Misconceptions About Second Language Essay

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Learning second language has become a trend around the world over these years. In nowadays society, just knowing one language seems not enough for today’s competitive environment. Along with the increasing number of the people who want to learn a second language, teacher’s mission of teaching second language become more and more significant. However, many teachers are holding the misconceptions which might influence the learnings of second language learners. “Myths and Misconceptions about Second Language Learning,” written by Barry Mclaughlin, is an article discussing the misconceptions about second language acquisition. In the article, the author points out five myths of second language acquisition that needs to be broken. Firstly, the article …show more content…

Consequently, teachers should not assume that children are able to learn second language quickly and easily and hence teach them sloppily. “The younger the child, the easier for the child to learn a second language,” is another myth of second language acquisition. The author argues that there is no research which can support this saying. On the contrary there are researches point out that older children are better L2 learners, since older children are more skilled in coping with grammatical analysis and hence can show quicker gains. “Students spend more time in a second language context can learn the language quicker,” is the third myth mentioned in the article. The educators believing in this myth tend to withdraw students home language too soon, increasing students’ exposure to the second language. Nonetheless, some researches indicate that students will not perform better if they spend more time in a second language context; ironically, withdrawing home language support too soon will bring negative impact on students. Teachers should not do so because students still need to familiarize themselves with their home language in order to participate more effectively in

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