Elizabeth Ruiz Ortega

PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE

LEARNING AND TEACHING

by H. Douglas Brown.

CONSIDERATIONS IN THE LEARNING

PROCESS

Neurological considerations

Right-Hemispheric Participation: Second language learning

significant participation (active during early stages) Strategies of meanings and utterancesBiological

Timetables:

LOWER-ORDER: pronunciation – dependent on early maturing.

HIGHER-ORDER: semantic relations.

Lateralisation:

LEFT Hemisphere: intellectual, logical and analytic functions

RIGHT Hemisphere: emotional and social needs

ABOUT THE CRITICAL PERIODNormal course of life - adults are able to acquire second languages perfectly.

Apparent advantage of the child – motivation, affective variables, social factors and the quality of input 

Cognitive considerationsHuman cognition develops rapidly throughout the first sixteen

years of life and less rapidly thereafter

Affective considerationsAffect the learning process:O InhibitionsONegative Attitudes

OPuberty– physical, cognitive and emotional changes

OLanguage Ego

OThe identity developed by a person in reference to the language s/he speaks OPeer pressure: comparisons.

The affective domain includes many factors: Empathy, self-

steem, extroversion, inhibition, imitation, anxiety, attitudes

.

Linguistic considerations

First language as a facilitating factor:OCoordinate Compound Bilinguals – One meaning system from which both languages operate O Code-switching – communication between bilinguals. Insertion of words, phrases, etc. OFormulation of linguistic rules O Available linguistic information – native language, second language, teachers, classmates, and peers.

*Bilingualism: distinguish L1-L2

*Interference between L1-L2

Order in acquisition