TESOL 01 : Second Language Acquisition Assignment

How many languages do you speak? You may be able to speak at least 2 languages. Living in this global world, learning a second language seems to be very important for us. Second language is very useful when we travel abroad, making foreign friends, even getting a job. Learning a second language is a very long and a complex undertaking. It is related to reach beyond the confines of our first language and into a new language, a new way of thinking, feeling and acting and requires a lot of effort and patience on the learner's part. what is the best method to learn a second language, then?

In the Western world, learning foreign language in schools was synonymous with the learning of Latin or Greek. Latin was taught by means of what has been called the 'Classical Method' which came to be known as the 'Grammar Translation Method' late in the 19th century. It focuses on grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary and of various declensions and conjugations, translation of texts, doing written exercises. When I was in school, I remember learning English as my second language was not interesting at all. I had to memorize endless  lists of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary, produce perfect translations and choose a correct answer after reading passage. It was a typical 'Grammar Translation Method'. My class was taught in first language (Korean). It means teacher hardly used second language (English). Much vocabulary was taught in the form of lists of isolated words. Furthermore, there was little attention to pronunciation but rather It  was much more important to read a text and translate sentences from first language to second language. As a result, I know lots of vocabulary and grammar rules exactly and can read and translate almost perfectly but I am not accustomed to speaking it. So my English is like a dead one. Of course, when adults learn English as a second language, Memorizing lots of vocabulary and grammar rules can be somewhat helpful to be able to let them understand a structure of English. But it has a big problem - 'not useful' in a communicative way. So we need a more practical methodology : 'Communicative Language Teaching'. It is and eclectic blend of the contributions of previous methods into the best of what a teacher can provide in authentic uses of the second language in classroom. Indeed, the single greatest challenge in the profession is to move significantly beyond the teaching of rules, patterns, definitions, and other knowledge about language to the point to teaching students to communicate genuinely, spontaneously, and meaningfully in the second language. It can make up for the weak point of the previous method.

No single theory can be perfect by itself. There is no instant recipe in learning second language. Every learner is unique. Every teacher is unique and every context is unique. Therefore we, as teachers, can choose particular designs and techniques for teaching a foreign language in a specific context.