Resenha sobre o livro How Languages Are Learned, por Andréa e Héliton

LIGHTBOWN, P. M.; SPADA, A. N. How languages are learned. Revised Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

_____In the first chapter, we can see some theories about how language is learned: the behaviourist, the innatist, and the interactionist.

_____The behaviourist is an imitation that adults to children, like repetition in some English class in particular languages’ class. For example: we are in an English particular languages’ class from Brazil and we want to learn English for our future and these languages class use the behaviourist. We just repeat some expressions, verbs, in some times, we do not to understand in which situation we can use it. We can see the behaviourist in nowadays in first language acquisition. One example: a mother to want the baby talks, so she will talk several times some expression like: baby go bye-bye, indicating that she will go out with her baby.

_____The innatist appeared with the linguist Noam Chomsky. He believes that a child is like a sheet of paper to put languages. He says that children are biologically programmed for language. This theory was born to make some differences in the behaviourist.

_____The interactionist is the theory that we could use in language class everywhere, in my point of view, because this theory shows the contact with the new language.

In the second chapter, we see how children and adults learn a second language. And we review some theories, actually, in a second language view, like the behaviourism. This theory believes in repetitions and imitations. For the behaviourist, errors are seen as first language habits interfering with the acquisition of second language habits.

_____Cognitive theory is a relative newcomer to second language acquisition research, and has not yet been widely tested empirically. Because the theory itself cannot easily predict what kinds of structures will be automatizes through practice and what will be restricted, direct applications of this theory for classroom teaching are premature. Cognitive psychologists tend to see second language acquisition (SLA) as the building up of knowledge systems that can eventually be called on automatically for speaking and understanding.

_____Krashen has developed five central hypotheses constitute his “monitor model”: (1) the acquisition-learning hypothesis; (2) the monitor hypothesis; (3) the natural order hypothesis; (4) the input hypothesis; and (5) the affective filter hypothesis. His hypothesis show how you acquire a second language.

_____The interactionist believe in conversations between native speakers and non-native speakers as the necessary mechanism for this to take place.

_____The third chapter begins with the authors affirming that many people believe that learners have certain characteristics which make them have more or less success when learning a language. Some of the characteristics are or factors are: intelligence, aptitude, motivation, personality, and attitudes. When researchers want to find out whether a factor affects a second language learning, they usually select a group of learners and give them a questionnaire about the factor. But these studies not always are right. For example in a series of studies about motivation, in some of them it was reported that learners with a higher level of motivation are more successful language learners than those with lower motivation. But other studies report that highly motivated learners don´t perform better in a proficiency test than less motivated learners.

_____In this chapter the authors also show the difference between what people think about individual differences and what the researches show to support or refuse these opinions, for example intelligence. Over the years many researchers have linked intelligence with the total capacity of learning a second language. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that intelligence does influence in learning a second language, but, it can be related to the development of grammar, vocabulary, and unrelated to oral productive skills. These explanations go on with other factors such as aptitude, motivation, personality, attitudes, learning styles.

_____When discussing about age of acquisition, it´s shown in the text that this learner characteristic is very considered by researchers. Children do learn easily and faster than adults for many factors, such as the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH).

_____In the fourth chapter, we see some theories that apply in SLA.

_____In the concept of learner language, the authors say children’s earliest language is often called “telegraphic”. In this stage, children leave out many of the small words, like prepositions and articles, or inflections like the –ed marker for the past tense. Child’s knowledge of the grammatical system is built up in predictable sequences.

_____About the developmental sequences in both first and second language acquisition, there are sequences or “stages” in the development or particular structures. That is, certain features of the language seem to appear relatively early in a learner’s language while others are acquired much later.

_____In this chapter we discuss five proposals about second language in classroom: get it right from the beginning; say what you mean and mean what you say; just listen; teach what is teachable; and get it right in the end. They show it with examples, searches, and examples.

_____We see the concepts about natural acquisition contexts, that the learner is exposed to the language at work or in social interaction. The traditional instruction environment is one where the language is being taught to a group of second or foreign language learners.

_____In this chapter the authors review all theories discussed in this book.

1.      Languages are learned mainly through imitation: this is particularly evident with children who say things like: I’m hiccing up and I can’t stop and It was upside down but I turned it upside right. Some learners, particularly children learning their first language, imitate a great deal. Yet their language does not develop faster on better than that of children who rarely imitate.

2.      Parents usually correct young children when they make grammatical errors: the research based on extensive observations of parents and children shows that parents tend to focus on meaning rather than form when they correct their children’s speech.

3.      People with high IQs are good language learners: in classroom where language acquisition through interactive language use is emphasized, research has shown that learners with a wide variety of intellectual abilities can be successful language learners.

4.      The most important factor in second language acquisition success is motivation: classroom teachers can develop positive motivation in their students by making the classroom itself an environment in which students experience success.

5.      The earlier a second language is introduced in school programs, the greater the likelihood of success in learning: any school should be based in realistic estimates of how long it takes to learn a second language. One or two hours a week will not produce very advanced second language speakers.

6.      Most of the mistakes which second language learners make are due to interference from their first language: when errors are caused by the overextension of some partial similarity between the first and second languages, the errors may be especially hard to overcome – particularly if learners are frequently in contact with other learners who make the same errors.

7.      Teachers should present grammatical rules one at a time, and learners should practise examples of each one before going on to another: it happens when learners are incorporating new information about the language into their own internal system of rules. The fact is ESL development is not just adding rule after rule, but integrating new rules into the existing system of rules, re-adjusting and restructuring until all the pieces fit.

8.      Teachers should teach simple language structures before complex ones: there is ample evidence to show that when native speakers or fluent bilinguals address a second language learner, they quite naturally adapt their speech to ensure that the learner understands them.

9.      Learner’s errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation of bad habits: errors are a natural part of language learning. This is true of the development of a child’s first language as well as of second language learning by children and adults. If the errors is based on a developmental pattern, the correction may only be useful when learner is ready for it. It may thus require many repetitions.

10.  Teachers should use materials that expose students only to language structures which they have already been taught: such a procedure can provide comprehensible input, of course, but learners can comprehend the general meaning of many forms which they certainly have no “mastered” and, indeed, may never have produced. When a particular point is introduced for the first time or when the teacher feels there is a need for correction of a persistent problem, it is appropriate to use narrow-focus materials which isolate one element in a context where other things seem easy.

11.  When learners are allowed to interact freely (for example, in group or pair activities), they learn each others’ mistakes: some research has shown that second language learners do not produce any more errors in their speech when talking to learners at similar levels of proficiency than they do when speaking to learners at more advanced levels or to native speakers.

12.  Students learn what they are taught: it is certainly true second language learners can only learn the language they are exposed to. However, it certainly is not the case that students learn everything they are taught or that they eventually know only what they are taught.