CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Instruction and SLA

One of the goals of SLA is to improve language teaching. To this end some researchers have
studied what impact teaching has on L2 learning. In this chapter we will consider several
issues, such as form-focused instruction, the effects of instrcution on interlanguage
development, and teachiguidelines. The first concers whether teaching learners has anuy
effect on their interlanguage development. So learners learn structures they are taught. The
second touches on the effect of instrcution on acquisition process, acquisition sequences, rate
of acquisition, level of ultimate SL attainment. The third tlaks about the teaching guidelines
based on the acquisition research.

CHAPTER II
 DISCUSIION

A. Form focused Instruction

Language pedagogy has emphasized form-focused instruction. The grammar translation

Method and the Audiolingual Method both involve attempts to teach learners grammar,
differing only in how this is to be accomplished. Language pedagogy has emphasized the
need to provide learners with real communicative experiences. Communicative Language
Teaching is premised on the assumtion that learners do not need to be taught grammar before
they can cobut will acquire it naturally as a part of learning process to communicative.
Tersa Pica compared three groups L2 learners – an untutored group, and a mixed group (i.e.
one that had experienced both instruction and naturalistic learning). He found that the
accuracy order of a number of grammatical features was broadly the same in the three groups,
suggesting that instruction had little overall effect acquisition. The tutored group was more
accurate on plural –s than untutored group but less accurate on progressive verb –ing. The
mixed group was intermediate in both cases. In contrast, there were no accuracy differences
among three groups on articles. These results led Pica to suggest that the effects of instruction
may depend on the target structure that is being taught.
Another study led Pienemann to propose the teachibility hypothesis. This hypothesis states
that teaching learners grammatical strcucture will only be succesful if they are
developmentally ready to learn it. This hypotesis suggest that instruction does not subvert the
natural subsequence or acquisition but rather help to speedp up learner’s subsequence of
acquisition but rather helps to speed up learners paassage through it.
Given that instruction can work, it become important to discover whether some kinds of
instruction work better that others. In this case, we will consider a number of options in form-
focused instruction. The first concerns the distinction between input-based and production-
based practice. Grammar teaching has emphasized production, language pedagogy offers a
rich array of techniquesor eliciting the production of the targeted strcutures from studSome
theories of SLA see interlanguage as driven by input rather than output.

(A) (B)
Input-based Production-based
Structure structure

Input Intake L2 Knowledge Output

An experiment study carried out by Bill Van Patten and Teresa Caduerno was designed to
investigate this one group of learners was exposed to traditional production-based instruction,
another to input-based instruction where they had to listen to and respond to sentences
containing the target structure. At the end of instruction both groups completed tests, one a
test of production and the other of comrehension.
B. Implications of SLA for Instruction
a. Innate learning Processors

There appear to be innate learning processors which guide SLA. They are he filter, the
organizer, and the monitor. The filter is the part of internal processing system that
subconsciously screens incoming language based on “affect” : the learner’s motive, needs,
attidudes and emotional states.
The organizer is the part of internal processing system that is responsibl;e for the learner’s
gradual organization of the new language system.
The monitor is the part of internal processing system that appears to be responsible for
conscious linguistic processing.

b. Natural Communication

Exposure to natural Communication in the target language is necessary for the subconscious
processors to work well. The richer the learner’s exposure to th target language, the more
rapid and comprehensive learning is likely to be.
A natural language environmnet appears to enhance the development of communicative skills
in a second language in both foreign and host environments.
c. Comprehensible Content
The learner needs to comprehend the contetn of natural communication in the new language.
Talk about “:here-and-now” topics. A language environment may provide the type of support
when it includes concrete referents – subject and events that can be seen, hear, or felt while
the language is being used. Since progress involves understanding or producing language
slightly beyond one’s present repertoire, the extra linguistic context accompanies such
language must be relied upon as the context which will make the meaning of the new
elements clear.

d. Silent Phase

A silent phase at the beginning of language learning ( when the student is not required to
produce the new language) has proven useful for most students in cutting down on
interlingual errors and enhancing pronunciation. The optimum length of phase ranges from
several weeks and several months.

e. Conscious Learning

Conscious learning and application of grammatical rules have a place in second language
learning, but their purpose is different from the subconscious learning which produces native-
like fluency.

f. Relaxed and Self-Confident Learners

The student’s relaxed mental state, brought about by classical music, comfortable chairs, and
the instructor’s modulation of voice is believed to increse the receptivity to the student to the
new material.
T. Budzynki, of the biofeedback Institute of Denver, refers to a “twilight state”- a state
between consciousness and sleep characterized by beta branwaves – during which individuals
become more receptive to absorbing certain kinds of information, including language.
The self-confident people have the advantage of not fearing rejection as much as those with
high anxiety level and are therefore more likely to put themselves in learning situations and
to do so repeatedly.

g. Learning a Second Language befor Puberty

Learners who start learning a second language before puberty tend to achieve greater
profiency in the language than those who start after puberty.
The belief that childreen are bettter at language acquisition than adults is supported by both
scientific and anecdotal evidence. Children acquiring second languages in natural
environments are more likely to eventually soun like native speakers than adults are. Adults
may appear to make greater progress initially, but children nearly alwayssurpass them.

