An Analysis Of Second Language Acquisition Of Non-Native English Speakers

Case Study Report on Second Language Acquisition

Socio-Cultural Background of Abhineet Surya

Write a Case Study Report on Second Language Acquisition.

The study aims to explore the various elements of Second Language Learning or Acquisition by learner hailing from non-English speaking backgrounds. The report will provide an analysis of the case study conducted on a Second Language Learner named Abhineet Surya, an ESL learner from India. The case study presented in this report deals with the subject’s socio-cultural background, his first language acquisition through early education, the motivational factors amongst others. The report also incorporates the factors that influence the subject’s personality. It is important to note that the methods by which the subject acquired knowledge about his first language have an invariable influence on his ability to attain second language learning. As the subject comes from an Asian country, it is important to analyze the methods of language acquisition in that part and the factors that influence learning. The report further aims to explain the method of data collection that was used to understand the learning background of the subject. The primary data collection method under which comes the quantitative method of questionnaire and survey was used as the data collection method to identify the language learning skills and needs of the subject. The questionnaire, that is the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) had five options from which the subject had to choose. The report aims to analyze the results of the questionnaire in order to understand the capacity of and level to which the subject is able to understand and acquire the second language. Prior to that, the report will explore the beliefs about SILL and its impact on second language learning. The report then aims to include the subject’s profile that involves his demographics and learning background. The learner profile includes the learner’s name, his age, gender and ethnicity. The learning background includes the learner’s first language learning background including his early year’s education. After elaborating on the learner’s profile, the report will then present the results of the SILL and explain the processes and theories involved in second language learning. The report also aims to link the findings with the theories of second language learning put forward by different educators and theorists. The primary theorist whose theories will be explained is Stephen Krashen and his input hypothesis theory on Second Language Acquisition. The views of scholars who analyzed Krashen’s theory will also be included in this section to understand the credibility and relevance of his theory. The report further aims to comprehend the subject’s current situation and progress on Second Language Acquisition by evaluating the Foreign Language Anxiety. At first, the term will be explained in detail and then link it to the subject in concern.

Data Collection Methods and Analysis

Data collection methods are used for collecting information from credible sources to find relevant information in order to provide answers to the case study problem. It involves testing the hypothesis and analyzes the outcomes. In this case, however, the author does not state the hypothesis but it is already present within the case study. Two methods of data collection are there – primary data collection method and secondary data collection method. The primary data collection method if further divided into quantitative data collection method and qualitative data collection method. Under the quantitative data collection method, data is collected through questionnaires that have close-ended questions, correlation and regression methods, mean, median and mode methods amongst others. Quantitative methods incur least financial strain on the researcher and these can be carried out within short durations as compared to qualitative methods. In addition, quantitative methods include a high level of consistency thus making it easier to compare findings. Qualitative data collection method on the other hand, does not involve numerical statistics or any questionnaires or survey forms. It is mostly based on understanding the intangible elements that include words, sound, emotions, feelings and colours and so on. Qualitative method mostly aims to achieve greater level of depth of understanding and thus includes questionnaires having open-ended questions, focus groups, role-playing, case studies and observation amongst others.

To meet the objective of the report, quantitative data collection method has been used in which a close-ended questionnaire was given to the learner. The questionnaire has been prepared with the help of the SILL tool. The Strategy Inventory for Second Language Learning is an effective tool developed by Oxford for the teachers who teach second language learners. With the effective use of this tool, teachers can properly evaluate the particular strategies of language learning that are used by the learners in learning a language that is not their first language. Zaker (2015) explains that SILL has two versions – Version 5.0 and Version 7.0. Version 5.0 is employed by learners with native English background to learn English while learners with non-English background use version 7.0.

