The silent period (also called pre-production period) is a phase reported to have been observed in second-language acquisition where the learner does not yet produce but is actively processing the L2 (second language).[1][2] This silent period has been claimed to be typically found in children and has been called the second stage of second language acquisition,[3] following the use of L1 (native language) and preceding productive use of L2, and can last between a few weeks to a year.[4] Generalizing how long this period may last is nearly impossible because it depends on many personal and individual variables that come into play.[5]
While the silent period has received much endorsement from researchers and educators, some argue against the validity of such a period. There are debates surrounding its significance in language acquisition, of how language teachers should address such a period in school curriculum, and what exactly language learners are processing (or not) during such a period. The phenomena of the silent period is a theory attributed to Stephen D. Krashen.[6]
There is controversy [who?] as to whether there is such a defined silent period of active learning. Studies in support of a silent period have used variable methods and definitions of silence.[7] Some [who?] define it as the absence of any L2, while others [citation needed] define it as the absence of productive syntax in L2. Moreover, these studies were conducted across variable settings [citation needed], and report a big range in the length of silent periods. Ultimately, even if these studies did properly established a non-verbal phase, there is still a lack of evidence that it involves active learning, as opposed to general incomprehension or shyness. [dubious–discuss] The general concept of the silent period also seems at odds with the communicative nature of language and language acquisition.[7]
In language teaching
Strategies teachers can use to help children who are in the silent period include: asking the child to teach you words in their language, having children draw a picture of their family and then asking them for details, watching the children on the playground to see if there is any verbalization outside of the classroom, having the children use their bodies to mime what they want to communicate, and asking children to draw what they are trying to say.[8]
General support for a silent period of active learning leads to certain implications in language teaching. Educators [who?] are less likely to expect engagement from L2 learners early on in acquisition, and might not try to elicit speech from L2 learners [speculation?]. However, if the silent period is not empirically founded, or if it reflects general incomprehension or shyness rather than active learning, then these pedagogical methods have to be reevaluated. [citation needed][weaselwords]
↑ Saville-Troike, M. (1988). "Private speech: Evidence for second language learning strategies, during the "silent period"". Journal of Child Language. 15 (3): 567–590. doi:10.1017/s0305000900012575. PMID3198723.
↑ Head Start bulletin # 78. English language learners. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Administration on Children, Youth and Families, (ACYF). 2005.
↑ Paradis, J. "Second language acquisition in childhood". Blackwell Handbook of Language Development: 387–405.
↑ Tabors, P. O. One child, two languages: A guide for preschool educators of children, learning English as a second language.
1 2 Roberts, T. A. (2014). "Not so silent after all: Examination and analysis of the silent stage in childhood second language acquisition". Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 29 (1): 22–40. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2013.09.001.
A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language of the speaker, but is learned later. A speaker's dominant language, which is the language a speaker uses most or is most comfortable with, is not necessarily the speaker's first language. The second language can also be the dominant one. For example, the Canadian census defines first language for its purposes as "the first language learned in childhood and still spoken", recognizing that for some, the earliest language may be lost, a process known as language attrition. This can happen when young children move to a new language environment.
Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language education: communicative competencies, proficiencies, cross-cultural experiences, and multiple literacies.
A vocabulary, also known as a wordstock or word-stock, is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language.
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Second-language acquisition (SLA), second-language learning or L2acquisition, is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process. The field of second-language acquisition is a sub-discipline of applied linguistics, but also receives research attention from a variety of other disciplines, such as psychology and education.
Sequential bilingualism occurs when a person becomes bilingual by first learning one language and then another. The process is contrasted with simultaneous bilingualism, in which both languages are learned at the same time.
Arizona Proposition 203, also known as English for the Children, is a ballot initiative that was passed by 63% of Arizona voters on November 7, 2000. It limited the type of instruction available to English language learner (ELL) students. Before Proposition 203, schools were free in terms of ELL instruction to use bilingual or immersion methods. According to a cover letter from the Arizona Department of Education Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Graham Keegan to the Arizona Legislature, it was impossible to make a correct analysis regarding how many students were learning through English as a second language programs, as opposed to bilingual education. The school districts had submitted "conflicting information," and 40% had not submitted any data, in spite of three deadline extensions.
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Catherine Elizabeth Snow is an educational psychologist and applied linguist. In 2009 Snow was appointed to the Patricia Albjerg Graham Professorship in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, having previously held the Henry Lee Shattuck Professorship also in the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Snow is past president of the American Educational Research Association (2000-2001). She chaired the RAND Corporation 'reading study group' from 1999.
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The generative approach to second language (L2) acquisition (SLA) is a cognitive based theory of SLA that applies theoretical insights developed from within generative linguistics to investigate how second languages and dialects are acquired and lost by individuals learning naturalistically or with formal instruction in foreign, second language and lingua franca settings. Central to generative linguistics is the concept of Universal Grammar (UG), a part of an innate, biologically endowed language faculty which refers to knowledge alleged to be common to all human languages. UG includes both invariant principles as well as parameters that allow for variation which place limitations on the form and operations of grammar. Subsequently, research within the Generative Second-Language Acquisition (GenSLA) tradition describes and explains SLA by probing the interplay between Universal Grammar, knowledge of one's native language and input from the target language. Research is conducted in syntax, phonology, morphology, phonetics, semantics, and has some relevant applications to pragmatics.
The critical period hypothesis is the subject of a long-standing debate in linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire language is biologically linked to age. The hypothesis claims that there is an ideal time window to acquire language in a linguistically rich environment, after which further language acquisition becomes much more difficult and effortful. The critical period hypothesis was first proposed by Montreal neurologist Wilder Penfield and co-author Lamar Roberts in their 1959 book Speech and Brain Mechanisms, and was popularized by Eric Lenneberg in 1967 with Biological Foundations of Language.
Developmental linguistics is the study of the development of linguistic ability in an individual, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood. It involves research into the different stages in language acquisition, language retention, and language loss in both first and second languages, in addition to the area of bilingualism. Before infants can speak, the neural circuits in their brains are constantly being influenced by exposure to language. Developmental linguistics supports the idea that linguistic analysis is not timeless, as claimed in other approaches, but time-sensitive, and is not autonomous – social-communicative as well as bio-neurological aspects have to be taken into account in determining the causes of linguistic developments.
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Crosslinguistic influence (CLI) refers to the different ways in which one language can affect another within an individual speaker. It typically involves two languages that can affect one another in a bilingual speaker. An example of CLI is the influence of Korean on a Korean native speaker who is learning Japanese or French. Less typically, it could also refer to an interaction between different dialects in the mind of a monolingual speaker. CLI can be observed across subsystems of languages including pragmatics, semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology, phonetics, and orthography. Discussed further in this article are particular subcategories of CLI—transfer, attrition, the complementarity principle, and additional theories.
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Heritage language learning or heritage language acquisition is the act of learning a heritage language from an ethnolinguistic group that traditionally speaks the language, or from those whose family historically spoke the language. According to a commonly accepted definition by Valdés, heritage languages are generally minority languages in society and are typically learned at home during childhood. When a heritage language learner grows up in an environment with a dominant language that is different from their heritage language, the learner appears to be more competent in the dominant language and often feels more comfortable speaking in that language. "Heritage language" may also be referred to as "community language," "home language," and "ancestral language".
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to second-language acquisition:
Language brokering is translating language by a youth for their parents or other adults in an immigrant families background. Brokering is a process of language brokers dealing with a more complex social relationship through translation. Brokering between school and parents is probably a more frequent thing for language brokers than translating to friends and neighbors.
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