Page 27 - BRIDGES - ISSUE 7

Child and Adult Second Language Acquisition (SLA): conscious process" or learning, refer-
ring to"conscious knowledgeof asec-
An overview of key differences and theories ond language, knowing the rules, be-
ing aware of them, being able to talk
about them" (see Krashen, 1982:10f,
«« ate) as well as more likely to experi- and elsewhere). The hypothesis sug-
ence what Gass & Selinkcr point out
"the desire to preserve one’s identity as ’affective factors’ ( language and gests that "adults alsoacquire, that the
ability to’pick up’ languages does not
may become an obstacle in mastering cultureshock,orstress-seeop.cit.:237) disappear at puberty. This does not
a second language" (Klein,1986:6). In in the process of acquiring a second mean adults will always be able to
thisway the advantages that children language.The importance of consid- achieve native like levels in a second
seem to have in acquiringasecond lan- ering the acculturation model in our language.Itdoesmean that adultscan
guage can be explained in that in con- discussion must lie then, in differenti- access the same natural ’language ac-
trast to adults as much less willing to ating between children and adult learn- quisition device’ that children use"
give up their well-established social ers as they aresubject to different so- (ibid.).The hypothesis pointsout the
identity,children must be in no fearof cial and psychological variables in superior cognitive abilities of adults
losinga social identity theydo not have learning a language. and suggests in this way that children
yet acquired (see Klein, op.cit.:10). only ’acquire’ a second language, as
Socialintegration and attitude to lan- well ascontradictingour previouscon-
guage learning,are factorssignificantly C:Apedagogicperspective:Krashen’s siderations in terms of adults’ access-
defining what Klein refers to as ’pro- MonitorTheory:Implicationsfordif- ing the LAD. Regarding how this ac-
pensity’ (see op.cit.:35-9). The first is ferencesbetweenadultsandchildren quisition takesplace, Krashen’s’input
more important for children than acquiringa second language hypothesis’suggests that:
adults who are in contrast in fear of "humans acquire language in onlyone
losing theirsocial identity (- although way-byunderstandingmessagesor by
occasionallyadults areopen to acquir- Although the major hypotheses and receiving’comprehensible input’....we
ing a ’new’identityor to merely ’rede- evidence in support of Krashen’s move from i, our current level, to
fine’ themselves), while the second, theory can be linked directly to our i+ l,the next level along the natural
referring to adults more often than considerationsand conclusionsin the order, by understanding input con-
not, seems to be connected with "the two previoussections, it becomes im- taining i+1 (Krashen 1985:2 cited in
notion of ’ego permeability ’ proposed portant to discuss it separately at that McLaughlin,1987:36)
by Guiora et.al. (1972); this term re- point,recognizing both itsimportance Our interest in the input hypothesis
fers to the varying readiness of learn- as a pedagogically orientated theory lies in that Krashen supports it partly
ers to reveal their imperfectcommand of SLA as well as to emphasize not on observations regarding differences
of a language and disgrace themselves only the ways it links, but also how it between adultsandchildren.AsCook
with inappropriate, awkward,or even contradicts (being a much debated (1993:56f)summarizes, the hypothesis
ridiculous utterances"(Klein, theory) some of our previous argu- supports a view where:
op.cit.:38). mentation and cited theoretical con- "adults are better at short term L2
Someconclusionsmight bederived by siderationsaswith adults’seeming in- learning, children at long term L2
examining Schumann’s (1978,1993 - ability to access UG. It must be em- learning.The reason is that ’older ac-
for a reviewsee Ginsberg,1997:364-5) phasized that it is not possible to in- quirers progress more quickly in early
acculturation model, the majorclaim dexsomeof the major differences be- stages because theyobtain more com-
of which can be summarized in that tween adult and child SLA without prehensible input, while younger ac-
"L2 learning as one aspect of accul- recognizing that no total agreement quirers do better in the long run be-
turation, is controlled by the degree has been achieved regarding several cause of their lower affective filters’
towhich thelearneracculturates to the of the hypotheses we refer to. (Krashen,1985a, p.12).Thisisclaimed
target language group" (Ginsberg, to be because older learners have
op.cit.:364).If we accept that accultura- The ’acquisition-learning hypothesis’ greater experience of the world, can
tion, made up of social and affective states that "adults have twodistinct and use LI to overcome communication
variables, is the causal variable of SLA independent ways of developing com- problems in the L2 more easily, and
it can then be linked to our previous petence in a second language [...] ac- are better at conversational manage-
discussion in termsof adultsbeingless quisition,a processsimilar,if not iden- ment."
likely than children to give up their tical, to theway children develop abil- Thisstatement leads us to a con-
social identity (in order to accultur- ity in their first language [...] a sub-

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