Factors that affect Second Language Acquisition
Second language acquisition implies multiple factors and process in order achieve proficiency in the second language; processes like transfers may affect or enhance the learning. Regarding the factors that affect second language acquisition we can find motivation, age, cognitive factors, anxiety, and others. These factors are not only determinant of acquiring SLA, but they make difficult acquisition in certain moments, even though they affect students and all language learners and language teachers should have awareness about this topic.
The first factor I mentioned is motivation, and this is a factor that determines a person’s desire to do something. If students are not motivated to learn a new language it is difficult they engage all the activities that imply learning a language. This motivation can be also distinguished into intrinsic and extrinsic. When student engage intrinsically motivated activities they don’t need a reward except the activity itself, so students learn for their own success in the second language. And students that are extrinsically motivated expect a reward, for example money, a praise or positive feedback. If there is no reward they hardly feel moved to do activities, and researchers claim that intrinsic motivation leads to greater success in learning a foreign language, in the future.
In age, it is determined by the Critical period hypothesis by Lenneberg proposes that in child development there is a period during which language can be acquired more easily than that at any other time. According to him the critical period lasts until puberty and is due to biological development. The cognitive factors are explained by the differences between children and adults in the relation to their abilities to learn a language. Older learners are able to apply linguistic rules when they use the language. In the case of the children they are good at expressing meaning and they cannot respond to it as a form. Although adults learn faster, children are more motivated because they want to be accepted by their partners.
Anxiety is another factor that affects learning a foreign language. Anxiety is a state of mind connected with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt and worry. So students some times feel they are not make it good during classes and they avoid to participate but there are cases in which anxiety trigger and lead student to participate in class and finish the test but they might lower their student performance in classrooms.
Once teacher are aware of these multiple factors language learners have to deal with, they can do activities in order to lower anxiety or motivate students with many strategies in order to enhance learning in the pedagogical spaces.
Publicado desde mi Blog usando SteemPress : http://andresbloguea.260mb.net/2018/10/20/356/
