1100 Words, Week 20, Day 1 | English Vocabulary

IELTS Writing Task 2 | Paparazzi IELTS Writing Task 2 | Paparazzi  Topic : Wherever high-profile people , such as athletes, entertainers, and other celebrities, show up in public places , a crowd of paparazzi chase them to take photos for commercial purposes . What is your opinion about these independent photographers and their interaction with celebrities? General Information The Academic Writing test takes 60 minutes. It consists of two tasks. The recommended time for each task is: 20 minutes on Task 1 , and 40 minutes on Task 2. Between the two tasks of your Academic Writing Test, you are free to start from the one you like. Your essay should include at least 250 words. You should spend approximately 40 minutes on this task. In this task, your ability to respond to a topic , generate relevant ideas, outline problems and offer solutions to the problems based on your experience and reasoning is measured. IELTS Writing Task 2 falls into the category of argume

Sensitive Period Hypothesis Sensitive Period Hypothesis in comparison to Critical Period Hypothesis The review showed variation in studies and findings with regard to the age groups considered, nature of the pronunciation tests, and length and type of exposure to the second language. One conclusion drawn is that cerebral lateralization is likely to be irrelevant to mastery of accent-free speech in a second language, while age is a factor. Further research on adult second language acquisition is recommended, including examination of possible post- puberty psychomotor disadvantages, adult unwillingness to take risks, and identification with in- or out-groups through language proficiency . It is inferred that there is no innate psycholinguistic factor operating to prevent learning a second language with accent-free pronunciation as an adult, and that language teachers must attend to pronunciation accuracy as they would to accuracy in other aspects of language learning.

Skill Acquisition Theory Skill acquisition theory of language acquisition draw on the distinction between declarative and  procedural knowledge  ( Anderson , 1983).  Anderson  (1993) has proposed a ‘cognitive behaviourist’ model called  ACTR , which sees learning as building up response strengths through a twofold division into  declarative memory  (individual pieces of information) and  procedural memory  (procedures for doing things). As declarative facts get better known, they are gradually incorporated into procedures, and several procedures are combined into one, thus cutting down on the amount of memory involved. According to  DeKeyser  and  Sokalski  (1996), there are two different views about the concept of  practice . On the one hand, if adult SLA is an  explicit learning , process, then one would expect to find the same patterns of learning as for other  cognitive skills . They (1996) continue, “knowledge acquired in declarative (explicit) form is then transformed and au

Declarative Knowledge Declarative knowledge is the same as explicit or controlled knowledge , whereas procedural knowledge is the same is implicit or uncontrolled knowledge . Internalised rules and memorised chunks of the language constitute the ‘what’ of the learner’s system or declarative knowledge ( McLaughlin , 1987). Ellis (1994): “Declarative rules can have top-down influences on perception, in particular by making relevant features salient, thus enabling learners to notice them and to notice the gap between the input and their existing linguistic competence ” (p. 16). The transition of declarative to procedural knowledge takes place in three stages (Ellis, 2008): In the declarative stage, information is stored as facts for which there is no ready-made activation procedure. In the associative stage , because it is difficult to use declarative knowledge, the learner tries to sort the information into more efficient production sets by means of ‘composition’ (col

Inter-group Theory Inter-group Theory Giles and Byrne (1982) identified a number of factors that contribute to a group’s ‘ethnolinguistic vitality’—the key construct in the theory. They then discussed the conditions under which subordinate group members (e.g. immigrants or members of an ethnic minority ) are most likely to acquire native-like proficiency in the dominant group ’s language. These are (1) when in-group identification is weak or the L1 does not function as a salient dimension of ethnic group membership, (2) when inter-ethnic comparisons are quiescent, (3) when perceived in-group vitality is low, (4) when perceived in-group boundaries are soft and open, and (5) when the learners identify strongly with other groups and so develop adequate group identity and intra-group status. The salient variables involved in the Inter-group Model: Identification with own ethnic group: Inter-ethnic comparison: Perception of ethnolinguistic vitality: Perception of in-gr

Humanistic Language Learning Humanistic Language Learning The best introduction to humanistic learning within language education is Stevick (1997, as cited in Nunan, 2003). He believes that particular classroom techniques matter less than establishing the right emotional climate for the learners. According to Stevick (1990), among different language methods and approaches, Community Language Learning (CLL) seems to be the very epitome of humanistic education. In fact, Curran’s CLL is basically concerned with students’ personal feelings, social relations, self-actualisation, and the realisation of intellectual potential. Rogers’s (1951, as cited in Brown, 2000) humanistic psychology under the title of ‘client-centered therapy’ has more of an affective focus than a cognitive one and is said to fall into the perspective of a constructivist view of learning. The philosophical approach known as humanism has found expression in education in approaches that place the experi

