Barry McLaughlin’s article "Myths and Misconceptions About Second Language Learning: What Every Teacher Needs to Unlearn" presents the misconceptions people often have when it comes to children’s second language acqusition (SLA). Many people hold the concept “the younger you are, the faster you are able to acquire a language;” however, this is a misleading widespreaded concept that is often applied when acquiring a second language. Therefore, this article not only aims to overthrow these misconceptions but also provides some implications teachers should keep in mind when teaching children their second language. Other than the author’s own findings, I would like to enhance his statements through my own personal language teaching experience. McLaughlin’s article argues with the concept that age and environment are important to acquiring a second language, and
But I have always wondered why is that? Can’t adults also learn foreign languages? Here the answer is “Yes, they can.”, but it is harder for them due to a few factors, which they should overcome if they want to easily reach their goal. Nowadays, children are being exposed to and start learning languages from the kindergarten and then continue in the school. There are some factors for these children to start learning
While the time was elapsed the focus was on grammatical description, and drilling methods, modern methods reflect real communication in the classroom, help students understand spoken and written language, and participate in conversations better than prior methods. The primary goal of modern methodology is the decrease students’ anxiety. David Wilkins gave a summary of the importance of vocabulary for language learning: “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” The echoing of this point of view is in the advice to students from a recent course book (Dellar H and Hocking D, Innovation, LTP): “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very much. You will see most
Anxiety is probably a number one problem among learners of L2. It follows that it is “a major obstacle to be overcome in learning to speak another language” (Horwitz et al., 1986: 125). In fact, the problem of how to overcome learners’ anxiety has always been encountered by teachers of English, for whom teaching to speak the target language may be an exceptionally demanding activity. Tsui (1996), for instance, emphasizes that a vast majority of teachers of English admit to face dilemmas of encouraging learners to speak in the classroom. Hopefully, it would not be too far-reaching an assumption that both teaching to speak L2 and learners’ speaking anxiety should be enhanced somehow to encourage learners to speak L2 in the classroom.
Encountering the metalanguage of grammar guides the language instructors to: understand sentence structure, understand learning-resources like quizzes, E-books, tools, tests, understand learners needs and grammar deficiencies, understand own insufficiency. The metalanguage of grammar is inevitable for trainers of any foreign language for creating a symbiotic relationship between teacher and learner. Without acknowledging the importance of the metalanguage of grammar educators might drift to a teacher-centered, audio-lingualism approach, and generate an empathy and monotony in their grammar
They also motivate the students' performance in the language; so in this case, teaching is geared largely to tests. Hughes (1996) mentioned that if a test is regarded important, preparation for it should dominate all teaching and learning activities. Otherwise, the test content and testing techniques will be at variance with objectives of the course, which will result harmful washback. Davies (1990) also mentioned that tests have great influence on teaching, which is known as washback or backwash effect, and this strong influence is usually negative. For example, for university study in one of the English speaking countries, the students should have a good command of language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) in order to be able to understand the lectures in the classroom, take notes, attend classroom discussion, and read and comprehend the texts.
Is that sounds right or wrong to you? The student will focus on his/her speech trying to find out the wrong part to correct it. Self-Correction: (By student) Teachers have to encourage self-correction as much as possible that 's help the students to correct themselves that 's what 's lead them depend on themselves more than depending on others or on teacher and gives them the confidence to face the world and practice language without feeling fear of other 's judgments. Peer correction: (By students) Students can work together to correct mistakes, teachers are the monitors and they just encourage
This means that fewer assessments can be gathered so if they are not carefully devised fewer learning goals will be assessed at which can reduce content validity. A research done by (Chan, Y. F., & Gurnam, K. S, 2010) on portfolio assessment, some students commented it was a sheer waste of time whilst others stressed they did not know what to write as they were most of the time repeating the same thing. Another weakness of performance assessment is hard to assess reliability, which can lead to inaccuracy and unfair evaluation. Also, the teachers’ knowledge and expertise in a subject matter is vital and may influence negatively upon the students’ learning. Are the teachers experienced and trained enough to adequately apply authentic performance assessment with their students?
b) Introducing types of corrective feedback There are different types of corrective feedback which are being used for EFL learners’ efficiency (Types of corrective feedback). Explicit Correction: Here, the professor will clearly indicate the mistake of students’ utterance and provide feedback with corrective form (R.Ferris, 2001) (carla.umn.edu). Recasts: As it is difficult to learn and write the second language, the professor will not explicitly tell the mistake, rather they correct students by actually reformulating the sentence in an indirect way (Ellis). Clarification request: The professor will give a sign for repeating the sentence in correct form by using paraphrase like Excuse Me!!? Or Come Again or I don’t
Students should be encouraged to speak in English regardless of the mistakes they make as Baker and Westrup (2000) opine that students learn when they make mistakes and correct each other’s mistakes (pg. 80). The next skill is reading. Its aim is to understand and absorb the writer’s purpose. Meaningful tasks should be set in order to give the students a need to read (Watkins, 2007).