Second Language Acquisition and Tutoring

Introduction of the Second Language Acquisition

There are many theories that explain the acquisition of a second language. At the end of this process the person should be able to use the language in a variety of social contexts: such as personal, social, school, and work. This report will explain the important areas of these studies brie1ly, the factors that in1luence the process, and the possible strategies to tackle the dif1iculties in the learning process. All this to investigate the learner’s and tutor’s contributions to the acquisition of a second language (further abbreviated as SLA).

Beforehand, note the difference between the language acquisition and conscious language learning. Language acquisition meaning non-relevance of error and explicit teaching of rules, with help of native speakers. (Brown and Hanlon, 1970; Brown, Cazden, and Bellugi, 1973) Whereas conscious language learning is taught by error correction and explicit rules. (Krashen and Seliger, 1975). The relationship of these two in adult second language performance is shown in Figure 1. (Krashen, 1981)

Thus before this report can begin explaining the learning process to improve the performance of its users it is useful to introduce the acquired system of the SLA.

Fig. 1. Model for Adult Second Language Performance (Krashen, 1981)

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The system of learning a language proceeds in two different parts as is shown in Figure 2. The pragmatics are the rules that puts language use in social context, meaning that the use of language is more than just grammar and rules, and that the main reason for using language is to communicate. (Mehan 1976) The part that is similar for everybody is called semantics, the linguistic meanings of words and sentences. This consists out of three subsystems: morphology, phonology, and syntax shown in Figure 2. (Fillmore, 1968)

Fig. 2. Language System (Klein, 1986)

This concise information is fundamental when looking at the SLA process. Before you even

begin with the learning process, a person’s ability of learning a language as everything to do with this acquired system. The other part mentioned in Figure 1 is one’s learning system. There are several theories on how second languages are learned. But this report will not focus on the difference between these theories. Rather it will look at the learning process of every learner.

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Learning Process

Looking at the order of the process when acquiring a second language can be explained by the following stages. (Ellis, 1997) The length of time spend in these stages differentiate very much between learners.

1. Preproduction: in this silent period a person would become familiar