Zusammenfassung der Ressource
English Language Acquisition
- Structuralism
- Language is a system of arbitrary signifiers.
Contrasting signs and signifiers make up the
system. The referent is the real thing and is
both the thought of a thing and the thing
itself; neither can exist without the other.
Because of this system of relationships, a
community must adhere to the same
understanding of language.
- Teachers can elaborate on words
relationships to each other to help EL's build
their vocabulary.
- Critical Period Hypothesis
- There is a critical period between 2 and 5 for an
individual to acquire a second language: the
time before lateralization occurs.
- There are advantages and disadvantages
to learning a second language younger
and learning it older.
- Threshold Hypothesis
- A certain fluency in a first language must
be established before a student learns a
second language. The better developed a
student's first language is, the further
developed the second may become.
- Teachers may use cognates as reference points
to help build EL's vocabulary.
- Comprehensibe Input Hypothesis
- A student must be able to understand the
linguistic input that he or she hears.
- Challenge EL's with input that is slightly beyond
the student's level of competence
- Three Aspects of ELP
- 1.) Basic Interpersonal Skills: High frequency vocab
and basic grammar that is usually acquired in 2 to
3 years.
- Emersion is highly beneficial
for students at this level.
- 2.) Discrete Language Skills: The development of rule
governed language comprehension. Typically learned in
2-3 years.
- Here is when comparing language systems based on
their similar grammar could help students learn
English grammar
- 3.) Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency: The ability
to produce and interpret increasingly complex and low
frequency language.
- The goal in the classroom is to have EL learners
achieve the same level of academic reading,
writing, and speaking as their non-EL peers.