Psycholinguistics and Second Language Acquisition - Term Paper Example

Psycholinguistics and Second language acquisition: My English-learning experiences: Introduction: I live in Hong Kong. My first language is Chinese. And I have been learning English as a second language since Kindergarten. My journey of learning English language started from basic A, B, C which I was taught in the Kindergarten. Nowadays, a lot of emphasis is placed on learning English as a second language in the schools in Hong Kong. Teachers mostly deliver their lectures in English, and the students are also encouraged to communicate with one another in English. The teachers adopt a certain methodology to teach English. They start it through making the students learn English grammar. We are asked to memorize the three forms of verb, and I think the technique really works. I studied in an EMI (English School) in Hong Kong when I was in the primary. Later, I immigrated to Canada when I was 14 years old. When I went there, I had to study in an “English as a Secondary Language” (ESL) class. Since English was not my first language, I found it quite tough. I was not taught English grammar in Canada. Therefore, I only know English grammar as much as I was taught till my primary. I think my grammar is quite weak because I passed a lot of time in Canada where I did not learn any grammar. I came back to Hong Kong at the age of 23 and started teaching English. I have expressed and shared my English learning experiences in this paper which explain the role of various psychological factors that have influenced my learning. “Psycholinguistics is, as its name implies, basically concerned with language as a psychological phenomenon, and most characteristically, with language in the individual”. (Garman, 1990). Motivation: English is known as an International language in the present age. Internationally, all communication is majorly carried out in English. There are a lot of opportunities in the rapidly developing modern world but our access to them is limited merely because of a lack of knowledge of the International language. “Learning a new language and culture increases the size of your selection pool.” (Sauve cited in Ager, 2010). I always used to think that I would go abroad to gain higher education. But, it becomes very difficult to study in a foreign country without knowing how to speak, write, read and understand English. Realization of this fact inculcated an extrinsic / instrumental motivation in me and I thought I had better learn English in order to play good in my practical life. This was where my journey of learning English language actually commenced. Before I started to study English language, I always used to think of it as just another language. I thought it would be quite similar to Chinese, and I would just have to learn the English vocabulary so that I would incorporate English words in sentences constructed with Chinese grammar. I thought that would serve the purpose and I would start speaking English. But when I did this practice, I ended up getting nowhere. The language that resulted was neither Chinese nor English. It was instead, a combination of both. Then I realized that learning English as a second language is not an easy job and that I needed to take proper English lessons in order to enhance my knowledge and skills in spoken English. That is why language is taught as a whole subject in various schools. The following text explains all that I experienced so far in the course of learning English as a second language. Relationship between age and learning: I believe that age is directly related with an individual’s learning ability. Our likes and dislikes and our preferences keep changing as we grow up. If I analyze my course of learning English language, I can conclude that the English I know today is largely based on the concepts I had developed before teenage. I think the teachers in my schools in Hong Kong contributed a lot toward the development of the fundamental sense and understanding of English language in me, though I was too small to fully understand the complexities of the language and grammar at that time. Although I personally tried to revive my learning of English grammar by self-reading English grammar books in Canada, but I could really not make it. Perhaps, it so happened because there were a lot of distractions or may be, I thought I was too mature to study the basic concepts of English grammar in the late years of teenage. One’s learning is influenced a lot by the level of importance one assigns to the process of learning. Also, I felt a significant difference in the amount of zeal and spirit I used to have for learning English between my academic career in Hong Kong and that in Canada. I was quite good at learning new concepts in the former than in the latter because of my increased mental efficiency in the former. Besides, books in lower classes are quite colorful and the teachers are quite expressive and friendly in nature. These factors combine to develop such a system of education that conforms to the psychology of a child and manage to enhance the child’s participation and learning. On the contrary, in the later years, the educational system matures and assumes that students understand the importance of education which makes it quite dull and students start losing interest in studies. That is one reason why I could not manage to learn much of English language during my education in Canada. (Mechelle, cited in BBC, 2004) argued that young learners are more fluent than old learners. Old learners do not have the capacity required to develop the knowledge of a new language. Influence of Educational system on learning: The drastic change in the system of education when I shifted from Hong Kong to Canada had a lot of impact on my learning of English language. The suitability of educational system to an individual’s nature and psychology varies from person to person. Likewise, the style of teaching a second language differs from country to country. I feel that the system of education employed in schools in Hong Kong that focuses upon teaching the concepts of grammar is better for students interested in learning English language than that in Hong Kong which emphasizes the development of fluency. Fluency comes with practice and that requires the development of correct concepts. This cannot be achieved unless one gains a sound fundamental understanding of the concepts of grammar and a hold over its complexities. Once one gets to learn the correct grammar, one’s fluency is automatically enhanced significantly. The brain knows how to structure the sentence and accordingly, one knows how to convey one’s meaning. But grammar alone is not sufficient to enhance the fluency of an individual unless he is equipped with sufficient knowledge of English vocabulary. Although, my education in Canada played a very important role in the development of my knowledge of English vocabulary, yet I believe learning vocabulary depends largely on an individual’s personal commitment and devotion to learning, and can be achieved simply by reading books. However, grammar is tougher to learn and it is difficult to learn grammar without a formal education in the same. Had I been taught English grammar in Canada, it would have continued my learning process in the same style as that which commenced in Hong Kong and my English would have been much better today. Dealing with English accent: When I went to Canada at the age of 14, I experienced a lot of difficulty in understanding the English in Canadian accent. I was not used to it. Also, I had to rely upon the knowledge of grammar I