Language Acquisition & Effective Teaching Strategies

Posted on Aug 7, 2025 in Other civil servant exams

First Language Acquisition

Definition: It is the process whereby children become speakers of their native language.

Learning a language is not learning to read and write. You can speak, understand, and discuss in your language without reading or writing.

It is remarkable the speed at which it takes place.

Second Language Acquisition

Definition: Is the way in which people learn a language, different from their mother tongue, inside or outside a classroom.

In this process, it is important:

• Opportunities learners have to hear and speak the language.
• The social conditions in which it takes place.
• The input that learners receive. Learning cannot occur without input.
• This input has to be contextualized and meaningful to be understood.
• It should be done in relaxing and friendly conditions.

Krashen’s Hypotheses

1. Acquisition vs. Learning.
2. Monitor Hypothesis.
3. Natural Order Hypothesis.
4. Input Hypothesis.
5. The Affective Filter.
6. Critical Period Hypothesis.

Acquisition vs. Learning

Acquisition: It is the process whereby children become speakers of their native language. It is an unconscious and informal process of “picking up” the language. It requires meaningful interaction.

Learning: A conscious and formal process of accumulating knowledge of a language.

Monitor Hypothesis

It’s the device that learners use to edit and correct their language production. Learners think about what they are saying or writing. Learners self-correct and self-repair their production.

Interlanguage

This term was coined by Larry Selinker. He stated that learners’ language contained a number of errors which have no connections with L1 or L2.

Definition: Is a system used in SLA which contains aspects of L1 and L2 but is variable and has its own rules.

Teaching Young Learners / Children

Children make a cognitive and affective effort to internalize both native and second language. This effort is subconscious. They reject language that is not meaningful or authentic.

Teaching Children

Therefore:

• Language must be contextualized.
• A whole language approach is essential.

Importance of Second Language in Primary Education

Concrete Operational Stage

• At this stage, children are capable of mental operations and internalized actions that fit into a logical system.
• Operational thinking allows children to combine, separate, order, and transform objects and actions.
• These operations are concrete because the objects are present.
• When teaching languages, elements and events that can be seen, heard, touched, and felt when the language is used must be present.

At this stage, children can hold several items of information at the same time. They use memory strategies. Rhymes and chants can be useful to develop memory skills.

They also love games and playing with peers. They like fantasy role-play and taking part in imaginary situations, so we should carry out game-like activities in our classrooms.

Teaching by Principles

Affective Principles

6. Language Ego:

• When we learn to use a second language, we develop a new way of thinking, feeling, and acting: a second identity.
• This language ego can create a sense of fragility and inhibition within the learner.

7. Self-Confidence:

• Learners need to believe that they are fully capable of accomplishing a task to be successful.

8. Risk-Taking:

• Successful language learners must be willing to take risks, to attempt to produce and to interpret language that is beyond their absolute certainty.

9. The Language-Culture Connection:

• When you teach a language, you also teach a complex system of cultural customs, values, and ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.

An Enlightened, Eclectic Approach

• Enlightened, eclectic teachers consider possible methodological options for adapting classes to particular contexts.
• The eclectic approach includes a number of basic principles of learning and teaching for designing and evaluating classroom lessons.
• Your approach to language-teaching methodology is based on a global understanding of the process of learning and teaching.
• It is inspired by the interconnection.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

• Focus on all components of communicative competence.
• Pragmatic, authentic, and functional use.
• Fluency and accuracy.
• Reception and production.
• Learning styles and strategies.
• Teacher’s role: facilitator and guide.

Students in a communicative class have to use the language productively and receptively.

Learner-Centered Instruction

This term applies to curricula and techniques.

• Techniques that focus on learners’ needs, styles, and goals.
• Techniques that give control to the student.
• Consultation and input of the students.
• Techniques that allow for student creativity and innovation.

Cooperative and Collaborative Learning

• Cooperative, not competitive.
• Students work together in pairs or groups.
• They are a team, and the players must work together to achieve goals successfully.

Interactive Learning

Competence is the essentially interactive nature of communication.

In interactive classes, students:

• Do a significant amount of pair and group work.
• Receive authentic language input in real-world contexts.
• Practice oral communication through the spontaneous give and take of real conversations.
• Write for real audiences.

Whole Language Education

The term ‘whole language’ is used to emphasize:

• The wholeness of language as opposed to language bits.
• The interaction between oral language and written language.
• The importance of natural written code.

Content-Based Instruction

Is the integration of content learning with language teaching aims.

Task-Based Instruction

• Task-based instruction focuses on authentic language through meaningful tasks such as visiting the doctor or a phone call.
• Students are encouraged to use language creatively through tasks and problem-solving.
• Assessment is based on the final task result.

