A Successful Language Learner: A Successful Language Learner: Prof. May TangProf. May Tang

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Introduction

Who?Prof. May Tang Title:

Lecturer, Department of EnglishNational Koahsiung First University of Science and Technology

Educational Background:M.A. in translation and interpretationCatholic Fu-Jen University

Introduction

Why?

She is one of the professors in our department, so it will be convenient for us to collect data and doing interview with her.

We want to know if her religion is one of her motivation of learning English.

Data collection method

Face-to-face interview Interview’s Recording E-mail

Learning conditions In junior high school Started learning English Began from learning phonetic alphabets Had grammar course separated from

English course Every teacher in her school was harsh

Learning conditions

In high school

Started doing extracurricular reading Most teachers in school lectured in

English Practiced speaking English with

classmates after school Kept journals and had pen pals.

Learning conditions

In university

Majored in English Started reading a large number of books All teachers lectured in English Listened to recordings Became interested in translation

Learner’s characteristics

Age of acquisition Personality Motivation

Age of acquisition

Prof. May Tang Started learning English at age 11

Personality

Extroversion

Risk-taking

Motivation

Successful learning

Positive attitude

Instrumental : Immediate or practical goal Integrative : Personal growth and culture enrichment

Positive Cycle

Behaviorism:

Imitation

Practice

Reinforcement

Habit Formation

Imitation

Repeat what her teacher said.

Imitated the accent of Mrs. Soong Mei-Ling by listening to the recording of her speech.

Listened to English teaching radio program.

Practice

Speaking- Had English conversation with classmate after classes.

Reading-Read the articles her teacher gave her.

Writing-Practiced to write articles for publication.

Reinforcement

Negative feedback: Punishment

Positive feedback: Praise

Habit Formation

Read English novels.

Try to restate the News she had read or heard.

Innatism

LAD Universal Grammar (UG)

→ Ex. Grammar tests

Innatism:Krashen’s “monitor model”

Acquisition-learning hypothesis

Monitor hypothesis Natural order hypothesis Input hypothesis Affective filter hypothesis

Krashen’s “monitor model”:Monitor Hypothesis

The acquired system – initates a speaker’s utterances and responsible for spontaneous language use

The learned system – like an editor or monitor, making minor changes and polishing what the acquired system has produced

→ Ex. Speaking

Krashen’s “monitor model”:Input Hypothesis Acquisition occurs when a learner exposed to

a level which is beyond a learner’s current level

i+1

Ex. Learned phonetic symbols

Krashen’s “monitor model”:Affective Filter Hypothesis

Affect – feelings, motives, needs, attitudes, emotional states

Affective filter – an metaphorical barrier that prevents learners from acquiring language from the available input

→ Ex. Boring classes

The cognitivist/developmental perspective

Information processing

Connectionism

Comprehensible Output Hypothesis

Information processing

Pay Attention: Learners have to pay attention to at first to the language that they are to trying to understand or produce.

Skill Learning: Start with Declarative Knowledge become Procedural Knowledge

Restructuring: Changes in language behaviors

Connectionism

The frequency with which learners encounter specific linguistic features in the input and the frequency with which features occur together.

She prefers to associate words with contexts, such as movie.

Interactionism

Who- classmates

When- after school

They practice English like chatting

The environment

Senior high (Traditional) - lecture in English

University - lecture in English

Comprehensible Output Hypothesis

The importance of environment.

Interaction with others.

Producing language.

Suggestions

Learning a second language can not be interrupted.

Try your best to memorize some good proverbs from books or movies.

Practice makes perfect.

Conclusion

Time

Patience

Diligence