Systematicity in SLA Systematicity A substantial part of the SLA research community has concentrated on documenting and trying to understand the discovery that language learning is highly systematic. A defining moment for the field was in the late 70s / early 80s when it became evident that L2 learners follow a fairly rigid developmental route, in the same way as children learning their L1 do, and not dissimilar in many respects from the L1 route. Moreover, this developmental route, crudely represented as a series of interlocking linguistic systems (or interlanguages, sometimes bore little resemblance to either the L1 of the learner, or the L2 being learnt. According to Mitchell and Myles (2004), in the process of interlanguage, “… this kind of data has commonly been interpreted to show that, at least as far as key parts of the second language grammar are concerned, learners’ development follows a common ‘route’, even if the speed or ‘rate’ at which learners actually

Interaction Hypothesis Interaction Hypothesis Long’s Interaction Hypothesis, especially the updated version, claims that learners do need to pay conscious attention to form in order to benefit from negotiated interaction. The origins of Long’s Interaction Hypothesis lies partly in Hatch’s work on discourse analysis and L2 acquisition and partly in Krashen’s Input Hypothesis. Hatch (1978, p. 404) claims, “one learns how to do conversations, one learns how to interact verbally, and out of this interaction syntactic structures are developed”. Long and other IH researchers have been careful to emphasize that interaction involving meaning negotiation only facilitates acquisition; it does not cause acquisition to take place. Modified interaction can only “set the scene for potential learning” (Gass, Mackey & Pica, 1998, p. 304). Furthermore, as Pica (1996) pointed out, the IH does not claim that meaning negotiation is the only type of interaction in which the conditio

1100 Words, Week 19, Day 2 1100 Words, Week 19, Day 2  New Words amnesty – expatriate – exonerate – fiat – mendacious  Words in Context Prince Schubert in Action Prince Schubert’s first move was to declare an amnesty for political prisoners and to invite home all Ruritanian expatriates. Those who had been jailed on false charges were exonerated by special tribunals. The young leader announced that he would abrogate * all of the oppressive fiats that his predecessor had promulgated.* Things began to look up temporarily for the citizens who perceived in Prince Schubert the sincerity, idealism, and honesty that had been lacking in the mendacious King Andre.  Sample Sentences Use the new words in the following sentences. 1. The publisher’s mendacious claims led to a myriad* of law suits. 2. When the jury began to deliberate , they were prepared to exonerate the culprit .* 3. The itinerant* poet, living abroad for twenty years, was a voluntary expatriate . 4.

Critical Period Hypothesis Critical Period Hypothesis Lenneberg hypothesized that cerebral dominance for language did not characterise the initial state of children, but developed gradually from about age two, complete only at puberty . This hypothesis accorded with suggestions that there was a ‘critical period’ for language acquisition , which terminated about the time of puberty . The original formulation of the CPH came from Lenneberg (1967) who noted that “automatic acquisition from mere exposure to a given language seems to disappear after puberty, and foreign languages have to be taught and learned through a conscious and labored effort. Foreign accents cannot be overcome easily after puberty” (p. 176). Lenneberg (1967) saw a correlation between the process of lateralisation, which is not completed until puberty, and a critical period for language learning. MacWhinney (2006) reviewed the evidence for lateralisation as an explanation for the critical period and

Output Hypothesis Output Hypothesis Swain ’s Comprehensible Output Hypothesis emphasises the importance of consciousness, both in terms of learners’ noticing gaps in their interlanguage and developing metalinguistic awareness . The comprehensible output hypothesis constitutes an important addition to work on the role of interaction in L2 acquisition. In other words, output contributes to acquisition. It is in contrast with ‘ input hypothesis ’. Swain’s Output Hypothesis depicts what happens in an L2 learner’s mind when a message flows from the Conceptualiser component to the Formulator and when his/her speech is overtly articulated ( DeKeyser , 2007). Massive input still does not lead to accuracy in all aspects of grammar. That is, input is not sufficient and output plays a significant role in acquisition (Swain, 1995). One way in which output may promote acquisition is by priming learners to attend to linguistic features in the input ( Izumi , 1999). Izumi (

Teacher Education Teacher Education L2 teacher education is, at its core, about teachers as learners of teaching, understanding the cognitive and social processes that teachers go through as they learn to teach is fundational to informing what we do in L2 teacher education ( Johnson , 2009, p. 3). Teacher education is closely related to SLA research and pedagogy . Corder (1980) sensibly points out that teachers cannot wait until researchers have got it right and that it is natural to expect them to go ahead and make use of the best information available. That is, teacher education makes teachers ready to become researchers as well. Teacher education incorporates elements of ‘ teacher training ’, and especially ‘ teacher development ’, but presents a wider view than both of these. For example, it attempts to cater flexibly for teachers’ own learning needs and aims; to develop the whole teacher (knowledge, skills and attitudes); to focus on the teacher’s role as an