What is language? Role of transfer and input in language acquisition, role of instruction, individual difference, SLA, evidence-based approach to language teaching.

There might be some evidence to support the view that individuals before puberty tend to learn a language faster and more efficiently than other individuals who are in their post puberty period. However, there is also evidence that show that there is no such a thing as a critical period. Children acquiring a second language engage in activities and behaviours conducive to acquisition. The answer might be that, in some cases, the mechanisms for language acquisition used by children might not work as well for adolescents and adults. However, it could also be true that there are certain environmental and social factors that have an effect on language acquisition. Would time spent on the acquisition of a language be a major factor? Would the type of exposure to the second language be a key factor? Adults and adolescents might not be exposed to the same amount of time and type of exposure to language input as children learning a second language. As we explore some of the key terms and aspect of language acquisition and language teaching, the answer to these questions will become more explicit. Meanwhile, the main points to keep in mind are: • There might be a critical period for learning a language after which is more complex to learn a second language. However, there is a view that only some elements of the language can be affected. • There might be no such a thing as a critical period as we should consider certain environmental and social factors as responsible for a difference learning experience between children, adolescents and adults. • In examining the findings investigating the role of a critical period in language acquisition, we must conclude that conflicting results and other views have undermined the original claim that a critical period exists in second language acquisition. The critical period hypothesis fails to account for the numerous adult learners who appear to have achieved native-like proficiency • Adults achieving native-like proficiency is certainly a possibility

• Communication cannot be equated with questions and answers (Q/A) practice. • Communication can be defined as the expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning in a given context for a specific purpose. • Interaction fosters acquisition when a communication problem arises and L2 learners are engaged in resolving it through interaction and negotiation of meaning. • Tasks promote acquisition and provide a purpose for language use. A communicative interactive task is a learning endeavor that requires L2 learners to comprehend, negotiate, manipulate and produce the target language as they need to perform some set of work-plans. • Interactive tasks are a good example of communication tasks and should substitute traditional oral practice.

The main question is not whether or not language instructors should correct errors, but how corrective feedback should be provided. Corrective feedback might play a facilitative role in language learning if learner’s attention can be drawn on the properties of the language in the through exposure to input. A key objective in corrective feedback is that it should generate the possibility for L2 learners to self-repair and some form of uptake.

• Second language acquisition is largely implicit in nature as it involves implicit learning. However, this does not mean that L2 learners, especially adults, do not attempt to engage explicit learning in some way. • Language competence is difference than language performance. Competence is the implicit and abstract knowledge of a language possessed by native speakers. It is implicit because we are unaware of this knowledge and are unable to articulate its contents. It is abstract because it does not consist of rules such as “verbs must agree with their subjects” but of other syntactic operations that yield sentences that can be described as having verbs that agree with their subjects. Performance instead, refers to how people use language in concrete situations. • L2 learners come to know much more than what they were taught, practiced, or even exposed to. The conclusion of many scholars is that this knowledge is the result of the interaction of universal principles with data from the environment; that is, input. Because internal mechanisms operate outside of awareness, only implicit learning can be involved. • Any aspects of language that are the result of the interaction of innate and universal principles that govern language with the input data are acquired via implicit learning.

A clear distinction needs to be made between mental representation and skill in language development. Language is an implicit, abstract and complex system and language development is input and input processing dependent. Second language acquisition is constrained by certain orders and stages. Instruction might help L2 learners to develop a good level of attainment particularly if opportunities to natural exposure are given. Instruction might have a facilitative role in helping L2 learners to pay selective attention to form and form-meaning connections in the input. Although, the route of acquisition cannot be altered, instruction might in certain conditions speed up the rate of acquisition. What are the conditions that might facilitate the speed in which languages are learned? A first condition is that L2 learners must be exposed to sufficient input. A second 37 condition is that L2 learners must be developmentally ready for instruction to be effective. A third condition is that instruction must take into consideration how L2 learners process input. Traditional grammar instruction is not an appropriate way to provide L2 learners with a focus on form component in language teaching. Paradigmatic explanation of a specific linguistic form followed by mechanical drill practice is not an effective way to focus on form in the language classroom. However, there are types of ‘focus on form’ pedagogical interventions to grammar instruction that can in certain cases and conditions enhance and speed up the way languages are learned and are an effective way to incorporate grammar in language teaching. If we are going to focus on form in any way in the classroom, it ought to be input based and meaning oriented. This idea falls out of what we know about the nature of acquisition. In order to develop effective focus on form, language instructors should ensure that input is manipulated so to facilitate language processing and acquisition. L2 learners should also be encouraged to make accurate form-meaning mappings. Language instructors must ensure they foster the development of language in L2 leaners and not simply aiming at fostering in L2 learners a learning-like behaviour. Language instructors must use pedagogical interventions that facilitates language processing, and the development of implicit knowledge.

• Input matters in second language acquisition as it plays an essential role • Input should be central to the classroom, not something added on • Input must be simplified, comprehensible, and level-appropriate • Input must be message-oriented • Instructors should use linguistics and non-linguistics means to make input comprehensible and meaningful • Input is both necessary and sufficient ingredient in second language acquisition

Considering that language is complex, implicit and abstract, language instruction should not consist of explanation of rules and mechanical practice. Traditional instruction might help to develop a language-like behavior (skill) but it not responsible for language development (mental representation of language).

