I really liked how Larson-Freeman summed up her article. She listed the important things that ESL teachers need to keep in mind.
1. The learning acquisition process is complex.
2. The process is gradual.
3. The process is non-linear.
4. The process is dynamic.
5. Learners learn when they are ready to do so.
6. Learners rely on the knowledge and experience they have.
7. It is not clear if negative feedback is effective in helping language learners.
8. For most adult learners, mastery of the L2 language is impossible.
9. Every learner is different.
10. Language learning is a social phenomenon.
I think these items best sums up our course for this semester!

Englsih for Specifc Purpose

I found this article to be interesting and difficult to keep up. I didn't realize there were so many acronyms for all these English courses available. Whatever the case I think we have to keep in mind context--the big picture.

Communication is more than an exchange of words and interpreting the meaning of words. A lot of times things are implied or you have to read between the lines. No matter what purpose someone may have for learning English one must understand the culture that the English is being used in.

I support and I also understand the importance of learning English for a Specific Purpose. There are terms and phrases that everyday people do not use that doctors, pilots, technicians, etc. use.

SLA: Awareness

I found the section in Chapter 10 about language acquisition awareness interesting. I was thinking about phonemic awareness while I reading this section. What is awareness??? Awareness is not mastering a subject matter but enabling a subject matter to be in the subconscious of the learner.
I wonder if language awareness can be compared to phonemic awareness? Anytime we want a learner to be in awareness of something it is assumed that they have no or limited knowledge of the subject matter. Therefore, I think it is safe to apply some principles and philosophy of phonemic awareness to language acquisition awareness issues. For example, reading stories aloud and listening to stories on tape provide ample opportunities to develop literacy skills, such as, vocabulary, text structure, context clue, and many more.
In language awareness, I think that exposing students to a variety of language experiences will stimulate learning. Although the students are not learning consciously the subconscious materials they learn will later emerge as they learn new skills or become proficient in the language.

Interlingual vs. Intralingual

There are two types of interferences with second language aquisition.

Interlingual is the effect of language forms when two languages cross or overlap. It involves with accurate pronunciation or proper way of describing something. For example, instead of "Jackbook" someone may say "the book of Jack."

I speak Enlgish more than my native tongue and I find myself constantly doing that when I try to translate something in English to Hmong. In English the adjective goes before the noun and in Hmong it is the opposite. In Hmong to say "the blue sofa" is to be said "the sofa that is blue", however, I usually end up saying it the English way and my parents will give me a wierd look!

Intralingual has more to do with proper usage of grammer. Intralingual usually occurs once a large portion of the second language has been acquired. This is where they start making mistakes of the English language that is not explicitly taught, such as, irregular verbs and the correct or incorrect usage of articles.

Universal Grammar

I had a really difficult time understanding the concept of Universal Grammar. I had to do additional research to grasp the UG idea and concept. At first I read Hawkins' article and struggled with the definition. I went to several different sites to read about UG and now have a better understanding of UG and POS (Poverty of Stimulus). I found a site that Joanne Hedges commented on and I thought she did a good job explaining UG and POS:

"This is where U.G. comes in, it is proposed that U.G. is an innate, unconscious ability present at birth, a knowledge of grammar. This is not suggesting that a child does not make grammatical errors, as we all know, children do, but it seems that they only make irregular type errors, such as "he holded" instead of "he held", so somehow they have the ability to accept these rules and apply them. It can be argued, by people such as Skinner, that these rules are simply learnt through conditioning, but how can this be so? As the child never hears anyone make these mistakes, so do not learn them that way, this is the poverty of the stimulus theory i.e. there is not enough, or indeed any, of this kind of stimulus to learn from. With U.G. set in place at birth, the child is able to take on whichever language it is exposed to, as all languages have common elements and are inter- translatable. "

I felt Ellis' article also shed some light about UG. I think I would have to agree with Ellis that UG is just a theory of "grammatical competence" and not "pragmatic." I find UG an interesting but a complicated theory because there are not enough research and evidence to back it up.

Misconceptions About Age and Learning L2`

This was a really interesting article. This article argued against the critical period theory. The author suggested that though there are some truths to the theory, it cannot rule out that adults cannot achieve master of an L2 language.

I thought the author's arguments were well thought out pointing to many factors that determines an adult's success with an L2 language. Some factors are the environment (is the adult given opportunities to have communcative experiences?), support and individual ability to learn a new language.

At the end of the article the author talked about introducing foreign language in the early years of school. I found this part to be relavent to my school district right now. Last year we started a pilot program in five schools introducing Spanish in the first grade. The district has decided to continue the program. I think the author pointed out some very important factors that will determine the effectiveness of the program. If students are learning an L2 language at a young age for a few years and stops then they will lose the language. Therefore, the investment was a lost. To make the program successful there must be a systematic plan to encourage an on-going use and learning of the language.