English 344: Tuesday, February 1

I found this week's readings to be quite interesting, and I will touch on a few such points in the following paragraphs. However, I wanted to begin with my own "musings" on why some people succeed in second language acquisition while others do not. As both Lightbown/Spada and Saville-Troike noted, numerous factors go into predicting whether a person will be successful in acquiring one. Yet, these factors are simple predicters, not sure things at all, and I was constantly reminded of my time coaching track as I read. I remember some athletes had so much natural talent for the sport, yet could never succeed when they needed to even when they worked hard in practice. Why? I remember others who had little talent yet somehow drew all of it out of them everytime they ran and succeeded. Was motivation purely a factor here? What other extrinsic or intrinsic forces were at work? I think that second language acquisition is much like trying to run one's best; at any given time, numerous factors are constantly at work on each individual. Thus, it is most definitely a challenge to pin down exactly what causes someone to succeed and while another does not.

I found one portion of the readings to be particularly useful to teachers. Lightbown/Spada reports a "high level of student and teacher satisfaction when students were matched with compatible teaching environments" (58). I have had teachers who only lectured to classes, and I strongly dislike this because I know that I'm a visual learner. If I had a second language teacher simply lecturing, I doubt that I would do as well as I could in the class. How can teachers always make sure they are accomodating the learning styles of all students?

Finally, I am quite curious about the social dynamic and power relationship between various language spoken of by Lightbown/Spada. Learning a language (or simply learning in general) is never done in a vacuum. How is learning this new language affecting a student outside of the classroom? Is this a socially acceptable thing to do? I believe that this applies more to younger ESL students in K-12 rather than international students studying at universities; still, digging deeper into the social ramifications of the second language acqisition would be interesting.