• Language instructors and L2 learners should interact with each other in a language task. The role of the instructor is the one who designs the task and encourages participation and contribution from L2 learners. Learners’ role is to share responsibility in interaction and task completion. By providing a series of tasks to complete we encourage learners to take responsibility for generating the information themselves rather than just receiving it; • Language instructors should reduce their speaking time in class and increase learner’s speaking time; • Language instructors should ask eliciting questions in order to prompt L2 learners to interact with NS and NNS; • Language instructors should give learners positive feedback. They should indicate positive signs when interacting; • Language instructors should provide L2 learners with a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place.

Teachers keep teaching and worrying about rules that have no psychological validity. Language learners keep practicing rules that have no psychological validity. Methods are twisted to fit the teaching of rules and patterns. Teachers have nothing to replace their notions of rules and patterns as they assume that any new approach for teaching language is simply a different way to teach the same thing. Mental representation does not consist of rules. What every speaker/knower of language creates in the mind/brain, is a complex, abstract and implicit representation of language. What we observe as “language” is the result of a complex interaction of principles, constraints, and interfaces that yield utterances.

Developing writing is a key component in developing learners’ ability to communicate in a second language. A composing-oriented approach challenges the way written tasks are practiced in a traditional approach. Likewise, in the listening and reading tasks proposed in previous chapters, a similar step-by step approach (is proposed for developing learners’ writing skills.

• Linguistic competence is a necessary requirement for somebody who wants to speak in another language. However, communicative competence is also necessary to be able to communicate competently in a second language. Communicative competence comprises the knowledge of the grammatical system of a L2 as well as the knowledge of the social and cultural contexts. Communicative language competence is made up of various components. Although it appears that language ability is divided into hierarchical components of language knowledge, these components all interact with each other and with features of the language use situation. It is the interaction between knowledge and language use in context that characterises communicative language use. Language competence involves two components: language knowledge and strategic competence. • Language tests need to be thoroughly evaluated before they are used. When you develop a language test the most important consideration is the use for which the test is intended, so its most important quality is its usefulness. Test usefulness includes two main qualities: Reliability; and Validity.

The Grammar Translation Method focuses on developing the ability for L2 learners to read a text in another language and to translate that text from one language into another. The Direct Method focuses on providing L2 learners with the opportunity to use the target language to express meaning. The Audio-Lingual Method makes use of memorization and mechanical and pattern drills practice to develop L2 learners’ language skills. The Total Physical Response Method focuses on developing practices that improves first L2 learners’ ability in listening and reading before speaking and writing skills. The Natural Approach argues that L2 learners should be exposed to comprehensible and message-oriented input, and that language teaching should not be built around grammatical or vocabulary units but instead themes or topics. The Communicative Language Teaching Approach represents a philosophy of teaching that is based on communicative language use. It emphasizes notional-functional concepts and communicative competence, rather than grammatical structures, as central to language teaching. The Content and Language Integrated Learning is an approach in language education designed to provide L2 learners instruction in content and language. Task-Based Language Teaching focuses on asking students to undertake meaningful tasks using the target language.

We should emphasise that today, regardless of distinction we can make between learning vs. acquisition, we accept that L2 learners develop an implicit mental representation of language. At the same time, it is accepted that L2 learners might also develop explicit learned knowledge. There is no evidence to demonstrate the learned system turn into the acquired system.

• Overall, L1 and L2 acquisition, to a certain extent, share the same processes and mechanisms for the development of an internal language system. • The difference context of L1 and L2 acquisition plays an important role in the acquisition process. While it is possible to learn an L2 in various contexts, L1 acquisition takes place only in a natural context and in the social group the child is growing up and where the child gets L1 input only. • Difference between L1 and L2 can be attributed to external factors (e.g. quality and quantity of input) and not internal processes.

Motivation is one of a number of what researchers call individual differences (traits that vary across individuals). Motivation to learn another language is, simply conceived, the degree and type of “wanting to learn” and has been shown to correlate significantly with how far learners get (e.g., how much language they acquire, the skills they develop with the language).

While we accept that input is indispensable for acquisition, output might have a facilitative role. Output, as part of interaction, may enhance acquisition.. However, the research has yet to convincingly demonstrate that output and interaction assist in the development of formal features of the language related to syntax and there is no evidence that it plays any significant role in the properties of language governed by Universal Grammar. There is evidence that interaction may facilitate the acquisition of lexical items (words) and their meanings, and there is also evidence that it may promote acquisition of certain transparent surface features of language such as certain verb and noun inflections.

The role of the instructor and the language learners has changed over the years as the centre of attention is now the learner and the internal mechanisms and processes involved in the acquisition of the second language.

• Working memory is a psychological construct that refers to the processing space in the mind/brain when a person computes information. • Working memory is an essential element (although it has a limited capacity in humans) in developing our ability to process linguistic data. It does play a central role in language processing for its role (ability to process symbols, store capacity and integrate information) in both comprehension and production of language.

In this epilogue we briefly discuss the role that second language acquisition theory and research might and should play in creating such opportunities.