No other species on the planet uses

No other species on the planet uses language or writing — a mystery that remains unsolved even after thousands of years of research. Italian cardinal Joseph Caspar Mezzofanti is said to have spoken more than 38 languages fluently and read a further 12, at the time of his death in 1849. If only he had left us with some magic formula to learn so many languages. However, he did study conscientiously, daily, for years. Most adult learners do not have many years to study language, so in order to learn English as a second language, new and even revolutionary teaching methods are called for.

The process of language learning is incredibly complex and even more so when learning a second language. To understand learning English as second language it is necessary to be aware of the differences in the learning process in adults and children. There seem to be as many hypotheses as there are linguists. Experts suggest an innate capacity in every human being to acquire language. It is argued that the human mind is hardwired to learn language; we just add our own specific language content.

This seems to correspond with Krashen’s theory (as quoted in Krashen, S.D. and Terrell, T.D. (1983)) that defines two independent systems of second language performance in adults; 'the acquired system' and 'the learned system'. The 'acquired system' or 'acquisition' is the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire their first language. This this form of language communication is also referred to as playground language or natural communication in which speakers are interested only in “getting the message across”. Form is only of value in as much as it aids this. The 'learned system' or 'learning' is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious knowledge of the form of language, for example knowledge of grammar rules.

This poses the question why this process is, or is perceived to be, so much more complex and difficult in adults than in children. This article will examine the neurological, cognitive, affective and linguistic differences between adults and children learning English as second language. Due to the restraints of this essay, each contributing factor cannot be discussed in all its complexity, but it is attempted to highlight the most important.

In this essay, it is accepted that the purpose of acquiring a second language is communicative competence, that is, the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals. The desired outcome of the language learning process is the ability to communicate competently, not the ability to use the language exactly as a native speaker does.

Neurological Considerations


There has been extensive debate on whether there is a cut-off period, after which language learning is near impossible or at least extremely difficult. The Critical Period Hypothesis, as suggested by numerous researchers, is a window period in early development, when language learning seems to be achieved without particular effort. Lenneberg (1967) stated that after the “critical period” the two brain hemispheres become specialized in function, in a process called cerebral lateralization. This results in a decrease of brain plasticity. There are different thoughts on when this process is complete, some researchers believe as young as age 5; others believe 12 or even 16 years of age.

There is no empirical proof of this hypothesis, but if there had been, would these difficulties prove insurmountable? Science Daily (June 15, 2005) — Our ability to hear and understand a second language becomes more and more difficult with age, but the adult brain can be retrained to pick up foreign sounds more easily again. This finding, reported by Dr Paul Iverson of the UCL Centre for Human Communication, at the "Plasticity in Speech Perception 2005" workshop - builds on an important new theory that the difficulties we have with learning languages in later life are not biological and that, given the right stimulus, the brain can be retrained. Dr Iverson said: "Adult learning does not appear to become difficult because of a change in neural plasticity. Rather, we now think that learning becomes hard because experience with our first language 'warps' perception. We see things through the lens of our native language and that 'warps' the way we see foreign languages. "It is very difficult to undo this learning. That is, we change our perception during childhood so that it becomes specialized to hear the speech sounds in our first language. This specialization can conflict with our ability to learn to distinguish sounds in other languages. Through training, we can essentially change our 'perceptual warping' to make second-language learning easier. I hope that this research will lead to new ways of training adults to learn second languages." This research opens the possibilities of changing the “sound filtering” or subconscious attention learners pay to sounds familiar to L1 and become more aware of and susceptible to L2 sounds. This awareness promotes not only better listening, but also better pronunciation. Accent is not a pre-requisite to communicative competence, but it seems re-teaching the brain can improve accent.

Science Daily (Aug. 2, 2011) — New research into how the bilingual brain processes two very different languages has revealed that bilinguals' native language directly influences their comprehension of their second language. The research, to be published in the journal of Psychological Science, finds that Chinese people who are fluent in English translate English words into Chinese automatically and quickly, without thinking about it. Even though these students are fluent in English, their brains still automatically translate what they see into Chinese. This suggests that knowledge of a first language automatically influences the processing of a second language, even when they are very different, unrelated languages.

In light of this evidence it is clear that the extended knowledge adults have of their first language can and often does, impede the process of learning a second language.

Cognitive Considerations


The term cognition comes from the Latin verb congnosco (con 'with' + gnōscō 'know'), itself a loanword from the Ancient Greek verb gnόsko "γνώσκω" meaning 'learning' (noun: gnόsis "γνώσις" = knowledge), so broadly, 'to conceptualize' or 'to recognize'. Education has the explicit task in society of developing cognition.

