An Illustrative Language Case Study Of Ishotas On.docx

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL Main Campus, R. Palma Street, Cebu City MASTERS OF ARTS IN EDUCATION Major in English Teaching

Midterm Examination In

Language Acquisition and Learning ( 11:30 am - 2:30 pm )

A Language Case Study of Ishotas on Noam Chomsky’s Lingusitic Competence and Performance and Stephen Krashen’s Five Hypothesis

Submitted to: Dr. Grace Vip Derasin Submitted by:

Jellin G. Montano Background of the Subject

The research subject of this case is covered by the name Ishotas. He is Japanese and currently learning English. He isn’t a complete beginner. He studied English when he was Junior High School. He wasn’t able to finish his High School, he dropped from school because he believe he can just get a job without a degree. Right now, he is married and has one son.

Ishotas joined some language exchange applications online. The reason is not to learn English but to make friends with foreigners. In there, he was able to teach his language to some people at the same time get his goal in making friends. As time passed by, his newly found friends especially from England, America and Australia started to communicate outside that website. And then, he realized that he needs to study English because his foreigner friends knows basic Japanese which able him to understand them but he doesn’t know so much about English. He said that sometimes language matters in mutual understanding especially feelings and emotions.

And so he found my current company right now which is providing an online English service to Japanese people. When he first dropped by in my class, I can’t really understand him. As an online ESL teacher, I could say that he is a beginner specifically in the bracket B. So it means that, he knows very few vocabularies, can’t construct sentences well and do actions to let him be understood.

Ishotas case is not new to me. Many Japanese people are in the same case or worse than him. English as Foreign Language ( EFL ) to them, I can just understand the problems they have. Ishotas and I didn’t have the chance to learn English in a structured

way that is learning through textbooks focusing on grammar, pronunciation, vocabularies and etc. He’s the kind of student who’s practical. He wants to learn the language in a friendly, interesting and conversational way. So in our class,we basically only have a free flowing talk about his life, culture, country and vice versa.

I. Ishotas’ case on Noam Chomsky’s Lingusitic Competence and Performance

Abstract

This case study investigates the competence and performance of a Japanese student who is learning English, which is a foreign language ( EFL ) to them - Japanese. This research is mainly anchored according to Noam Chomsky’s linguistic ability theory. The aim of this case research is to determine whether the case subject is affected by competence or performance in learning English.

Introduction

Traditionally, many language instruction programs have focused more on the “knowing” part of learning a language wherein words and sentences are presented and practiced in a way to best help language learners internalize the forms. We can assume that once the language learners have ‘learned’ the information they will be able to use it through reading, writing, listening and speaking. The bad point of this method is that the language learners are unable to use the language in a natural way. Since the language learners have been trained to learn the language through “knowing”, language learners have difficulty reversing this training and actually “doing” something with the language. To sum up, it is difficult to assess whether the learners’ insufficient proficiency is due to limitations of competency or lack of performance.

In linguistics, ‘competence’ refers to person’s knowledge of his language, the system of rules which a language user has mastered so that it would be possible for that user to be able to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences and recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. On the other hand, ‘performance’ refers to language seen as a set of specific utterances produced by native speakers, as encountered in a corpus. Competence involves “knowing” the language and Performance involves “doing” something with the language. The difficulty with this construct is that it is very difficult to assess competence without assessing performance. Case Presentation

Ishotas case is not new to me. Many Japanese people are in the same case or worse than him. English as Foreign Language ( EFL ) to them, I can just understand the problems they have. Ishotas and I didn’t have the chance to learn English in a structured way that is learning through textbooks focusing on grammar, pronunciation, vocabularies and etc. He’s the kind of student who’s practical. He wants to learn the language in a friendly, interesting and conversational way. So in our class,we basically only have a free flowing talk about his life, culture, country and vice versa. About six months of consecutive speaking English, I personally found some improvements on him. In that span of time, he takes about 6 to 8 lesson with me that is for about 4 hours. At first, since he can’t express himself well, I’ll let him write a daily journal of the things happened to him on that day. I’ll let him read it to me and then I correct his sentences, add phrases, find better synonym of his vocabularies and teach him pronunciation. Later on, he got used to it and asked me to let him express directly without preparing. For one year or so of talking to him, there are moments wherein I asked him about his English level satisfaction right now. So we have discussed his difficulty with the language.

