Relationship between L1 and L2 language acquisition/learning

Title Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name Date Second Language Acquisition Theories Stephen Krashen's Input Hypothesis Krashen's Input Hypothesis focuses on the premise that learners are most proficient when exposed to information slightly beyond their working level (i+1). Instead, this theory focuses more on the factors or features of input that are claimed to enhance language learning than grammar rules (Patrick, 2019). To incorporate Stephen Krashen’s Input Hypothesis in a classroom, a teacher can begin by evaluating the students’ current level of proficiency in the form of a literacy test or the last test scores. As a result, students are then clustered in what teachers call “reading circles” in a class, which may include a group of learners of similar language developmental levels (Koné, 2023). The teacher then decides on books that are just slightly above the students' level but still readable and contain new vocabulary and some grammatical structures that the students may not understand. This ensures that the content that is being presented is slightly complex for the students to comprehend (content by I +1), hence promoting the natural acquisition of the first language (L1). Jim Cummins' Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) According to Cummins, BICS includes the language used in everyday conversation, which is easier to learn than CALP, a higher-order language proficiency. To promote the development of BICS, the teacher could support such key actions by providing the necessary activities, such as role-playing or social games that let students practice the language to express themselves in communicative situations (Cummins, 1999). An example can involve a "market" setting whereby students can act out as required to ask for goods or products, transact, or even bargain for the price of certain products. Subsequently, to foster CALP, teachers can integrate the explicit and contextualized use of academic language in other subjects (Cummins, 1999). For instance, a science teacher may select words such as "hypothesis" or "photosynthesis," explaining their importance and using them during experiments or real-life situations. Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory holds that social processes immensely influence cognitive processes. It states that learning takes place from students' relations with individuals who possess knowledge, and this takes place through socialization (Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019). When students are grouped into groups where some are superior, and others have low language usage skills, it becomes easier for the teachers to adopt a peer teaching method that involves scaffolding (Shabani, 2016). This arrangement utilizes the capability of the higher proficient students to expound on all instructions and terms in a frame that the lower proficient students can understand easily. Merrill Swain's Output Hypothesis Swain’s Output Hypothesis implies that using L2 in speaking or writing is not only a process of applying what has been taught; it is a process of learning as it makes the learner engage in a deeper processing of the language faculty (Sun, 2020). A practical implication of Swain’s theory involves the assessment where students are made to talk in the target language through role-plays or debates. First Language Versus Second Language Acquisition The L1 and L2 differ in many ways due to several cognitive, social, and environmental factors. L1 is usually gradual and unconscious for children starting from birth, where the child starts interacting and learning the language from parents and other people he or she encounters in society. This is a natural process where children naturally acquire knowledge of specific language structures without necessarily being taught. On the other hand, L2 acquisition is usually taught more formally and often occurs when the learner has developed other language acquisition strategies (Nor & Rashid, 2018; IPEK, 2009). The role of L1 is critical in learning L2 in terms of aiding and hindering the learning process. Positive transfer is when the first language assists in learning the second in some ways, such as when similar ways of expressing something are used in L1 and L2. On the other hand, interaction in terms of positive interdependence or positive transfer occurs when the rules or structures are identical or compatible. This often leads to mistakes, such as conjugational mistakes or wrong syntactic application of a rule. Moreove...