1. “participation in conversation with NSs [native speakers] . . . is the necessary and sufficient condition for SLA”
2. “In SLA, as Mey (1981, p. 73) sardonically puts it, the NS’s status as “the uncrowned King of linguistics” is upheld.14 NS data are thus viewed as the warranted baseline from which NNS data can be compared, and the benchmark from which judgments of appropriateness, markedness, and so forth, can be made.”
3. “As a logical extension, NNSs are unproblematically viewed as the NSs’ subordinates, with regard to communicative competence”
4. “Given this state of affairs, newcomers to SLA may be surprised to discover that the study of FL use (involving both NS–NNS and NNS–NNS) in naturally occurring, everyday (noneducational) settings constitutes a small fraction of SLA research.”
These are all quotes from the Firth and Wagner article that caught my attention as I read. The first quote reminded me of the comparison between ZPD and i+1 theories we explained last week on the exam. Krashen’s theory is focused on input and believes that because of this, as long as there is input, communication with a native speaker is not necessary. I just thought this was an interesting point. Again, there are so many theories; it is difficult to decide which ones I personally connect with.
The second quote is one that I relate with personally. As an SLL of Spanish, I am constantly comparing my own speech and language capabilities to that of a native speaker’s. If we were to make standards for SLA, the benchmark would absolutely be a native speaker’s speech. What I wonder though, is which dialect, which country etc. would the benchmark come from? Would the standards for each language be different? This would be an interesting topic to discuss with SLA experts, just to see what their arguments and thoughts would be on how to make “standards” for SLA.
The third quote is also one I identified with personally. When I studied in Guatemala, and have been on trips to Honduras, I always feel like I am a subordinate to the native speakers that I am surrounded by. This belief causes me to be more hesitant to speak. I believe this may be skewed. I think that perhaps more so than the NS’s seeing the NNS’s as subordinates, I think the NNS’s give us that name. In my experiences, the NS’s I have been around do not see me as a subordinate, rather they have told me they admire that I am learning their language. Therefore I think that this is also an interesting point to address and I would like to see some different views on it.
Lastly, this quote must be 100% true. For my project I am compiling research focused on EFL in the home environment, so FL in a naturally occurring, everyday (noneducational) setting. It has been very difficult to find research focused solely on this. I hope that this will become a more observed part of the field of SLA because I think it would really contribute to what we know (and don’t know) about the interactions between NS’s and NNS’s and vice-versa.
That second quote also applies personally for me as a SLL of Spanish. I have looked to native speakers when I traveled as a goal to work up to so I could sound like them but what was interesting was that every country I went to spoke differently. So which should I have chosen? I like that as a question to pose to experts because I wonder about that too.
ReplyDeleteIn any given language there are so many dialects and different word usage, how is a NNS to choose between the differences to pick the 'ideal' accent? Very interesting... :)
I feel the same way. I compared myself a lot with NS of American English because that was the language and accent I wanted to learn, but as I got older, I began to become more confident and didn't compare myself with others as much, but now that I have been here in the US for almost 9 months, using English everyday, I have both gained even more confidence and most of the time I don't really care if I mess upp grammatically or don't know words, but sometimes it can be hard and challenging.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to find a correct model, because I was set on learning American English, mostly because it was easier because I used to watch so many American TV shows at home so I was constantly surrounded by it. But I know that a lot of people in my English classes back home have their own English, not really a British accent or an American accent. It's more like a mix so they are all very individual and have their unique characteristics.