My Experience for Second Language Acquisition

My SLA is failure. There are several reasons for it.

There are three types of teacher. Involver is knowledgable about subject and knows teaching techniques. He has strong rapport with the students and asks questions and makes balance between S.T.T and T.T.T. So classroom is dynamic.

Enabler also has knowledge about the subject and has strong rapport, and excellent management. He gives students tools and makes active classroom dynamics. Explainer has knowledge about subject but teaching techniques are lack. He has weak rapport. T.T.T is high and classroom dynamics is stale.

My teacher was an explainer. Mostly he talked and I wrote down what he said. Without Interaction between teacher and students, language acquisition is not successful.

Individual learner differences are various like their interests, motivation,  intelligence, levels in various language systems and skills, abilities etc. During my schooldays, individual learner differences were not considered.

And It was the traditional teaching. My classroom was overcrowded .Students were about 70. Desk arrangement was rows. There was no pair work like in modern teaching. Teaching was manly auditory and teacher centered. Students were passive and just studying language. It developed rule former students who were scared to make mistakes.

Visual and kinesthetic mode were barely used in the class. Most of classes  consisted of lecture and reading. After I had the test, easily forgot what I have learned.

The learner retention rates of lecture or reading are low. The leaner retention rates of teaching others(90%), experiential learning(80%), discussion groups(75%) are high. Teaching others is learning by doing which is the highest learner retention rates. Live demonstration by teacher(50%) is more memorable than audio-visual(20%). Lecture and reading's learner retention rates are just 5 to 10 percents.

My teacher has used only verbal among multiple intelligence. There are eight multiple intelligence theory. Verbal is the ability to use words well, both in speaking and writing like poets. Logical intelligence is the ability to use logic to solve problems and works well with numbers like scientist. Visual is high sensitivity to  colour, shape, and dimension like artists. Kinesthetic is the ability to solve problems using the body like athletes and surgeons. Musical is high sensitivity to sound, rhythm, tone, and volume like singers and musicians. Interpersonal is the ability to know and work well with other people like teachers and councillors. Intrapersonal is the ability to know and reflect on personal opinions like psychologists. Naturalist is the ability to understand and attune with nature like botanists and veterinarians. When at least three multiple intelligence are used, the teaching could be more effective.

Second language acquisition is subconscious acceptance of knowledge which is not conscious of knowledge "about" a language. The information stored deeply in the brain through the use of natural communication. The process of developing is the same as the first language. It helps student to acquire the language instead of just learning it. That was why my SLA was failure. Comprehensible input should be one step beyond the learner's current language ability and the teacher should create many opportunities for language acquisition. The ideal way is to create a situation wherein language is used in order to fulfil authentic purposes. According to monitor hypothesis, the acquisition system initiates an utterance and the learning system monitors the utterance to insect and correct errors. The monitor can sometimes act as a barrier for learner to slow down and focus more on accuracy as opposed to fluency. The balance between encouraging accuracy and fluency in students is important. For any given language, certain grammatical structures are acquired while others are acquired later in the process. This hypothesis suggests that this natural order of acquisition occurs independently and teachers cannot change the order of a grammatical teaching sequence. Also It is important to create a safe, welcoming environment to remove the affective filter such as anxiety, self-confidence, motivation and stress which prevents input from reaching the language acquisition part of the brain.

As a teacher when I teach adults,  I will consider the six principles of Malcolm Knowles. Adults are internally motivated and self-directed and bring life experiences. Adults are goal oriented, practical, relevancy oriented and like to be respected. Also as a teacher I will try to listen to my students and show respect. And I will know the subject matter well and be well  organized. And I want to be honest and authentic.