Language Anxiety

Páginas: 8 (1791 palabras) Publicado: 24 de julio de 2012
Conceptual Framework

In order for this research proposal to have a theoretical ground, two concepts will guide the development of this study. Language aptitude, which is the ability to learn a second language; overgeneralization, which introduces a nonstandard spelling given by a grammatical rule and applies it to all verbs in the past tense. Ideas and arguments by Carroll’s (1950),Stanfield’s (1989), and Robinson’s (2005) ideas on the matter will be exposed to support the concept of language aptitude. Finally, the concept of overgeneralization will be explained based on, Marcus’ (1992), Selinker’s (1995), and Ullman’s (2001) ideas on the matter.
Language Aptitude

This is regarded as a term related to individual performance of students in class, for low enthusiasm and lack ofattention are specific behaviors which influence the well-development in an EFL class. Additionally, this term is seen as a sign of learning disability. To be clearer Carroll (1950) defined language aptitude as the individual process of learning a foreign language seeing it as the ability that someone has in order to learn a language faster than other person. Furthermore, to support this definitionCarroll also clarified the concept by giving four different abilities that are taking into account when language aptitude is being tested; for instances the phonetic coding ability, which is the association of sounds with symbols, grammatical sensitivity, the recognition of a lexical element and the function of it in a statement, rote learning ability, the retention of new meanings and linking thosemeanings with the correct word in the new language, and the inductive learning ability, which attributes the inference of new rules in a language structure. To conclude Carroll (1950) said:

“It is important to keep in mind that, given enough time and reasonably good instruction, virtually anyone can learn a second language, but people differ in terms of the rate and ease with which they canlearn.  Scores from a language aptitude test can therefore be used to help to determine how much time will be sufficient for an individual language learner to accomplish a given goal, assuming that the individual has at least some motivation to learn”.

Carroll’s arguments leads me to think that language aptitude encourages the learning process of a foreign language. However, there are moreelements to take into consideration; for instance, the Phonetic coding ability is clearly a fact that learning is an individual process that depends on the fellow would take less or more time to learn a foreign language.

Stanfield (1989) defined language aptitude as the period of time taken by one person to accomplish certain set of specific goals in a foreign language learning process.Additionally, Stanfield (1989) based his concept of language aptitude on the grounds that the process of learning could be affected by such external factors as teacher’s characteristics, methodology implemented by the institution, language skills to be taught, the classroom environment and proficiency level that needs to be implemented according to the course. Finally Stanfield (1989) said:

“A new programof language aptitude research, test development, and data collection and analysis might improve our ability to predict successful language learning and to tailor the classroom environment and instruction to individual students. Perhaps the time has come when the notion of foreign language aptitude needs to be expanded and refined, and related to factors other than the learner”.

Based onStanfield’s ideas, I consider that the influence of external factors in the process of learning is a relevant characteristic in the language aptitude which holds certain behaviors that interfere in the learning process of a foreign language. It is also important to highlight the amount of time and tasks students would take in order to accomplish certain goals in the curriculum.

Robinson (2005)...
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