had gained till primary in Hong Kong. In my schools in Hong Kong, my teachers spoke English in the native accent of Hong Kong. So I was not quite familiar with the English accent and because of that, the way Canadians spoke English was new to me. I could not quite catch what they said and because of that, I lacked in sociolinguistic competence. A lack of sufficient English vocabulary further aggravated the situation. I believe two people cannot interact unless both are on the same level of competence. Therefore, whenever I had to socialize with my Canadian friends, I would make use of compensatory strategies in order to convey my meaning to my friends. Pragmatic competence is enhanced by an individual’s natural ability and spirit to convey his meaning in an alternate way if he is not familiar with the right words that should be used. This may happen because of a lack of sufficient vocabulary. Besides, pragmatic competence is also influenced by an individual’s genes, and is a function of the individual’s mental quickness and efficiency. I am genetically blessed with a high pragmatic competence and it has benefited me a lot. However, I believe pragmatic competence can be enhanced through practice and determination. The use of alternate phrases in place of words unknown to me served to increase my vocabulary because every time I attempted to do it, my friends would tell me the right word I needed at that moment. Learning strategies: “Language learning strategies are the often-conscious steps or behaviors used by language learners to enhance the acquisition, storage, retention, recall, and use of new information”. (Rigney, 1978; Oxford, 1990 cited in Rebecca, 2000). Learning a second language is a function of the combination of an individual’s psychology, genes and behavior. The psychological methodology an individual adopts to interpret what he listens plays a big role in developing a fundamental understanding of the language in the individual. And this psychological methodology is governed by the individual’s genes. Likewise, in the initial periods of my English language learning, I used to interpret meaning of an English sentence in Chinese to understand it. I believe that every person who is involved in the process of learning a second language develops certain strategies to assist him in his learning, though he may do it intentionally or unintentionally. This practice facilitates the development of concepts of the second language in the learner. In order to enhance my own learning and understanding of English in Canadian accent, I made use of certain metacognitive strategies for not only managing and memorizing English vocabulary but also filling in the gaps in my knowledge of English language. In the days of my education in Canada, I used to set goals for myself every day in the morning that I tried to achieve at the end of the day. The goals included but were not limited to searching for the opportunities that would add to my learning of English language outside the classroom and evaluating my learning at the end of the day. I focused on the strategies people used in their communication besides sentences in order to make their communication effective and interesting. Besides, I adopted some cognitive strategies to enhance my understanding of English accent. I used to keep a recorder with me and daily recorded a thirty minutes conversation between me and my English friends that I later listened in my room. I used to analyze the sentences and tried to differentiate between various forms and accents of English language. While analyzing the recorded speech, I realized that there existed various other forms of English besides the Standard English I was taught in my schools in Hong Kong. Some of my Canadian friends would speak Standard English, others would use Slang language that considerably differed in sentence construction and grammar from the Standard English. This revealed another hidden dimension of English that was unknown to me in Hong Kong. This diversity of style and grammar made it even more difficult for me to understand the approach of English people toward spoken English. In the short span of time, I was not only supposed to develop fluency in English, but also understand the varying moods of different forms of English language. However, I noticed that written English always maintained certain formalities that spoken English would often lack in. In order to enhance my vocabulary, I used to read a lot of books both from my course and outside. I used to read the text, and then assume the meanings of unknown words from their relation to other words in the sentence considering their location and use in the sentence. Then I compared the meanings I guessed with those mentioned in the dictionary, and often found that one can rightly predict the meaning of an unknown word just by considering its usability in the sentence. Also, I used to find the synonyms for the new words in the dictionary and tried using the synonyms in place of the original word at the same place in the same sentence. This inculcated a sense in me that showed how different words can be used in place of one another to generate the same meaning. Additionally, this practice added a lot of words to my vocabulary. In order to remember the new words, I would use them somewhere in my speech the following day and it really worked. Besides, I used to summarize all what I read at the end of reading, and tried to explain it in my own words to my friends. These cognitive strategies not only inculcated a lot of confidence in me but also improved my social relations. However, it was not unusual for me to be caught in a situation where I did not know the appropriate word which would convey my idea to my friends when I talked to them. In order to keep the flow of my speech from being hindered by this lack of knowledge, I made use of compensatory strategies in which I used body language and facial expressions to support my argument. Also, I tried not to speak about issues that I knew required a sound vocabulary to be discussed. Since I did not manage to study any course of grammar in Canada, I used to try to learn it from people by analyzing their speech. I used to play games and hold discussions with my friends that would be informative in nature. I asked them to use a verb as a noun in a sentence of their own and vice versa. These social strategies provided me with an opportunity to develop my concepts to a higher level. However, learning a second language requires determination that one often starts to loose because of several reasons. I managed to remain determined about learning English by adopting certain affective strategies. Whenever, I began to loose spirit, I thought of the benefits of knowing English language. This practice kept me motivated and I started to struggle even more. Also, I experienced resultative motivation whenever I managed to deliver my speech fluently using all the above mentioned strategies, which kept my interest in learning English language revived to the extent that I ultimately started to teach English language when I came back to Hong Kong. References: Ager, S. 2010. Why should I learn a language? 7 May 2010. Retrieved from http://www.omniglot.com/language/why.htm. Learning languages boosts brain. 2004. Retrieved 7 May 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3739690.stm. Garman, M. 1990. Psycholinguistics. UK: Cambridge University Press. 7 May 2010. Retrieved from google books. Rebecca, O. 2000. The Role of Styles and Strategies in Second Language Learning. 7 May 2010. Retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9214/styles.htm. Read More