Sunjung Baer Ling 423 Final Essay Test

1. One of the newest fields in linguistics is language attrition. Teachers, governments, and corporations are excited about the results of this area of research and what it may say to those who are responsible for language learning and retention. Discuss what we know so far from the research. (2/3 page) Language attrition is language loss that happens to individuals. When it happens to individuals usually receptive skills (reading and listening) tend to be lost faster than productive skills (writing and speaking). It is important to learn about it for teachers, governments, corporations, and any groups or people who are interested in and put time and effort into language learning. They can apply their understanding about how language has been lost into their teaching so that they can prevent people from losing the language that they learned and they can save their time and effort they that put in language learning. There are four stages of language attrition. The first stage is losing the first language in the first language environment. It happens to people when they get injured, Alzheimers, or aging. The second stage is losing first language in a second language environment. It happens when people use their first language less after they moved to a second language environment. This is happening to me very slowly because I am currently using English more than Korean. I sometimes cannot remember Korean words, and the way I speak Korean is getting less logical than it used to be. The third stage is losing the second language in a first language environment. It happens to most people who learned a second language in school. Since they do not have many chances to use their second language in the first language environment, it is easy for them to lose their second language. The last stage is losing second language in the second language environment. Even if people learn a second language and live in the second language country, if they still use their first language more than using their second language, their first language will be lost. It is happening to one of my friends at BYUH right now. She told me that she used to use English more fluently when she was in the BYU Provo EIL program, but now she uses English only in her classes and uses Korean most of the time after she moved to BYUH because her friends and family are Korean (she is married to a Korean, and living in TVA with him, her son, and her grandmother). Thus, her English skills are degenerating due to her situation. Relating to the language attrition, there are several theories and hypotheses that we can see. The first one is the regression hypothesis, which argues that people will lose one language when they learn another language. The second one is marked-ness theory. It argues that marked things which are so unnatural that people need to put more time and effort to learn are hard to be recalled and used by people. Thus, anything that is marked will be lost easily. The third one is the savings paradigm, which argues that nothing will be lost. Since everything remains in peoples minds the only thing that people need to do is recall them, which gives people a hard time. The fourth one is critical mass. It argues that when people reach a certain level of knowledge about a subject, the things that they learn will be hard to be lost. The fifth one is re-learning. It is related with the savings paradigm and it argues that through certain kinds of stimulus and environment people are able to retain the language.

By understanding language acquisition we are able to see that language can be retainable or unforgotten with recycle, reflections, and stimulus. Literacy is one of the methods that can be used to retain the language. It will enrich the connection between the people and the language and it will cause the language to be sustained longer. Teachers, governments, corporations, and any group or people who are in the language field should be able to use the recycle, reflecting, and stimulus methods in order to prevent people from losing the language that they obtain.

2. Briefly define the two dimensions of pragmatic competence (sociopragmatics, and pragmalinguistics) and then discuss whether or not, when and how, valuable class time should be spent on teaching L2 pragmatics. (2/3 page) Sociopragmatics: it is competence of interpreting the social context based on the social knowledge. For example, people develop their second language culture based on their own cultural lens, and through this, people decide what they should do when they deal with the situations that they face with. Pragmalinguistics: Language gives people a few options of chunk (phrasal unit) that can be used in certain situations, and people should choose and use them. Since it does not come naturally, people should memorize a lot of phrasal units in order to know what to say in the situation properly. Pragmatics takes a long time (almost 10 years) to obtain competence in, which is an ability to generate peoples reaction and react with it in the correct way. Also, because it is related to the interaction with others, it will decide the peoples personality and identity with using the target language. Thus, I personally think that it should be taught as soon as people start learning the language so that they can take time to learn and they can learn it before their personality and identity are fossilized (however, deciding when to teach, and how long it should be taught depends on the teacher). An ethnographic approach is one of the ways that pragmatics has been taught to students who are learning the target language. It is a study abroad program, and the program expects students to have a positive attitude and raise cultural awareness and interests toward the culture and people of the target language by facing real cultures by providing real world experiences to students. Recently, by the ethnographic approach being applied in the classroom, teachers become ethnographers, and pragmatics start to be taught in class. For example, at BYUH, there is one online class that students can take before they get to campus, and it teaches students university life in America, specifically BYUH, so that students can be ready when they come to campus. Also, there is one class on campus that EIL students from different countries need to take in their first semester. It teaches university life and general American culture so that they can achieve their pragmatic competence and deal with the culture and people in a proper way. Task-based teaching is another way to teach pragmatic competence to students. For example, using the speech act or chunk, teachers can teach how students can act properly in certain situations. I really liked the activity that we did in the Linguistic 423 class where we had to write proper sentences that can be used in certain situations. I am sure that it will help raise awareness of the situation and teach them the proper way to deal with it to the students. Also, teachers can teach the 3 Fs which are festival, foods, and facts to students in order to help them raise their awareness of the target language culture.

3.