Discussion

In my point of view, Ishotas case is mainly concerned with competence and performance. As we all know, competence is knowledge of language, which is naturally lack of him due to fact that it is not his mother tongue. The part of knowledge being focused of competence is exclusively linguistic. It includes knowledge of the vocabulary, of phonology, of syntax, and of semantics. Ishotas have difficulty in remembering vocabularies because he doesn't memorize it instead he wanna use it in his daily conversation before he can remember it. With it comes to his word sounds or pronunciation, he was able to follow the way his native friends utter the correct words. His word meanings are good already because every time he notices unfamiliar word when I speak to him he always wants me to give it’s definition. The only problem he has still right now is his grammar structure which is difficult to fix since he doesn’t want to learn by textbooks and through memorizing. This part of the knowledge of the language which is universal and innate supposedly. When we say performance, it is the use of language in speaking and understanding utterances is linguistic performance. In Ishotas current level at the moment, he can produce the language but since he has a problem with competence so his performance is affected. Performance is dependent on one’s linguistic knowledge (competence) and in part on non-linguistic knowledge of an encyclopedia or cultural kind, as well as on extraneous factors as mood, tiredness and so on.

Summary

Competence which is the fluent English speaker’s knowledge of his language is contrasted with performance which refers to what people actually say or understand by what someone else say on a given occasion. Very often, performance is an imperfect reflection of competence by the difficulty in getting the brain and speech production to work together smoothly. Ishotas has a lack of communicative competence for me because he doesn't have the ability to apply the grammatical rules of a language in order to form correct utterances, and also doesn’t know when to use these utterances appropriately. His

knowledge of the English language is low due to the reason of no linguistic ability likely on syntactic, semantic and phonological. With this, he lacks also sociolinguistic competence doesn’t know the appropriateness in terms of both form and meaning, i.e., whether an utterance is appropriately produced or understood in different contexts. This appropriateness could vary in accordance with the status of participants, objectives of the communication and norms of the communication. He also doesn't have a linguistic competence for me. Linguistic competence lies at the heart of the knowledge of a language, it is clear that speakers of that language know more than just the grammar of that language. A grammar specifies the rules that the speaker knows but it does not state how they can make use of that knowledge. In other words, grammar does not say how this knowledge enables the speakers to produce utterances and to understand them. Nor does it tell him/her how to acquire that knowledge. Thus, the grammar which the linguists try to construct characterizes only one part of the speaker’s knowledge but since he lack grammar competence, it is difficult for him to achieve linguistic performance. II. Ishotas’ case on Stephen Krashen’s Five Hypothesis

Abstract

This case study investigates the second language acquisition of a Japanese student who is learning English, which is a foreign language ( EFL ) to them - Japanese. This research is mainly anchored according to Krashen’s Second Language Acquisition Five Hypothesis. The aim of this case research is to determine where the case subject is affected in the five hypothesis being presented.

Introduction

According to Krashen, language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill. His thoughts and ideas

seem to indicate that we learn a new language the same way as we learned our mother tongue when we were babies. We are born and then, after immersion in an environment of sights, sounds and smells, we say our first word. There is no logical reason a baby learns a language. It just happens. There are no lessons and no teacher, just an organised and sometimes random environment. Some babies learn faster than others. Some babies have great difficulty in learning. He also stated that acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding. Furthermore, he emphasizes that a comprehensible input is the crucial and necessary ingredient for the acquisition of language. With that he said that the best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production. Finally he pointed out that in the real world, conversations with sympathetic native speakers who are willing to help the acquirer understand are very helpful. Case Presentation

There are two ways of developing language ability. Acquisition involves the subconscious acceptance of knowledge where information is stored in the brain through the use of communication; this is the process used for developing native languages. Learning, on the other hand, is the conscious acceptance of knowledge ‘about’ a language (i.e. the grammar or form). In Ishotas case, he is learning English through natural communication. As being mentioned on the previous study, he wants to learn the language in a friendly, interesting and conversational way. As a second language teacher, it’s ideal for me to create a situation wherein language is used in order to fulfill authentic purposes. In this case, I will help him to ‘acquire’ the language instead of just ‘learning’ it. In Krashen’s Acquisition-Learning hypothesis, the 'acquired system' or 'acquisition' is the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when