In this report, version 7.0 has been used because the learner belongs to non-English speaking background. This version of SILL includes five responses from the learner:

1. Never or almost never true of me
2. Usually not true of me
3. Somewhat true of me
4. Usually true of me
5. Always or almost always true of me

The learner was required to tick on any one of the five responses. Fifty questions were asked in total that were divided into five parts namely Part A, B, C, D, E and F. All the questions were reflective in nature allowing the learner to understand the need of the questions. There is another version of SILL meant for teachers that is conducted in order to understand the teacher’s views on Second Language Learning. For the teachers, the SILL tool included five responses as well for the teacher is done using the Likert Scale (Seker, 2016). The Likert Scale consists of variables like strongly disagree, disagree, agree, and strongly agree.

Theories Involved in Second Language Learning

Learner Demographics

Demographic refers to the quantifiable characteristics of any population or individual. In context to Student demographic, it is the characteristics and a brief background of the student such as information related to his gender, age, ethnicity etc. Below is presented a brief demographic of Abhineet Surya.

• Student Name – Abhineet Surya
• Occupation – Business Man Duration – 2014 to current
• Others – learning English as a second language Duration – 2005 to current

Family Information

• Home Address – F- 442, Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi- 59
• Age – 26
• Gender – Male
• Date of Birth – 30 july 1992
• Marital Status – Married

If yes, name – Mrs. Pramila Surya

• Social Security Number – 721-07-4426
• Place of Birth

City – New Delhi

State – Delhi

Country – India

• Ethnicity – Indian
• Guardianship – Both parents

1^st parent/ Guardian name – Mr. Anil Sury      

• Address – F- 442, Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi- 59
• Contact number – 9564219875

Home – 0338085

Mobile number – 9563258457

Work –   –

2^nd parent/ Guardian name – Mrs. Anita Surya

• Address – F- 442, Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi- 59
• Contact number – 9315478569

Home – 0338085

Mobile number – 9315478569

Work –   –

Education History

Primary School – Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan                 

Dates attended from – 2000 (grade 3)                        To – 2007

Secondary School – Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan 

Dates attended from- 2000 (grade 3)                         To – 2007

Higher secondary school -Delhi Public School          

Dates attended from – 2007 (grade 3)                        To – 2009

University – Rajiv Gandhi University

 Learner Background

For successfully modifying and creating differentiated instructions, every teachers should have sufficient understanding of each of their students along with ample of information regarding their backgrounds. For obtaining a better understanding of the background of the student, teachers also need support from the parents and the administrations. Having with the support of the parents, staffs and the administrations allows the teachers for successfully gaining an understanding of each of the student’s background. For example, in many of the schools, the schools there hold a Back to School Night, which allows the teachers of those schools to present the methods and curriculum in order to circulate the curriculum to the students’ parents. When teachers get to develop a better understanding of the learning styles of the students such as their backgrounds and interests, they could create instructions and assessments accordingly.  There is a high need of knowing about the background of the students. Hence, being a teacher, it is necessary to associate and collaborate with the student’s vertically and horizontally and this simply means that the teacher need to communicate with the previous as well as future teachers of  the students, along with any teachers who they see all through the day. They should therefore obtain about the background information of each of the students from their previous teachers and should also discuss all their knowledge of this student with their future teachers. It would in turn allow or permit for a professional learning community in order to be established, where the teachers could gain ideas and experience from each other about their teacher.

Foreign Language Anxiety and Progress Evaluation

The learner comes from an Asian ethnic background as he lives in India. The learner, Abhineet Surya, has been learning English as a second language since 2005 when he was in the eighth standard. Despite being involved in second language learning for a long time, Abhineet has not been able to master the speaking and reading skills required for an English learner. He came to Australia on a spouse visa to meet his wife.  An Indian businessman, Abhineet had the chance to deal with English speaking people but he did not have the ability to communicate freely with them. Therefore, Abhineet made up his mind to learn the second language. In India, English does not receive much exposure because Hindi is the official and the most spoken language (Osipov, Prasikova & Volinsky, 2015). Apart from that, India has more than thirty other language spoken in the country (Steever, 2015). It was difficult for Abhineet, coming from such a diverse background, to concentrate on his English learning skills. However, he was aware of the importance of learning the language as he had aims to come to Australia and expand his business. His wife motivated Abhineet further by encouraging him to join language-learning classes in Australia meant specifically for adults. It needs mentioning that English as Second language learners in Australia may be identified in several categories one of which is adult language learning (Bailey, 1983). Abhineet is an adult and hence he has taken admission in adult language learning.

