scholarly journals The Impact of Pictures on Second Language Acquisition

SEEU Review ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-135
Author(s):  
Shejla Tahiri

Abstract The need for worldwide communication has made people learn as many foreign languages as they can in order to be able to send and receive information from all over the world. Realizing this situation, researchers and linguists have carried out a large number of studies in order to find out the best ways for teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language. The terms language learning and language acquisition are not new since in many earlier researches language acquisition is compared to the process of learning the mother tongue whereas language learning is compared to the process when a child learns a second or foreign language. This paper aims to showcase that teaching/learning new vocabulary using pictures is much more effective than the other methods of vocabulary learning. The research also puts emphasis on the language level of learners. It demonstrates that the method of using pictures and illustrations works well with all levels of proficiency and as such, it has brought very useful results. It was carried out at the South East European University (SEEU) in North Macedonia and participants were thirty (30) students from all five Faculties, divided in three different groups based on their language proficiency. Each group consisted of ten (10) students, aged 18 to 22 years. They were of elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate level of English. The research lasted for six weeks, because the students had to be introduced to six different vocabulary topics. Since the experiment was carried out in a real classroom environment, the target vocabulary topics used for this purpose were chosen from their students’ book. Data were collected in three phases. During the first phase, students were asked to complete a questionnaire, consisting of questions regarding the vocabulary learning methods, mainly vocabulary associated with pictures. In the second phase, they were engaged in real activities in a traditional classroom setting, while in the last phase, at the end of the last session, participants took a quiz that was supposed to provide evidence and additional data about participants’ achievements. It is expected that the findings from this experiment will be useful to current and prospective teachers as they show that the method of pictures and illustrations associating the target vocabulary functions well with different levels.

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-322
Author(s):  
Oksana Turkevych

The article analyzes microgroup of terms relating to the process of second language acquisition or foreign language learning (language aptitude, interlanguage, language competence, language performance, language proficiency). The semantics of this group is analyzed and some aspects of normalization (compliance with linguistic and terminological norms) and harmonization (compliance with variants that function in English) are proposed. The difference between the terms of language acquisition and language learning is specified. The author of the article proves the idea that the acquisition of the second language is an unconscious process of producing the language, when a person implicitly assimilates speech samples and produces them intuitively. Learning a foreign language is a conscious process of producing a language when a person explicitly learns speech samples and produces them consciously. Language aptitude denotes the innate ability of a person which develops with the experience of communication, and it is a kind of mechanism that allows the mental and physiological levels to master the language. It is revealed that bilingualism (natural and educational) can be the result of different strategies of language mastering and thus there are various mechanisms for its formation. It is found out that interlanguage is a language that is characterizing a person who learns a new language, and it is the result of the interaction of language systems, rules, norms of native language and the language which is learned. It is dynamic and reflects the appropriate level of language proficiency. The relationship between terms language competence (a set of language knowledge), language performance (production and comprehension of language), and language proficiency (ability of an individual to speak or perform in a language according to the aim of communication) is determined. These terms are at the stage of entry into Ukrainian science.


1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 718-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bley-Vroman

AbstractWhile child language development theory must explain invariant “success,” foreign language learning theory must explain variation and lack of success. The fundamental difference hypothesis (FDH) outlines such a theory. Epstein et al. ignore the explanatory burden, mischaracterize the FDH, and underestimate the resources of human cognition. The field of second language acquisition is not divided into camps by views on “access” to UG.


2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-433

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2014 Christopher Brumfit thesis award is Dr Hilde van Zeeland. The thesis was selected by an external panel of judges based on its significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, originality and creativity and quality of presentation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miftahul Huda

Language acquisition starts from the ability of listening basic letter(iktisab al-ashwat) since child age. The letter of a language is limited in number, and sometimes there is similarity of letters among languages. The similarity of letters in two languages make it easy to learn the language. On the contrary, the obstacle of language learning can be caused by different letters between two languages (mother tongue and second/foreign language). The problem may be caused by minimal pairs (tsunaiyat al-shughro). This research aims at finding out the error of minimal pair acquisition, with the subject of Indonesian students in Jami’ah Malik Saud Saudi Arabia, with the method of error analysis. The study concludes that in iktisab al-ashwat of minimal pairs, the error is around 3,3 %-58,3%. Second: the error on minimal pairs occurs on the letters shift ?? ?? ? to be ? , letter ? to be ? , letter ? to be ? , letter ? to be ? , letter ? to be ?? , and letter ? to be ?.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-159
Author(s):  
Jan H. Hulstijn

This paper predicts that the study of second language acquisition, as a young discipline of scientific inquiry in its own right, faces a bright future, but only if its scholarly community critically re-examines some notions and assumptions that have too long been taken for granted. First, it is time to reconsider familiar dichotomies, such as second versus foreign language and natural versus instructed language learning. Furthermore, it is worth checking whether and to what extent the puzzling phenomena to be explained by language acquisition theories do really exist (such as uniformity and success and fast acquisition rates in first language acquisition and universal developmental sequences in second language acquisition). The paper furthermore pleas for a multidisciplinary approach to the explanation of the fundamental puzzles of first and second language acquisition and bilingualism, including bridging the divide between psycholinguistic and socio-cultural theories.