Discuss the role of culture in the English as an International Language classroom and how we have moved away from the old facts-based target culture approach and toward a more global skills-based, ethnographic, intercultural competence approach. (2/3 page) Understanding the target language culture is very important in the EIL classroom because languages are related to and reflect society. Also, depending on the experience that students get in the target language culture, they will either have an extremely positive or negative view about the culture, and it will lead them to have full of motivation to learn the target language or less motivation to learn it. The target language culture used to be taught in an old facts-based approach (giving skills), which is a much more surfaced and stereotypical way. For example, in a facts-based approach classroom, students used to be taught that people in Hawaii only wear slippers. They could not know the reason why people in Hawaii only wear slippers, and they also could not know that people in Hawaii dont only wear slippers but also different kinds of shoes. Throughout a period of time, the way of teaching culture has changed to an ethnographic and intercultural approach (giving facts), which will lead students to be an armature ethnographer; observing, participating and analyzing the target language culture, and looking at it in a critical way so that they can have a better understanding about it. In an ethnographic and intercultural approach, teachers are aware of the real meaning of the language (language is not only about the grammar but also about the culture) and teach students five notions of contexts of the language, which are linguistic level, situational level, interactional level, cultural level, and inter-textual level. Also, in order to help students to be an armature ethnographer, teachers teach students to be aware of not only the target culture, such as food and festivals, but also their own culture so that they can see other peoples culture more clearly. Besides, teachers teach students to raise their sensitivity toward the culture through a multitude of exposure or persecution about the culture so that students can learn about the culture and dont judge them. If students are able to raise their awareness and sensitivity about the culture, students will be able to achieve the intercultural competence and they can become an armature ethnographer.

4. In the increasingly political world of ESL/FL it seems that we must all practice critical pedagogy to some extent. Explain the major beliefs surrounding this approach and why they are important for teachers and learners of ESL/FL. (2/3 page) The major belief about critical pedagogy in second language is power because language gives power to a certain group or people. Since language has power, when certain countries conquer another country, the first thing that they try to change is the language that is spoken in the country. For example, when Japan conquered Korea they forced people to use Japanese and persecuted people who used Korean in order to have power over Korea. Also, at the American military base in Korea they teach Korean to American soldiers to prepare for a situation that they need to control Korean people at the

base, such as mutiny. Besides, one of the reasons why the United States is able to maintain their power in the world is that English has become an international language. Because of the power that critical pedagogy has, as an ESL/FL teacher it is easy for us to think that we have more power than other language teachers in current society now that English is used as an international language and important to learn. Also, it is easy for us to have a prideful attitude that everyone SHOULD learn English or everyone BETTER learn English and select the learning materials without considering the learners. Besides, we might abuse English instead of using it in a proper way, like previous Christian missionaries who went abroad to teach English but actually preached the gospel. If we have those bad attitudes or mind toward the language we need to clear our mind and attitude and remind ourselves who we are as an ESL/FL teacher and the original purpose of teaching English to students. As a teacher, it is impossible to be a teacher who does not give any influence to someone. Thus, we need to be ready to be a model that can influence others in a positive and respectful way. As a learner, we need to have a critical mind about learning English because, as I mentioned before, English language teachers and teaching materials can have certain power and can be brutal in classroom. Thus, we should be able to be critical consumers in order to deal with them. Also, because learning English might be able to give power to us in society, we also can have a bad attitude and mind toward others that are learning another language or not learning any second language, and I used to be one that thought English is the best language to learn and criticized people who did not learn English. Thus, we should be able to clarify that even though English is an international language and gives a certain power, it is a choice that should be made by each person whether they should learn English or not, and we should respect their choice.

5.

How does identity affect second language learning? (2/3 page)

Identity works as a filter inside of us so it reflects and gives effects on everything that we learn. Since our identity is not fixed and it is always moving, it makes everything complex. Also, identity is not just about ones self, but it is about the group, society, and power. Identity can be tied up with the integrative motivation and affect second language learning. If peoples identity is open to change or not based on the society or culture that they are belong to, they can enhance their motivation to learn the target language. For example, my husband told me that when he was serving his mission in Taiwan, he really wanted to be a part of the society and culture of Taiwan, and it motivated him to learn the language better, and at the end of his mission he was able to reach the point that he could translate from English to Mandarin at church. Also, depending on the identity that people have, it will help them to learn their heritage language. For example, Hawaiians still learn pidgin and Hawaiian as their second language. Their identity as Hawaiian is so strong that it helps them to learn their original and family language. It also makes people resist learning a new language if their desire about keeping their own identity is too strong. Along with it, when people try not to lose themselves, they will keep their original language as their second language. From the social linguistics class I was able to learn that peoples first language can change depending on the environment that they are in. For example, if people are in an environment where they speak English most of time, and one they feel comfortable with speaking English, English becomes their first language

and their original language becomes a second language. During this change, when we compare two groups of people who want to keep their own identity from their culture, and who do not care about it, we can clearly see that the first group of people keeps their own language at least as their second language. Besides, when people want to portray that their particular identity has power, it helps people to learn a second language. For example, in Korea, people try to portray their identity as Westerners, especially Americans, because it gives them more money and helps them to be in a certain position with a certain amount of power. Thus, there are a lot of people who want to learn English as their second language.