ATTITUDES OF NON-NATIVE ENGLISH STUDENTS

ATTITUDES AND RESPONSES OF NON-NATIVE ENGLISH STUDENTS TOWARDS FIRST LANGUAGE USE IN SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

ATTITUDES AND RESPONSES OF NON-NATIVE ENGLISH STUDENTS TOWARDS FIRST LANGUAGE USE IN SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the age factor with regard to the acquisition of second language. The paper comprises of six major sections. The first section presents the general individual differences and goes on to emphasize on the age factor. The second section presents the consideration of the learning style of the learners (Lee, 2002¸567-97).

Variable 1: Individual Differences; Age Factor

Arguably, the age factor belongs to the individual differences which influence the learning of second language as per the claim asserted by the researchers (Zakon, 1996, 90-119). The issue associated with the individual differences is the intricacy of delineating the involved variables (Yildirim, 2000, 479-495).. For instance, Ellis (1994) abridges the studies contributed by three researchers; Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991), Skehan (1989), and Altman (1980) for showing the ambiguity of the categorization of the individual differences and their intersection (Moats, 2001, 98-224).

Variable 2: Learners' Learning Style

The concept of learning style has been observed by Keefe (1979) as drawing from the psychological behaviours of the learners which act as comparatively steady indicators of the way learners identify, relate to and rejoinder to the learning circumstances (Osborn, 2006, 76-90). Willing (1987) settles on the fact that the learning style indicates the entirety of the psychological performance. Various distinctions of learning styles have been made in the area of cognitive psychology. Bruner, Goodnow and Austin (1959), for instance, tell apart the scanners and focusers. Focusers are the ones who cope up with an issue by focusing on a single aspect at a time. Pask & Scott (1972) tell apart the holists and the serialists, in accordance with whether learners perform with complex or simple hypotheses. Other differentiations depend on the personality of the learners as much as differences in the learning styles (Warschauer, 1997, 27-33).

Variable 3: The Age effect on Rate of Second Language Acquisition

While discussing the effect of age on the acquisition of second language, there is a trend of distinguishing the rate of acquisition from accomplishment. Krashen, Scarcella and Long (1979), for instance proposed that the pace of second language acquisition at an initial phase and long standing accomplishment must be treated distinctively (Owen, 2008, pp. 675-875). In case, this type of distinction was made, it may be stated that the older learners, counting in the adolescents, learn much rapidly compared to the children at a n initial phase of learning second language and children are better than superior than the older learners in the long standing accomplishment (Wang, 1998, 423-867).

Variable 4: The Age Effect on the Acquisition of Native-like Proficiency

One may wonder whether native-like pronunciation or native accent should be considered to be an important factor in second language acquisition. For example Hill (1970) points out that in places like South India, where English is spoken as well as the local ...