Language acquisition in early childhood does not seem to depend as much on aptitude, motivation and the teacher, as do language learning in late childhood and adulthood. Children acquire their mother tongue through interaction with their parents and their environment. Their need to communicate paves the way for language acquisition to take place. It is generally accepted that younger learners fare better in phonemic coding, but older learners fare better in analysing language, the ability to work out the “rules” of a language through metacognitive processes. Adult learners are quicker to use code-switching, that is, formulating or comprehending ideas from a variety of input sources, to form a complete picture. Ellen Rosansky, in Brown (2000:p. 61) offers an explanation noting that initial language acquisition takes place when the child is highly "centred" or one dimensional. A child is not only egocentric at this time, but when faced with a problem, can focus (and then only fleetingly) on one dimension at a time.

Adults are more consciously aware of learning a second language, which might lead to overanalysing of learning. Children learn by listening first. Long before they can speak, they can understand what others are saying. For adults reading is usually the first and easiest skill to acquire, while listening is the most difficult. Even students who know most of the words of a conversation (when they see them written) still can't pick up a conversation in full flow.

Cognition develops as a process of moving from the states of doubt and uncertainty (questions) to stages of resolution and certainty (answers) and then back to further doubt that is, in time, also resolved. And so the cycle continues. Language interacts with cognition to achieve a state of equilibrium. Adult learners might be frustrated by the ambiguities and contradictions in a new language and be discouraged by this, although the greater discipline, motivation and clear goal definition of adults, seem to negate this.

Influenced by Krashen and Terrell’s Natural Approach (1983), the emphasis on communicative methodology in language teaching have brought about a shift away from the use of drill and practice in the classroom. Swain’s 1985 study showed that while rote or mechanical learning does have a place in the classroom, in order to be effective, it must be linked to subject matter of use and interest to the learner. A further interesting phenomenon that has yet to be explored is the role that students' output in drills may also function as input and how this input contributes to acquisition.

Affective Considerations



The next component besides Critical Period Hypothesis of second language acquisition is the variables related to the age factor. Age as an affective factor brings about different performance levels in second language learning, these can be motivation, anxiety, self-confidence, attitude, learning styles and so on. The factors most relevant to second language acquisition (SLA) are: motivation, opportunity, environment, and individual personality.

Motivation

Research on the relationship between motivation and second language acquisition is on-going. Current research looks at instructional practices that teachers use to generate and maintain learner motivation and strategies through which learners themselves take control of

Results (English) 3:

在地球上没有其他物种使用语言或书写--即使在几千年的研究之后仍然没有解决的奥秘。意大利红衣主教约瑟夫卡斯帕据说据说已经超过38种语言流利，读另外的12，在1849在他死的时候。如果他给我们留下一些神奇的公式来学习这么多语言。不过他认真地学习，每天，有几年。大多数成年学习者没有多少年的学习语言，所以为了学习英语作为二语，新的甚至是革命性的教学方法被称为。要理解英语作为第二语言，在成人和儿童的学习过程中，必须注意到不同的差异。似乎有许多假设，有语言学家。专家建议每个人都有一种天生的能力来获得语言。有人认为，人的心灵是天生的学习语言；我们只需添加我们自己的具体语言内容。

这似乎与Krashen的理论相符（如Krashen，SD和特雷尔，该引用（1983）），定义了两个独立系统的第二语言的表现在成人；“习得”和“学习系统”。“获得性系统”或“习得”是一种潜意识过程的产物，在孩子们获得他们的第一语言的过程中，这是非常相似的。这种形式的语言交际也被称为“运动场语言或自然的交流”，在这种语言中，说话者只对“获得信息”感兴趣。形式是价值的，因为它有助于此。学习系统或“学习”是形式化教学的产物，它包括一个有意识的过程，它会导致语言形式的意识知识，例如知识的语法规则。本文将探讨神经、认知，成人与儿童英语学习的情感与语言差异。由于这篇文章的限制，每一个因素都不能在其复杂的过程中进行讨论，但它是试图突出最重要的，在这篇文章中，它被接受，获得第二语言的目的是交际能力，即，正确、恰当地使用语言的能力，以达到交际目的。语言学习过程中所期望的结果是沟通胜任能力，不使用语言是作为母语的能力。

