Learning language

1. Psychological Factors Affe
cting Learning Language

2. Psychological factors involved in L2 ac
quisition
 There is variety of factors involved in L2 acqu
isition. For the purpose of our study, we’ll divi
de them roughly into: psychological and soci
al. In addition to these basic divisions (psych
ological/social), we’ll take into consideration
also other individual variables.

3. 3.2. Basic psychological factors affecti
ng L2 learning
 Intellectual processing, memory, and motor s
kills are the basic psychological factors affec
ting L2 learning.

4. Intellectual processing
 Explication
 Induction
 Usually in our common teacher practice, we
observe that the rules and structures of L2 ar
e explained to a learner. It is done either in hi
s/her (learner’s) L1 or L2 and he/she has to a
pply these rules in the L2. The explanation in
the target language (L2) is usually given to m
ore advanced L2 learners.

5. Explication
 It’s important to state that not all the language features can be l
earned entirely by explication. Language is always undergoing
changes and not all the rules have been written down or have b
een completely explained in grammar books. (Also some comm
on topics as English tenses or articles, prepositions, etc. are stil
l topics for discussion in linguistic journals.)
 When you are using the method of explication, you should
be aware that it’s a method that is rarely applicable to young chi
ldren. (Some of you, who are already parents, or teachers of s
mall children, will probably know that.) Young children learn lan
guage (their L1) by the process of induction, mostly. Parents, w
ho will try to use the method of explication, will probably fail, as
in the following example:


6. Example
 “ Parents do not even attempt to explain a relatively
simple rule morpheme rule, like that one of the plural.
You do not hear a parent saying: ‘Now, Mary, to mak
e the plural of “dog” you add a “z” sound to the end o
f the word, while with “duck” you add an “s” sound. Y
ou do this, Mary, because the last sound of “dog” ha
s a voiced consonant and the last sound of “duck” ha
s an unvoiced one!’” (Steinberg, 2001, p. 170).

7. Do you find the previous example amu
sing?
 There are many syntactic rules, some are simple, ot
hers complex. Some of them may be so complex an
d abstract that few people other than students of ling
uistics (and sometimes not even them) can understa
nd them (or use them correctly). Studies done by va
rious researchers (Hammerly, 1975; Robinson, 1996;
both in Steinberg, 2001,p. 171) proved that explicatio
n seemed to work better for simple rules, whereas in
duction (implicit instruction) was better for complex r
ules. Learning rules by self-discovery is the essence
of the process of induction.
 What do you think?

8. What do you think?
 The learner remembers what he/she heard,
must analyze the information and figures out
the rule that underlines that speech. Once th
at person discovered “the rule”, he/she tries t
o see how or if this rule applies in other case
s.

9. Memory
 crucial for language learning
 If the person has suffered from memory impairment,
he/she won’t be able to learn his/her L1 (and much l
ess L2) because learning of L2 words requires mem
ory. The learner of L2 has to be able to link the soun
d /written representation of the word with its meaning.
Such connection between the form and meaning is a
bsolutely arbitrary (with the exception of onomatopoe
ic words); thus the word for the man’s best friend is
“dog” in English, “perro” in Spanish, “Hund” in Germa
n, “chien” in French, “pes” in Czech, “sabaka” in Rus
sian, etc.

10. Memory
 Memory is crucial for learning grammatical st
ructure and rules, and it is only through the m
emory that a learner can accumulate the vast
amount of speech and relevant information.
 For some of this linguistic information, the lea
rner needs time to process it, and further on,
to use it independently.

11. Memory
 Young children display a phenomenal ability at rote
memorizing.
 Have you ever read a bedtime story to your child (ne
phew/niece)? You were reading the story that your c
hild was familiar with because children like to watch,
or to be told the same story many times. So, you wer
e reading the story, tired, your head nodding off to sl
eep and thus you decided to skip some parts of the s
tory. What happened?

12. When does the decline in memory start?
 According to some researchers, around 8 years of age some de
cline in memory begins, and progressing with more decline fro
m about 12 years of age. Thus we can say children under 7 hav
e better memory than children 7-12. Young children (under 7) te
nd to rely more on memory than older children but older childre
n began to apply their cognitive abilities in analyzing the syntact
ic rules of L2. One possible suggestion, or interpretation of the
phenomenon could be the presumption that older children in L2
perform syntactic analyses relatively soon because they have r
ealized that they have problems memorizing all the sentences t
hey have heard; in that way their mental processing in L2 is bei
ng speeded.

13. Short term memory, some interesting i
nvestigations
 Some interesting findings, results of the rese
arch on short-term memory, seem to prove th
at this type of memory increases up to the ag
e of 15 (Hunter, in Steinberg, 2001, p. 174) O
ther interesting research (Cook, in Larsen-Fr
eeman, 1992, p. 202) found that adults were
able to apply their memory better than childre
n in many classroom learning situations but t
his was not valid all the time.

14. Adults/children (investigations)
 They outperform children on language tasks because they can develo
p certain language learning strategies that children cannot.
 Memory seems to begin its sharpest decline around the age of puberty
(due to some changes in the brain). L2 learning becomes more difficult
for 15-20-year-old than for 5-10-year-old (for the short-term memory).
However, previously acquired long-term memories remain intact. It’s in
the L2 (new learning) where a problem with older adult begins. Nevert
heless, such problems cannot be attributed exclusively to the decline i
n memory ability, it goes together with the question whether the adults
continue to engage in higher thinking and analysis or not. If they remai
n intellectually active, there is no reason to think they would not be abl
e to master L2 structures. Yet, there are indicators that L2 learning in a
classroom situation becomes more difficult with age.

15. Motor Skills
 Good pronunciation is clearly part of learning a foreign languag
e.
 The better our pronunciation, the better is our chance to commu
nicate with others.
 Motor skills is a term which psychologists use to describe the u
se of muscles in performing certain skills. It applies to more gen
eral skills, and for speech production, we utilize the articulators
of speech. These include: the mouth, lips, tongue, vocal cords,
hard and soft palates, etc., which are controlled by muscles (an
d they are subsequently controlled by the brain). The articulator
s of speech have to perform certain movements and positions s
o that the sound is produced correctly.