the language environment. I was born in the Chinese dominant environment, which provides me native pronunciation to imitate every day and authentic social contexts to communicate and practice. I can practice and interact with people every single second of the day. However, as a foreign language learner, the only chance I can get in touch with English or Japanese is the class time. And it is hard for me to find a native speaker to communicate, or an authentic context to practice. It is one of the main factors that make my second language learning slower and harder.
One of the most important factors we should considered in L1 and L2 acquisition is the age. Conscious or not, have or have not cognitive capacity, whether or not builds the underpinnings on the form of grammar all relate to age. And one of the factors of “age problems” is Critical Period. I learn my L1 in critical Period but not when it comes to foreign language (even though I learn English before puberty, in age 11, I did not pay enough attention and the pedagogics was not suit for me). According to the Critical Period Hypothesis, it would be harder for me to gain a native accent after puberty. I must pay much more effort to speak English LIKE a native speaker. But for Chinese, I just imitated and gained the native accent.
Besides, I should also consider the interferences of L1 when I learn foreign language. As I am more efficient and fluent of L1, I am likely to think in L1 and translate in mind between L1 and L2. This some times helps my foreign language learning but sometimes interferences. For example, when I saw a tree I first came up with the Chinese character “tree” and then translate to the English word “tree” when I began learning English. So it will slow down my reaction speed.
There are also similarities between L1 and L2 learning, for example. When I learn Japanese words or characters I have to repeat again and again to remember just as I learn my L1. And I imitate the native pronunciation in both L1 and L2 learning.
There are so many differences between my first language learning and second language learning. Firstly, I learned my first language totally naturally and I did not even realize that I was learning Chinese. But I learned English by purpose. Secondly, the age is different. I started to learn Chines when I was born and started to learn English when I was about 12 years old. I felt difficult to learn English at first. To me, learning English was a very hard job. Thirdly, the learning environment and motivation are different. My first language learning was in context; everyday I was immersed in my mother tone. I learned it because I need to communicate with my families, friends and teachers. I have to learn it. Otherwise I could not live in the society. However, I learned English because I need to pass the examinations and go to the university. I did not need to speak English everyday and there was no one spoke English around me in daily life. Fourthly, when I was learning English I used my first language to learn it. I needed to translate English words into Chinese meaning to memorize them. And teachers in the classrooms were always using Chinese to teach us English. And finally, I learned Chinese very quickly, because I practiced it everyday, and I did not practice English very often.
ReplyDeleteThere are several noticeable differences in my experience of learning Portuguese via Live Mocha vs my experience with my L1. First of all, context was/is major; my L1 was defined and developed in context to the culture I was living in, the people I conversed or was exposed to at the moment. In Live Mocha I am not exposed at all to that experience therefore making the learning process different and slower. Another important aspect to note here is that I do not pretend to use my Portuguese in context in the near future at all thus eliminating or decreasing the motivation I have or had to learn the language.
ReplyDeleteWith the little I can remember about my experience in learning my L1 I can say I was not stressed, worried or concerned about how I said things; language happened naturally and was supported by context. In my journey to learn Portuguese I struggle with pronunciation, structure, and even when repeating words that are being drilled to me. I am conscious about every mistake I make, I am poorly guided and constantly disappointed at the fact that I am learning very little Portuguese.
Ni hao! Buenos diaz, ciao! I love learning languages. I can't say L2 acquisition is as easy as L1, far from it! But will say, I am a socially motivated individual, and love to pick up terms in other languages. I grew up in an era when children were spoken to mostly in directives. Sure, I had chatter with parents, and learned L1 mainly from my mom, my main care taker. But as far as putting language to the world around me out side the house, like most kids in blue collar neighborhoods, it was very limited. My mother had an eighth grade education, and my father grew up with immigrant parents who spoke mainly Croatian and learned English from their kids. I struggled with reading, writing and comprehension language skills in early education, a time when whole language learning was tried. The "Whole language" learning process and limited exposure to language (my mother didn't read stories to us, she would tell us stories), made for a career of education k-12 a long and tedious process. As a mom, I read to my kids since they were very young, in fact, I read to my baby Kyra when she was an infant. All the kids went through school as advanced in language arts.:) I really don't remember my mom practicing sounds with me, to sound out words. I remember just looking at words and not knowing where to start in how to pronounce and read them (it felt awful). I learned Spanish in high school and it was my best subject. Recently learning Chinese, although most of the process I've been to learn Chinese has been through rote learning. For me formal language education as a child, age five was much harder for me now as an adult. This is due to my much advanced cognitive abilities, low affective filter, high motivation, and knowledge of my first language, forms and function, in addition to 50+ years experience with a variety of discourse in my L1. I think I would benefit from classroom instruction in Chinese, and hope to add it to my schedule at some point. Rote practice is one learning strategy which help with the pronunciation. I am deriving some benefit from this practice. As far as the difference in learning experiences for L1 and L2, L1 was for the most part subconscious learning until the age of 6, and any learning experience in an L2 have been consciously learned.
ReplyDeleteThe most obvious difference between learning the first language and the second language is that I was unaware that I was learning when I was picking up my first language. It was just acquiring it. What I learned first is listening and speaking and everybody around me was my instructor. As long as I grow up, the learning of the first language is not focus on only communication, but more focus on how to elaborate the language, how to make the language sounds more beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started to learn a foreign language, no matter English I learned or Spanish I am learning right now, I should put a lot effort in it and remind myself to practice and remember the grammar and vocabulary. And I know why I am learning this language and how can it helps me in the future. I need an instructor who has professional knowledge with the target language in grammar and vocabulary to help me with my foreign language study. The main goal of learning a second language is to communicate and elaboration of this language becomes optional.