Language learning, as Horwitz (1985) puts it, is a complex journey that takes the learner into a new world where is opportune to witness cultures that are different from his own culture. However, adult learning could also sometimes be an uncomfortable space to be in because learning a different language at this age requires motivation of the highest level (Gooch, Saito & Lyster, 2016). Learner’s background also holds immense importance in adult language learning. It is important to learn about the learner before imparting him the knowledge of English language. In this case, the adult is Abhineet who has had is early education and higher studies in his home country India. He has been visiting Australia for meeting his wife and business purposes and has faced difficulties in the country owing to his inability to speak in English correctly. Owning a business, Abhineet has immense experience in dealing with people but he has had little confidence while interacting with Australian people and even had to face discrimination because of his English speaking inability (Boese & Phillips, 2017). The reason behind the discrimination is Abhineet’s ethnicity that makes him distinctive from other Australians. Grainger (1997) while putting his views on adult language learning and ethnicity as a variable, states that little research has been done on this variable throughout the literature on language learning.  While conducting the study on Japanese language learners, the author found that hardly any study conducted previously has put much focus on language learning strategies for Japanese learners. In other such studies, it has been found that the learner’s background is largely ignored by the language teachers while imparting second language education.

Demographic Details of Abhineet Surya

In Abhineet’s case, it has been seen that his ethnic and educational background has marked difference from the one in Australia. Further, the cultural dimensions of the both the countries indicate that Australia is a nation where people focus more on individualism than on collectivism and they have a moderate level of  acceptance for people who are stranger to their culture. Indians on the other hand, are more accepting towards uncertain things and hence are welcoming to strangers (“Country Comparison – Hofstede Insights”, 2018). This difference further helps in understanding Abhineet’s background. In Australia, he is finding it difficult to adjust to the strange behavior of the people at work. It is but imperative to state that Australia has introduced numerous language learning systems that allow non-English speakers to learn and grown in a congenial environment (Paiva & Braga, 2008). The government has introduced several departments that look after the learning requirements of the immigrants, tourists and non-English speaking native people as well.

Second language learning

Second language learning is a responsive process where the learning of any other language than the first Language or L1 takes place.  It is often confused by multilingualism and bilingualism and it has to take place after the first language has already acquired. (August & Shanahan, 2017) has stated that the second language learning can also be referred to as the third, fourth or fifth language that any learner is learning at present. There is a notable difference in between the first and the second language learning. The first language learning refers to the language that is learned by the students since the time they are born and it commonly known as the language of their parents and the caregivers. On the other hand, the second language learning refers to the language that a student learns after he acquires his first language learning.