2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (01) ◽  
pp. 38-44
Author(s):  
Dilrabo Babakulova ◽  
◽  
◽  

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is one of the debatable topics regarding to speed and effectiveness in adults or children foreign language learning. There have been several researches to solve the issue; however, the results are different and contradicting. In this research two volunteers participated in three staged survey which showed children’s priority in acquiring foreign language in a short period of time.


1988 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Danesi

The failure of the method notion in second language teaching has been attributed to a series of valid pedagogical and socioeducational factors. The concept of neurological bimodality, which posits that effective language learning in a classroom environment requires the utilization of the perceptual modalities associated with each cerebral hemisphere, offers a more fundamental, neurologically related diagnosis of this failure. This paper looks at the historiography of language teaching theories from the perspective of bimodality, and then concludes with specific suggestions vis-à-vis the kinds of research directions that might empirically substantiate the usefulness of this concept for second language acquisition in a classroom environment.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-408

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that there were two tied winners of the 2011 Christopher Brumfit thesis award: Dr Cecilia Guanfang Zhao and Dr Catherine van Beuningen. Both theses were selected by an external panel of judges on the basis of their significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, as well as their originality, creativity and quality of presentation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Nikolov ◽  
Veronika Timpe-Laughlin

AbstractGiven the exponential growth in the popularity of early foreign language programs, coupled with an emphasis of evidence-based instruction, assessing young learners’ (YLs) foreign language abilities has moved to center stage. This article canvasses how the field of assessing young learners of foreign languages has evolved over the past two decades. The review offers insights into how and why the field has developed, how constructs have been defined and operationalized, what language proficiency frameworks have been used, why children were assessed, what aspects of their foreign language proficiency have been assessed, who was involved in the assessment, and how the results have been used. By surveying trends in foreign language (FL) and content-based language learning programs involving children between the ages of 3 and 14, the article highlights research into assessment of and for learning, and critically discusses areas such as large-scale assessments and proficiency examinations, comparative and experimental studies, the impact of assessment, teachers’ beliefs and assessment practices, young learners’ test-taking strategies, age-appropriate tasks, alternative and technology-mediated assessment, as well as game-based assessments. The final section of the article highlights where more research is needed, thus outlining potential future directions for the field.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 176
Author(s):  
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Rahimi

 Message from Editor Dear Readers,It is a great honor for us to publish August 2016 Vol 6 No 4 of Global Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (GJFLT).Please follow the link below:http://www.gjflt.eu/Global Journal of Foreign Language Teaching welcomes original empirical investigations and comprehensive literature review articles focusing on foreign language teaching and topics related to linguistics. GJFLT is an international journal published quarterly and it is a platform for presenting and discussing the emerging developments in foreign language teaching in an international arena.The scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to; the following major topics: Cultural studies, Curriculum Development and Syllabus Design, Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), General Linguistics, Globalization Studies and world English’s, Independent/Autonomous Learning, Information and Computer Technology in TEFL, Innovation in language, Teaching and learning, Intercultural Education, Language acquisition and learning, Language curriculum development, Language education, Language program evaluation, Language Testing and Assessment, Literacy and language learning, Literature, Mobile Language Learning, Pragmatics, Second Language, Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Acquisition Theory, Digital Literacy Skills, Second Language Learners, Second Language Learning, Second language Pedagogy, Second Language Proficiency, Second Language Speech, Second Language Teaching, Second Language Training, Second Language Tutor, Second language Vocabulary Learning, Teaching English as a Foreign/ Second Language, Teaching Language Skills, Translation Studies, Applied linguistics, Cognitive linguistics.Teachers’ Beliefs and Students’ Experiences, Indonesian University Students’ Vocabulary Mastery, Multiple Language Learning, Idiom Transformation and Modification, Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Writing Achievement, Complex Sentence Structures in Patients with Schizophrenia, and The Effect of Second Life on Speaking Achievement have been included in this issue. The topics of the next issue will be different. We are trying to serve you with our journal with a rich knowledge through which different kinds of topics will be discussed in 2017 issues.We present many thanks to all the contributors who helped us to publish this issue.Best regards,Associate Professor Dr. Ali Rahimi,Editor – in Chief, Bangkok University


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