h. Differences between Children and Adults

Differences between children and adults may afect language acquisition. Adults are more
self-conscious than childrenb, thus tend to be less venturesome in using the new language.
Adults are better able than children to consciously learn linguistic rules and extract linguistic
pattern.
Much research has focused on the effect of age on the rate of quality of SLA. Evidence points
to the followign :
a. Children appear to be much more succesful than adults in acquiring the phonological
system of the new language; many eventuyally attain native-accent.
b. Most children are ultimately more succesful than adults in learning a second language, but
they are not always faster.

i. Identification

Learners leran most from their peers and from people with whom they identify. Although it is
well known that learners do not learn everything to which they exposed, it is perhaps not so
well recognised that to which they are exposed, it is perhaps not so well recognit learners do
not even attend to everything to which they are exposed.
Language learning research providers various examples of apparent preferences or certain
speaker models over others under certain circumstances, preferences which seem to have
obvious effects on the quality of the learner’s speech.

C. Teaching Guidelines
a. Maximize the student’s Exposure to natural Communication

Natural communication means the learner is focused on the message beiong conveyed, not on
the linguistic form of that message. This enhance the creative construction process and the
operation of the organizer.

Classroom Technique

a. Ask real question-those which you might ask any native-speaking child or adult. For
example :

Are you hungry?

Do you want some milk or juice?

Why don’t you have your coat on?

b. Do not require more of a learner thatn a proficient native sepaker. If a complete sentence is
not grammatically required in response to a question, do not require the learner to provide
one. One-word answers are sufficient for certain questions. For example :

Teacher: Is that your pencil?

Student:Yes.

c. If you want students to practise using complete sentences, construct question that will
naturally require them. For example :

Why are you late?

What hapenned to your finger?

d. Respond to content when communicating with students, not to form. Do not correct
pronounciation or grammar when students are communicating with you or each other. For
example :

Teacher : Why are you late?

Student : I muss bus.

Teacher ¨Why did you miss the buss?

e. During communication, accept nonverbal responses as well as response in the student’s

native language at first.
f. Do not do grammar lesson during communication activities.

b. Incorporate a Silent Phase at the Beginning of your Instructional Program

As mentioned earlier, the silent phase is a time during which learners listen and watch, and
perhaps respond in their native language or through physical activities.

Classroom Techniques

a. Do not force students to produce the target language during the initial weeks of instruction.

b. Techniques used in programs that have incorporated the silent phase :

 Adults students wrote their responses for some weeks, after which they began to
response verbally.
 Students (child and adults) acted out their responses during the initial weeks, after
which they began to speak the target language.
 Students ( child and adult) were allowd to respond in their native language initially.

c. Use Concrete Referents to Make the New Language Understandable to Beginning

Students

A concrete referent is anything or any activity which can be seen, heard, felt, or smelled as it
is being verbally descrived.

Classroom Techniques

Use demonstrable objects, and activities as lesson topics. Most teachers already use visual
aids such as hand puppets and toys, or they use activities such as growing plants, cooking,
games, etc.

d. Devised Specific Techniques to Relax Students and Protect Their Ego

Relaxed students learn more easily. This is especially true for adults, most of whom are
anxious or nervous about making errors in front of their peers.

Classroom Techniques

a. Have new students invent new identities.

b. Play baroque music softly during the lesson.

c. Use comfortable chairs (lozanov).

d. Do breathing and stretching exercises before lessons.

e. Do not focus on the student’s language errors, but on the content of what they say in the
target language.

e. Include Some Time for Formal Grammar Lesson for Adults

Many adults need to learn some formal grammar in order to feel that they are indeed learning
a new language.

Classroom Techniques

a. Include a regular time or phase in your curriculum for formal grammar lessons.

b. During grammar lessons make clear that you are now focusing on the structure of the
language rather then on communication.

c. Focus on low-level, easy rules, not complex ones.

f. Create an Atmosphere Where Students are not Embarassed by their Errors

Classroom Techniques

a. Expert errors.

b. Do not focus on student errors during communication.

c. Do not show impatience with students errors.

d. Respond to the content of student speech, not the language form they use.

e. Use role playing activities to minimize student’s feeling of personal failure when they
make errors.

g. If You Teach Dialogues, Include Current and Socially Useful Phrases.

It has been observed that second language learners pick up socially useful phrases almost
from the first day.
 Classroom Techniques

a. Observe and note the most common social interactions in which the students are interested.

b. List the stock phrases that are always a part of these situatrion.

c. Build dialogues aound such exchange.

h. Do not Refer to a Student’s First Language When Teaching the Second Language

The second language is a new and independent language system. Since Succesful second
language learners keep their languages distinct, teacher should too.

Classroom Techniques

a. Avoid contrasting the first language and the second language when explaining grammatical
strcutures.

b. Avoid translation task ask major technique.

Undoubtedly there are many more guidelines and techniques like those mentioned above. If
language teaching builds upon these tendencies, both teacher and learner should find the
second language experience exciting and productive.