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FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION BY THE ADULT LEARNER

ADRIANE DUTRA. FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION BY THE ADULT LEARNER. WHY TALK ABOUT SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION?.

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FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION BY THE ADULT LEARNER

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  1. ADRIANE DUTRA FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION BY THE ADULT LEARNER

  2. WHY TALK ABOUT SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION? The British council estimates that over 1 billion people are at the present moment learning English language alone worldwide. This number is quadrupled if learners of Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese is added. It is estimated that ¾ of these learners are adults. It is an ever growing necessity/market. Most approaches applied to the teaching and learning of a second language were based on the principles of pedagogy, which, in many aspects, do not relate to the characteristics of the adult learner. 1

  3. IMPORTANT POINTS • Wilder Penfield and Lamar Roberts started the discussion about the theory of superiority of children over adults in regards to second-language acquisition. They launched the today wide known popular belief that there is a time in our lives in which second language acquisition would be favored. Such moment would start in early childhood and terminate with the end of adolescence. • However, children do not demonstrate such dexterity when learning their first language. Much on the contrary, besides all encouragement, persuasion for the part children’s surroundings and extreme necessity, for they long to speak and so communicate with the world around them, their learning is an laborious process, takes both time and a lot of practice. • When it comes to the acquisition of their second language, it is believed that they do it a lot faster than adults under apparently the same circumstances. But are they indeed under the very same circumstances? 2

  4. There are only two settings in which an individual ( child, teenager or adult) learn a second language: They are either away from the language context, which makes them foreign language learners, or inserted in the foreign language setting, and that makes them second language learners. Starting from the assumption that data for the research about the difference in which adult learners and children acquire a second language was taken from those individuals inserted in the language context, immigrants, even if temporarily, it would be erroneous to affirm that both parts were provided with the very same chances of learning. As children go to school, receive a minimum of 7 hours of ‘formal’ teaching, not to mention stimulus from long hours of exposure to their peers, usually English speakers, and with whom they need and long to communicate. Again, and because of school, immigrant children spend less time with those who speak their language and consequently are less vulnerable to maintain contact with spoken and written forms of their native tongue. Adults, who immigrate, tend to maintain their social circle with those from the same background, and consequently the proficiency of the new language becomes even more difficult. Therefore, it is indeed a mistake to conjecture that given the same circumstances, young learners do better than adults in this field – they are hardly given the same learning opportunities when it comes to learning a second language inserted in the language context. 3

  5. IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS: • The greater majority of adults , teenagers and children, attempting to acquire a second language are not inserted in the language context, but learners living in their very own native environment. • These learners long to become skilled at another language for reasons that vary from professional need, to personal fulfillment, social pressure, desire to travel and so on. Under such circumstances, without the need to communicate with peers and without long hours of exposure to language, would children still demonstrate more dexterity when learning a second language over adult learners? What would be a child motivation to study a second language in this condition? Possibly not an intrinsic one. • Therefore, one can deduce that any type of assertion about the superiority of young learners over mature ones in second language acquisition is a possible variation of the Critical Period proposed by the linguistic Eric Lenneberg, who alleges that “the first few years of life constitute the time during which language develops readily and after which (sometime between age 5 and puberty) language acquisition is much more difficult and ultimately less successful.” 4

  6. LEARNING A LANGUAGE AWAY FROM LANGUAGE CONTEXT – WHAT GIVES THE ADULT LEARNER A BETTER CHANCE OF SUCCESS OVER YOUNG STUDENTS? • ADULT LEARNERS ARE INTRINSICALY MOTIVATED, AND EVEN WHEN EXTRINSICALLY MOTIVATED, THEY ARE GOAL ORIENTED; • THEY GUIDE THEIR LEARNING/ SEARCH FOR IT; • THE KNOWLEDGE ONE HAS ABOUT HIS/HER OWN NATIVE LANGUAGE ONLY CONTRIBUTES TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING ANOTHER ONE; • CAPACITY TO DEVELOP LEARNING FROM MOST ABSTRACT EXPERIENCES. 5

  7. Walsh and Diller proposed that adult learners do seem to acquire a second language in a distinct way children do. They argue that the more mature the adult learner , the stronger the learning potential over younger   learners, "in important respects adults have superior language learning capabilities.“ According to such research , the more understanding and knowledge a learner has about his/her own language, the easier it will be to acquire a second one. That theory corroborates with another popular belief that after the acquisition of the first second language, it becomes less difficult to acquire others. If that is true then the adult learner, who do most likely possess a clearer understanding of linguistic aspects such as grammar and semantics, usually improved with time, can benefit from a more accurate and sensitive development of new language structures. So, the knowledge one has about his/her own native language only contributes to the development of learning another. If one allies to that adults’ innate ability (Malcolm Knowles’ theory) to self- direct their learning process, mature learners might indeed have a higher chance of success when attempting to acquire a second language if compared to young learners, if under the same conditions. 6

  8. IMPORTANT COSIDERATIONS: • Records demonstrate that, in the year 2.000 there were approximately 750 million English as Foreign Language speakers, people who utilize English occasionally for commerce or enjoyment, against 375 million English as Second Language speakers, who use the language on a daily basis. • Most theories about language acquisition, especially the ones tending to advocate around the advantage of young learners over mature ones are based on learners who experience language immersion (immigrants mostly), and from that point, supposedly given the same opportunities to learn. However, the great majority of foreign language learners are not inserted in the language context as data shows. 7

  9. WHY SOME LEARNERS ACQUIRE A SECOND LANGUAGE WITH MORE DEXTERITY THAN OTHERS? Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory would explain such phenomenon by implying that “the Linguistic Intelligence involves sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively use language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically; and language as a means to remember information.” It would be more accurate to infer that learning a foreign language will be more difficult or easier depending basically on individuals’ intelligence predisposition to such practice, and not to the period in life in which one starts learning it. 8

  10. FINAL THOUGHTS: The conclusion to this paper is that as far as foreign language acquisition is concerned there is neither a critical period nor any kind of organic constraint or willingness to language learning particular to an age or a period in life, nor there is any method of learning that leads adult language students to function in a different way children and teenagers do when they are performing the same action. What evidence reveals is that there is a number of idiosyncrasies related to each and every learner which possibly affect and effect the process of language acquisition in the same way they would in the process of learning to play a musical instrument, or to paint a picture. Mature students, in some aspects, do seem to have unquestionable advantages, but in other aspects, they seem as well to have disadvantages. These peculiarities become visible as a result of many variables that surface with age, personality and background - they include the extent of what one knows, approaches students make use of to progress, and how eager one is to attempt, make mistakes and feel embarrassed but continue focused on his/her objectives. 9

  11. REFERENCES # Merriam & Caffarella (2002). Learning in Adulthood. 2nd Edition  # Wolf, M. (2005). Adulthood. 4th Edition  #Simonson, M., Samldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S., (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance. Foundations of Distance Education. 4th Edition.  # Cervero, Courtenay, Merriam (2006). Global Issues in Adult Education. 1st Edition.  # Swain, M., Cummins, J., Allen, P., Harley, B. (1996). The Development of Second Language Proficiency. 4th Edition.  # British Council www site: http://www.britishcouncil.org/new/ 10

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