they acquire their first language. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concentrated not in the form of their utterances, but in the communicative act. The scenario is present and very true to Ishotas. The 'learned system' or 'learning' is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious knowledge 'about' the language, for example knowledge of grammar rules. Above all 'learning' is less important than 'acquisition'. There is a relationship between acquisition and learning. the acquisition system is the utterance initiator, while the learning system performs the role of the 'monitor' or the 'editor'. The 'monitor' acts in a planning, editing and correcting function when three specific conditions are met: that is, the second language learner has sufficient time at his/her disposal, he/she focuses on form or thinks about correctness, and he/she knows the rule. I can relate this to Ishotas case because mostly all of the time, he has difficulty in expressing himself because he was translating the words he wanna say in his mind first before saying it. The ‘monitor’ can sometimes act as a barrier as it forces the learner to slow down and focus more on accuracy as opposed to fluency. Monitoring can make some contribution to the accuracy of an utterance but its use should be limited. For me, teaching Ishotas will always be a challenge to strike a balance between encouraging accuracy and fluency in him. Given the fact of his level and sometimes the context of language use also the personal goals of him. The Monitor hypothesis explains and defines the influence of the acquisition on the learning. The monitoring function is the practical result of the learned grammar. It appears that the role of conscious learning is somewhat limited in second language performance. According to Krashen, the role of the monitor is - or should be - minor, being used only to correct deviations from 'normal' speech and to give speech a more 'polished' appearance. Krashen also suggests that there is individual variation among language learners with regard to 'monitor' use. He distinguishes those learners that use the 'monitor' all the time (over-users); those learners who have not learned or who prefer not to use their conscious knowledge (under-users); and those learners that use the 'monitor' appropriately (optimal users).

Discussion

Learning is a conscious process that focuses the students’ attention on the form of the language (structure). Acquisition, unlike learning, is a process similar to that by which we acquired our mother tongue, and which represents the subconscious activity by which we internalize the new language, putting emphasis on the message (meaning) rather than on the form. Acquisition is, thus, the untutored or naturalistic way. In most classrooms learning is emphasized more than acquisition. In traditional classrooms one of the first things teachers say “pay attention”, and they have students analyze, and take notes on, the new structure item in the lesson. Later, students are given practice in providing correct answers either structurally or functionally, but always remaining conscious of what they want to say. In more conservative classes they are evaluated on their grammatical and lexical knowledge; consequently, they are forced to “study” for the exams. However, in real life, when we interact with speakers of our own language, we rarely focus our attention on the form of the language the speaker use. We are concerned, rather, with what the speaker means or with the paralinguistic features of his speech (i.e., gestures, signs, etc.), which determine the quality of the message. We have, for the most part, been teaching grammar rules or rules of usage instead of facilitating acquisition of English in the classrooms; consequently, it is necessary to change the type of activities we perform in class in order to help students develop an accurate, automatic, and long-lasting second language. Summary

In a nutshell, as a regular teacher of Ishotas, it is my responsibility to encourage him learn the basics like grammar before he will be able to speak the language well. For sure, teaching of grammar can result in language acquisition (and proficiency) that is also when the he is interested in the subject and the target language is used as a medium of instruction. In this situation, both me as his teacher and him are convinced that the study of formal grammar is essential for second language acquisition, and as his teacher, I must be skillful enough to present explanations in the target language so that he can understand. In other words, I should meet the requirements for comprehensible input and perhaps with the students’ participation the classroom becomes an environment suitable for

acquisition. Also, the filter is low in regard to the language of explanation, as the students’ conscious efforts are usually on the subject matter, on what is being talked about, and not the medium.

Krashen’s SLA theory changed our concept of language teaching and has suggested new ideas for communicative language teaching. Nevertheless, the implications of this theory should be adapted according to the teacher’s individual situation in order to obtain the best results. The years to come will give more shape to this theory, so that, together with other teaching theories and approaches, it will improve our methodology and our results. SLA is a field so complex that no single theory or factor can account for it. Consequently, despite Krashen’s claim that those hypotheses are “a coherent theory” and others criticism, it is preferable not to see his ideas as a unified and integrated theory but one of the many models dealing with certain aspects of SLA, which, like other claims, hypotheses or theories, even competing ones, makes its due contribution to SLA research in general.