Explanations for differential success among second language learners

WORK-SHOP
EXPLANATIONS FOR DIFFERENTIAL SUCCESS AMONG SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS

1. Name the different explanations linguists give for differential success in SLA.
R: / In this reading we canfind the following explanations for differential success:
* Age
* Language Aptitude
* Social-psychological factors
* Personality
* Cognitive style
* Hemisphere specialization* Learning strategies

2. In your opinion, when dealing with SLA, is it reasonable to try for native-like standards of pronunciation, or is that just wasting teachers’ and students’ time andfrustrating both?
R: / It would depend on the student’s or learners’ age and the proficiency level of the teacher.
If we talk about kids, we should go for native-like standards of pronunciation,since, children are more capable and bound to produce utterances as native people, thanks to their facial muscles which are more flexible than adults one.
Now, if we talk about adults, we can also gofor native-like standards for them, but taking to account that for their age, it would not be impossible, but it would take more time to achieve the goal.
We think that it would not be a wasting oftime, if both (teacher-student) are making an effort in the learning teaching process. It either would not be a wasting time if the teacher sees students’ evolution.
There is also going to befrustrating in both sides, when the student really wants to learn but he/she does not have well developed his/her abilities in order to improve his/her skills, letting behind the learning process. In this case,both (teacher-student) can fell frustration because the goal could not be achieved, in spite of the desire of the student to learn and of the desire of the teacher to teach.
3. Talk about thesocial-psychological explanation in terms of age related differences in SLA.
Social-psychological factor | Children | Adults |
Motivation | Until their unconscious stage they do not need a specific...