On the Development of Second Language Education Awareness Among ESL Teachers

吳星辰

【Abstract】Under the influence of global economy， English has become the worldwide communicative language in current world. Not only the children from English-native countries are learning English， but also the people whose native language is other than English are industriously acquiring English. The purpose of this paper is presenting the various aspects of second language education to general education teachers， in order to develop their awareness of second language education. The rationale of various theories would help them to design more effective class for their ESL students.

【Key words】English； second language education； ESL

Introduction

We all have the experience that children can acquire their first language in relatively fast speed. However， this talent can barely appear during the process of second language acquisition. Scovel （1988） consider that there is a critical period for obtaining the speaking ability when acquiring the first language. As other animals， humans have talent from their gene to acquire accent when they are children. Thus， humans can acquire speaking ability of their first language fast. In the field of second language acquisition， this view can explain some of the difficulties that second language learners have. For example， it is always difficult for the people to pronounce the new accents in the second language， which do not appear in their first language. Because they are no longer in their critical period， they cannot easily acquire the new accents.

The critical period provides the answer of why children acquire the speaking ability of first language with fast speed. However， it seems that second language learners do not have this talent. In order to answer this question， Johnson and Newport （1989） provide two versions of Critical Period Hypothesis （CPH）. The exercise hypothesis indicates that human have a superior for acquiring language in early life. This capacity could be remained intact throughout life if it is exercised， or it will disappear or decline. And the maturational state hypothesis claims this capacity of acquiring language in early life will disappear or decline with maturation. The difference between these two versions is that they have different prediction for second language acquisition. Although the exercise hypothesis claims that humans may remain the capacity of acquiring language throughout their life. This maintaining needs keeping practice that begin with acquiring the first language. Obviously， it is hard for teachers to meet an ESL student that still remains the capacity of critical period.

Learning vs. Acquisition

To some of teachers， especially the teachers that their students are in the non-English culture， the process of teaching ESL students mainly focuses on the linguistic aspects of English. The process of second language acquisition is always viewed as the conscious learning during the classroom. However， Krashen （1983） claims that people have two ways to develop capacity of the second language： acquiring second language subconsciously in everyday life and learning second language consciously from materials or other people. And unconscious acquisition is more effective than conscious learning. In order to acquire English， the process should be subconscious： the students should not aware that they are acquiring when they are acquiring， rather， they have impression that they are doing something else， such as watching an interesting movie， or having a good conversation. Then students would translate this experience to be their skills. Thus， during process of learning English， students should consciously learn vocabulary， grammar， reading， etc.； and unconsciously acquire the language skills. Therefore， ESL teachers need to have the awareness of designing the class appropriately， providing opportunities for students to acquire English.

There is a strategy of second language acquisition based on the unconscious theory， which is， creating a context that is completely filled with the second language. ESL students watch English movie， chat with English-native speakers， and play games with speaking English in such context. This strategy often can be viewed during the English classroom with foreign teacher in China. However， this strategy is extreme. As the mention of McLaughlin （1990）， the role of unconscious during the second language acquisition should not be exaggerated. The information in ones short-term memory that is acquired unconsciously should transport to long-term memory by associating to his experience and memory. This process needs peoples attention and learners will certainly be conscious. In other words， unconscious acquisition can help learners to acquire second language， however， it cannot be effective without conscious learning.

The Attitudes of ESL Learners

The attitudes of ESL learners would significantly influence their achievements. Therefore， teachers have the responsibility to take care of the attitudes and encourage them to actively acquire the second language. According to Gardner and MacIntye （1991）， the main and common motivations that second language learner have are integrative motivation and instrumental motivation. The integrative motivation reflects a sincere and personal interest in another language. It might appear by the willing of participating in the other language group， or the purpose of using another language in particular field. The instrumental motivation emphasizes on the practical value and advantages of learning a new language. For example， English is a significant aspect of measuring ones capability in China. The capacity of using English would help people to find a better job. These two kinds of motivations can both facilitate learners to study harder when acquiring second language.

Teachers should not only concern with the motivations that second language learners have， but also be aware of the emotions of their students. Gregersen and Horwitz （2002） consider there is a kind of students —perfectionism/anxious students—that should be concerned with their emotions. They may have impossibly high standards of performance； have fear of failure rather than expectation of success； entirely measure the worth of themselves and others by accomplishment in the way of all-or-nothing； always be unpleased when their achievements cannot reach expectations； always delay their works. In order to help perfectionism students， teachers should build a friendly and supportive learning context； teach students the opinion of making mistakes is a normal part of learning process that they will get the help to achieve success rather than blame of mistakes. Teachers should also be aware of themselves as helpful instructors whom focus on helping students to learn rather than authority figures whom focus on evaluating students performance. As the instructors of second language acquisition， teachers with the awareness of students attitudes have the ability to solve the problems that other teachers cannot， and significantly encourage students during the process of acquiring second language.

The Communicative Competence

Communicative Language Teaching （CLT） could be seen as one of the purpose of second language teaching. The common method of CLT in the world always based on the conscious learning of grammatical forms， structure， and vocabulary， rather than fully prepare the students for the appropriate use of language in natural communication. Celce-Murcia， Dornyei， and Thurrel （1997） consider that a more appropriate， systematic approach for developing the communicative competence of L2 learners is direct approach. This approach needs a detailed description， which indicate the entail of communicative competence so that the components can be used as the content when designing syllabus. So the activities in the classroom can be developed for each selected language area. Comparing with the approaches that mainly focus on the grammatical regularities or linguistic features， the direct approach would also include the focus on normative patterns or conventions of language use on the sentence level， such as pragmatic awareness and discourse rules.

However， this approach cannot replace the traditional indirect approaches. The indirect versions of communicative teaching are not essentially defunct in the L2 setting. The consequence should be taken into account with the social cultural context and the purpose of education system. In USA， CLT is significant because the people here who are learning English as L2 are willing to blend themselves into the social and business life. However， the purpose of English teaching in China is significantly focusing on reading， writing， listening whereas without speaking during the various examinations. In other words， CLT is only the assistant theory of teaching English in the most of schools in China. A lot of schools like to hold a particular context of speaking English out of classroom in order to encourage students to practice English as much as possible but not in the purpose of improving their communicative abilities. Students in this kind of context are simply required to using English without any purposeful guidance.

Conclusion

The five aspects that be presented above cannot contain all the components of second language acquisition. However， because of the various forms of factors （target language， native language of learners， context， cultural background， capacity of students， etc.）， the awareness of teachers about the various aspects of language teaching is significant. The approaches that would be applied in the classroom should be flexible and concerned with every element in the context.

References：

[1]Celce-Murcia，M.，Dornyei，Z.，& Thurrell，S.（1997）.Direct Approaches in L2 Instruction：A Turning Point in Communicative Language Teaching？ TESOL quarterly，31（1），141-152.

[2]Ellis，R.（1995）.Appraising Second Language Acquisition Theory In Relation To Language Pedagogy.

[3]Gardner，R.C.&MacIntyre，P.D.（1991）.An Instrumental Motivation In Language Study：Who Says It Isn't Effective？ Reprinted from Studies in Second Language Acquisition，13，57-72.

[4]Gregersen，T.& Horwitz，E.K.（2002）.Language Learning and Perfectionism：Anxious and Non-Anxious Language Learners' Reactions to Their Own Oral Performance.The Modern language journal，86（4），562-570.

[5]Johnson，J.S.& Newport，E.L.（1989）.Critical Period Effects in Second Language.