神经因素


有广泛的辩论是否有截止时间，在语言学习是几乎不可能的或至少是极其困难的。的关键时期假说，如由许多研究人员建议，是一个窗口期的早期发展，语言学习似乎没有特别的努力来实现的。Lenneberg（1967）指出，“关键期”的两个大脑半球特化后的功能，这一过程被称为脑功能偏侧化。这导致了大脑可塑性的下降。有不同的想法，当这个过程是完整的，一些研究人员认为，年龄5岁；其他人认为12甚至16岁。科学日报（六月十五日，2005）我们听到和理解第二语言随着年龄的增长变得越来越困难的能力，但成人的大脑可以重新拿起外国的声音又更容易。这一发现，报告的研究中心保罗艾弗森博士为人类的沟通，在“可塑性在言语感知2005车间建立一个新的重要的理论的困难，我们在以后的生活与学习语言不是生物，给予适当的刺激，大脑可以被训练。艾弗森博士说：“成人的学习并不会因为神经可塑性的改变而变得困难。相反，我们现在认为学习是因为我们的第一语言的扭曲的感知经验。我们看到的东西通过我们的母语的镜头和那扭曲的路上我们看到外国语言。”撤销这项学习是很困难的。也就是说，我们在儿童时期改变了我们的看法，使我们在第一语言中听到了我们的声音。这种专业化可以与我们学习的能力，以区分其他语言的声音。通过训练，我们可以从本质上改变我们的“知觉扭曲”，使二语学习更容易。我希望这项研究将导致新的方式训练成人学习外语。“这项研究将改变”的声音过滤”或潜意识的关注者的声音到L1和更加清楚和容易L2听起来很熟悉的可能性。这种觉知不仅促进了更好的听力，而且也有更好的发音。口音不是交际能力的先决条件，但它似乎可以提高大脑的口音。每日科学（2011年8月2日）-如何变成双语大脑处理两种不同语言的新的研究发现，双语者的母语直接影响他们的第二语言的理解。这方面的研究，将发表在心理学杂志上，发现有流利英语的中国人会自动、快速地把英语单词翻译成汉语，而不考虑它。即使这些学生都能流利的用英语，他们的大脑还是会自动把他们所看到的东西翻译成中文。这表明，知识的第一语言自动影响的处理的第二语言，即使他们是非常不同的，无关的语言。

根据这个证据很明显，扩展知识的成年人有他们的第一语言往往能够，阻碍第二语言学习过程中的认知因素。




一词来自拉丁语动词的认知congnosco（CON”“GNōSCō“知道”），从古代希腊动词GNόSKO”γνώσκω“意义学习”一词（名词：GNόSIS”γνώσις”=知识），所以说，“概念化”或“承认”。教育在发展认知的社会中具有明确的任务，早期儿童的语言习得似乎不依赖于智力、动机和教师，作为在童年和成年的语言学习。孩子通过与父母和他们的环境的互动来获得他们的母语。他们需要交流的语言习得的发生铺平了道路。人们普遍认为，年轻的学习者在语音编码更好的票价，但票价分析老年学习者语言更好，通过元认知过程，制定出一种语言的“规则”的能力。成人学习者更快捷地使用代码转换，即从各种输入源中制定或理解思想，形成一个完整的图片。艾伦罗桑斯基，棕色（2000：P.61）提供了一个解释，指出，初始语言习得发生时，孩子是高度“为中心”或一个维度。一个孩子在这个时候不仅是自我中心的，但当面对一个问题，可以关注（而且只有短暂的）在一个时间一个维度。

成年人更加自觉地意识到学习外语，这可能导致overanalysing学习。孩子先听。在他们能说话之前，他们可以理解别人的话。对于成年人来说，阅读通常是获得的第一个也是最容易的技能，而听力是最难的。即使那些最懂一次谈话的学生（他们看他们写的书），还是不能用全流程来进行对话。认知发展过程中，从怀疑和不确定性（问题）的阶段的解决和确定性（问题）的过程中，然后返回到进一步的怀疑，也解决了。这样的循环继续下去。语言与认知相互作用以达到平衡状态。成人学习者可能受到一个新语言的模糊性和矛盾性和气馁的，虽然更大的纪律，动机和目标明确定义的成年人，似乎否定了这个。

由Krashen和Terrell的自然法的影响（1983），语言教学中的交际教学法，在课堂教学中，从课堂教学和实践中的运用，带来了一个转变。Swain的1985项研究表明，在机械或机械的学习并在课堂上有一个地方，为了有效，必须结合使用和感兴趣的学习主题。一个进一步的有趣的现象，还有待探讨的是，学生的输出在演习中的作用，也可以作为输入和如何输入有助于收购。在二语学习中，年龄作为一种情感因素会带来不同的表现水平，这可能是动机、焦虑、自信、态度、学习方式等方面的因素。第二语言习得最相关的因素（SLA）：动机，机会，环境，和个性。

动机

研究动机与二语习得的关系正在进行中。目前的研究着眼于教师的教学实践，以产生和维护学习者的动机和策略，学习者自己采取的控制