Towards a Classroom Model of Communicative Competence

• Grammatical competence.
• Sociolinguistic competence.
• Discourse competence.
• Strategic competence.

Grammatical Competence

• Also called linguistic competence.
• It is the mastery of the linguistic code: lexical, morphological, syntactic, phonological features.

Sociolinguistic Competence

• It has to do with the social rules of language use.
• It requires an understanding of:

• The social context in which language is used.
• The roles of the participants.
• The information they share.
• The function of the interaction.

Discourse Competence

• Also called textual competence.
• It is concerned with the connection of sentences or utterances to form a meaningful whole.

Strategic Competence

• There is not an ideal speaker who knows the language perfectly and uses it appropriately in all social interactions.
• Strategic competence refers to those strategies speakers use to compensate for imperfect knowledge.

Oral Communication & Interaction: Listening & Speaking

• How language is understood and produced.
• Language requires negotiation of meanings through interaction.
• Functions.
• Need a limited selection of lexical phrases and vocabulary to participate in oral and interactive tasks.
• First, we establish the functional goal and select the set of lexical contents.
• Then, students should do imaginative activities to develop their speaking and listening competence.
• A silent period for beginners.

Listening Activities Should Include:

• Single speaker with a clear voice.
• Or more speakers, their voices clearly distinguished.
• Beginning with preparation for the task.
• Gestures, drawings, body language, and music.
• First language as a helping hand.

Developing Listening Comprehension:

• Listening should be taught systematically, in varied ways, and regularly.
• Pre-listening, while-listening, and after-listening stages.
• Learners must be motivated for the listening task.
• Pupils don’t have to understand every word.

Activities:

• Picture Dictation: They must be easy and familiar to the listener.
• Spelling: Improves accuracy. It has a variety of activities, exercises, and games.
• Songs:
  • Provide examples.
  • Improve vocabulary, grammar, lexical, and sociocultural competence.
  • Dramatizing the song’s lyrics can help to make the meaning clear.

Reading

Basic skill. It is a receptive skill which activates a chain of cognitive processes.

The primary teacher should follow these principles:

• Texts should introduce cultural references.
• Adapted to learners’ cognitive development.
• Cover a variety of topics.
• Encourage motivation and self-esteem.

Approaches to Reading in Second Language

Bottom-Up Process:

Every letter, and then organizes words into phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Top-Down Process:

Not decoding every single word to figure out the general meaning.

Styles of Reading

Reading Aloud:

The activity is more effective if the story is told or read aloud because learners become more involved and motivated.

Silent Reading:

• Scanning: It is concerned with the search for specific information in the text.
• Skimming: It is used to get the global idea.
• Intensive: It focuses on linguistic and content accuracy.
• Extensive: General understanding of a text.

Reading Tasks to Develop Reading Skills

Pre-reading tasks introduce the topic of reading and activate schemata:

• Identifying the topic of a text.
• Predicting possible information.
• Exploring key vocabulary.
• Using any visual support.

While-reading tasks guide the reader through the text and are related to bottom-up processes:

• Understanding the punctuation.
• Making inferences.
• Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details.
• Skimming to obtain the general idea.

After-reading tasks extend ideas and information from the text and check that main ideas are understood:

• Relating content to other reading.
• Summarizing the content.
• Answering comprehension questions.
• Completing a graph.

Writing

Productive skill: producing a connected text, not only single sentences.

Differences Between Written and Spoken Discourse

Spoken Language:

More informal: the situational context helps understanding. An immediate response is obtained from the audience.

Written Language:

Formal and polished. Conscious process. Only the linguistic context is available.

The Writing Process

Three important questions:

• The content that you are writing for.
• The addressee or reader who you are writing for.
• The purpose why you are writing.

Personal Writing: Memory aids and entertainment.

Personal and Public Writing: Study writing and creative writing.

Public or Institutional Writing: Public writing, social writing, and professional writing.

Towards a Methodology for Teaching Writing

Familiarization: Activities focus on spelling and vocabulary.

Controlled Writing: Activities with little communicative function but they limit pupils’ failure.

Guided Writing: The learner begins written sentences following guidelines.

Free Writing: Activities such as letters, descriptions, poems.

Teachers can help students.

Evaluating Speaking Skills

Speaking requires correct use and implies interaction.

Students’ oral competence can be evaluated based on:

• Fluency.
• Pronunciation.
• Use of grammar.
• Vocabulary.
• Communicative ability.

The teacher can use a rating scale or interview.

Evaluating Written Communication

Written communication includes reading and writing skills.

The evaluation of the two competences can be integrated into the same test.

Reading Items: Students are supposed to understand written texts.

Writing Items: Writing centers around the mastery of vocabulary, spelling, and grammar.

In the first years, short messages and brief texts are expected.

At the end of the stage, learners must be able to write texts following the conventions of the written language.