Freeman and Freeman Homework.

Discuss the difference between learning and acquisition discussed in the reading. Has this been true to your experience? Explain.

Krashen has came up the hypothesis that there were two ways to develop a second language, learning and acquisition. The purpose of both methods are mastering the language but the path are different. Learning focuses more on the language itself while acquisition focus more on the purpose of using the language.

As a reader, a student who learn would try to understand the meaning of each word in order to understand sentences. Teachers guide those students by helping them identify words and providing some vocabularies teachers think students might not know. However, for students who acquire a second language, they pick up new words as they read. When they encounter a new word during reading, they use their background knowledge to predict the meaning of those words and confirm or disconfirm their predictions as they read along. The more the acquiring reader interested in the text, the easier the text would be for the reader to understand. When I was in China, English teachers always assigned some reading homework. In order to improve my English skill, I looked up those words I didn’t know and copied them into a notebook in order to memorize them. The whole reading process was suffering not only because those texts were boring but also because it took me really long to finish those readings. However, when I was studying in America during my junior and senior year, I have enjoyed some English reading process. I joined Science Society Club, in which we self-studied oceanography and have competition with other schools once a year. I bought a oceanography textbook and self-studied it. Even though there were lots of unfamiliar vocabularies, those reading was not as hard as I expected because I knew a lots of concepts in my first language, so I could figure out lots of the meaning of unknown words as I read alone. Besides, I could read the book much faster than other books especially when I got excited about the content. Therefore, acquire the second language as one read make the reading process such easier.

The differences between learning and acquisition not only emerge in reading but in writing. For learning students, they try to build up a well organized text from mastering the usage of words to combining the words properly to a sentence to organizing the sentences to a paragraph and finally managing those paragraphs to a text. However, acquiring writers focus more on the idea they try to express rather than the way they express the idea. They acquire ideas as well as the style of writing from their reading and let these ideas and writing styles flow out of their mind naturally. They develop their writing skills as they acquire those skills to express themselves. When I was in taking ESL in my high school, the teacher taught me how to write an analytical essay as we read novels. She taught us how to write our first analytical essay sentence by sentence and gave us around a month to write the essay since she gave us suggestions about each sentence to make sure we understood the structure of the essay she required. The whole process was painful but really helpful since we did not have to worry too much about the structure of the essay so as to focus more on the content once we were familiar with the structure. I have also tried the the acquiring way of writing during this summer by keeping diary. Nobody forced me to write it in a certain way so I didn’t even care about the correctness of my grammar. Besides, I read “Harry Potter” series, which were really interesting to read. I could feel it got easier to express my thought as I did the reading and writing through the summer.

I prefer acquire the second language because it saves time. People can acquire a language at anytime and anywhere while they only can learn in limited situation.  By using acquisition, students can get more benefits other than  a proficient English skill. For example, during my junior high school year in America, I took part in many different clubs, went to parties, played sports with teams. Everything I did helped me to improved my English skill. At the same time, I learnt about American culture, made lots of friends and most importantly, I had so much fun. Language is only a way to express one’s thought but not the chain to limit ideas. Therefore, its better to take the easier path and use our subconscious to master the language.  




 

• Written language contains a different kind of vocabulary and different grammatical structures than oral language.
• Insights from linguistics suggest that both written and second languages can be acquired rather than learned.

Two Views of Reading

• Word recognition view:

1. written language must be learned
2. the main task during reading is to identify words
3. readers combine the meaning of individual words to make sense of what they read

• Sociopsycholinguistic view:

1. the ability to written language is to some degree innate and can be acquired
2. reading is a process of constructing meaning
3. more interesting--- more proficient

Goal: Word Recognition

• recording: reader change written language into oral language--- sometimes without getting the meaning
• decoding: involves getting at the meaning

Goal: Sociopsycholinguistic

• sampling the text--- predicting what will come next--- filling in unstated information by inferring--- confirming or disconfirming their predictions--- integrating the new information with what they already know
• every text has a certain meaning potential, but different readers construct different meanings depending on their background knowledge and their purpose for reading.

Method: Word Recognition:

• learning phonics rules: remember the pronunciation--- not useful for complex words
• long words--- breaking them down into their component parts

Method: Sociopsycholinguistics

• graphophonic system: using the pronunciation to help remembering words

Class Practices: Word Recognition

• give students the word that the teacher thinks students might not know

Class Practices: Sociopsycholinguistics

• extensive reading---seeing the words several times in different contests, students can figure out how to use the word

Two Views of Writing

• Learning: must be taught directly
• acquisition:

1. The reading provides the input needed for written output
2. the content of the message is more important than the form--- Language is only the way to describe one’s thought but not the chain to lock one’s thought.

Goals and Methods: Learning View

• teaching each part of the language

Goals and Methods: Acquisition View

• enable students to use language for a variety for a variety of purposes--- acquire it as you use it

Krashen’s five hypothesis

1. The Learning/ Acquisition Hypothesis

• Learning: conscious---we are aware we are learning
• Acquisition: subconscious

2. The Natural Order Hypothesis

3. The Monitor Hypothesis

• Sounds right
• in order for monitor use to be effective, one must have time, must focus on language form and must know the grammar
• check the grammar while one is speaking or writing--- don’t monitor the grammar while one is drafting, because the focus on form may interrupt the flow of their ideas

4. The input hypothesis

• input +1--- ex. read books a little above one’s reading level

5. The affective Filter Hypothesis

• boredom and anxiety are affective factors that can serve as a kind of filter to block out incoming messages and present them from reaching the language acquisition device