COMMUNICATION: SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION CASE STUDY (DOWNLOAD TO SCORE A)

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SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION CASE STUDY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j31Bj-XIFSk According to Scott Thornburg, there is a difference in first language acquisition and second language acquisition (... SLA) because SLA is learned later in life when someone has already mastered their FLA. There are different factors that affect learning SLA such as environment, input, attention, exposure, interaction, correction, motivation, or formal instruction. To explain the SLA the speaker gives example of different cases studies that have been researched in the past. Alberto is the first case study, and his study was conducted in 1978 for a period of 10 months. He lived in New York during the period oh his study. He was a 33-year-old male from Coast Arica. The researcher in this study tracked his use of English, through his daily interactions, however, he did not use constructive English with correct grammar, and because of this, his English never improved. Alberto used negation in his sentences and the researcher concluded that his English did not improve because he lacked acculturation. This is means that he was not assimilated to English speaking community. The reason for this is because all his close associates were Spanish speakers. The speaker suggests that without acculturation it is hard for SLA to take place. Therefore, at end of it all, Alberto’s language pidginized, since he could not effectively communicate in Fluent English at the end of the case study. This case study shows that interaction and exposure play an important role in SLA. If he was more involved in the conversations, he would be able to learn the language and have better conversations in the second language. Therefore, exposure and interaction are great qualities in learning a second language. The case study of Julie is different from Alberto because Julie’s SLA developed so well and within two year and a half year of living in Egypt, she was able to speak fluent Arabic without even going to school. She moved to Egypt from Britain at the age of 21, and the study was done in 1994. He case study dismisses the critical period hypothesis that adults are not able to perfect SLA when they above their teenage age, and this is because, at an adult age, Julie was able to learn Arabic. From this study, it is easy to recognize that there is a difference between Julie and Alberto. It seems as though Julie had motivation to learn the language and she might also have had the advantage of acculturation, where she was naturally assimilated to the language. Therefore, through exposure she was able to learn the language fluently. [Show More]

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