According to Douglas H. Brown, culture is the context in which man exist, feel, feel and relate to the others. Culture governs the behavior in groups and makes people aware to matters of the status and help them know what the others are expecting from them along with a sense of responsibility. Man have a need for culture in order to achieve certain psychological and biological needs. Since culture is a part of every human being, when they receive a second language, they also receive a second culture as well, until and unless the acquisition is instrumental in nature. There are presence of some vital aspects of relationship in between the learning of second language and the cultural context of it. In an educational environment, both the learner as well as the educator of a second language need to understand the cultural differences. The concept of stereotyping generally involves some kind of attitude toward the language or the culture in question. (Spencer, 2013) also carried out an examination on the importance of attitude in second language learning. He said that attitude is referred to an aspect of the process of development of cognition and the affect in the human beings. He defined that motivation is a construct that is made up of specific attitudes and therefore, it is very important to define the term attitude and the motivation learner have toward the culture of language he is learning. It is clear that the language learners are benefitted only from the positive attitudes and negative attitude might lead to decrease the level of motivation in them and hence, will they will be unsuccessful in attaining proficiency. The educators could aid in dispelling the things that are often myths about the other cultures and then replace them with a good and accurate understanding of the other culture as one which is different from the one’s own, but still to be valued and respected. Therefore, the learners would develop a want for understanding and empathizing with others and would lead to intrinsic motivation (Bridgeland, Bruce & Hariharan, 2013). Most of the students in the foreign language classrooms learn the second language with absolutely no or very little sense of cultural patterns and norms of the people who speak the language. It carries on over years of learning of the language and also penetrates deeply into the feeling, acting and thinking process of theirs. This process makes use of acquisition of the second identity and the creation of the new identity is known to be acculturation. It is clear that culture is a major part in the lives of every human being but it is also to note that language is not a visible expression of the culture. (Hall, 2014), in this context have also described the concept of anomie. He stated that anomie is a feeling of social dissatisfaction and uncertainty. He describes the four stages of culture acquisition as well and they are- the period of excitement that involves the newness of surrounding; the culture shock, which means the anger and self-pity for not understanding the concept of the new culture; gradual recovery, where the individual starts to understand the new culture and the last is the stage of full recovery, where the assimilation and acceptance of the new culture occurs.

The learner in this case study has also gone through these stags. At first, he found it very difficult to assess the second language. As he was never ever aware of this language, it made him feel both nervous and excited at the same time. He was nervous as he did not know that whether will he be able to learn the language in a proper way or whether will he gain proficiency. He was excited because he is going to learn something new and something different. However, gradually he found that it was very difficult for him to understand the language. His excitement slowly turned out in anger and self-pity. Many of the times he thought of quitting the learning process but he didn’t. After a year and half, he somewhat started understanding the language and acquired an understanding of writing it. The concept of grammar and sentence structure was not understood thoroughly by him even after three years. It took a long time for him to gain an acquisition of the language. The motivational factor that helped him to reach his stage is his strong desire to obtain something concrete and practical from his study of second language. He knew that English is a very important language and it is very important in order to meet the requirements of his school and for applying for any job as well. With the same, he always wanted to have his higher studies in abroad and he also wanted to sustain a long-term success by getting a good job there and for this, it was very important for him to earn proficiency in second language.

There is no doubt that the second language acquisition is a very complex process as it involves many factors. This process is greatly affected because of the plasticity of the human brain. With the same, the type of memory systems that are involved in males and females also plays a very pivotal role which makes the gender well defined. Both the factors, the gender and age, are the two factors which run in parallel with the other factors and they deeply affects the process of language acquisition (Collins, 2016). Given the significance placed on the role on gender and age, the researchers hold about both of them that they are not the necessary conditions required for second language acquisition, though genetically there are few advantages which could be reaped for ones who begin L2 acquisition at very early age. With the same, both females and males are equipped with some or the other predetermined tendencies which would be very helpful for them for acquiring some aspects of language much quicker and easier as well.

Over the last four decades a notable amount of researchers have explored on how to improve the second language learning acquisition. The most of them have examined the various factors which influence this ability. However, there are very little researchers that have examined on how the ethnic group affiliation influences this learning, particularly among the bilingual communities. There has been notably very less research that has investigated the relationship of the attitudes of the learners towards their native language and culture, which is often known to be as the Ethnic Group Affiliation or EGA, and the potential to learn L2. Those researches have suggested that increased affiliation with the native culture of a person could cause a low level of proficiency in second language. Leitner (2013) for example, has found that the native Chinese and French speakers who are learning English in Canada have been preferred to keep some foreign accent in their native language in order to preserve the cultural affiliation along with the native language group of theirs. Ekpenyong, Udoh & Uto (2018) further confirmed these results and they suggested that the EGA had an intense influence on the learning sounds or say, the pronunciation in second language. With the same, one of another factors that could influence the language acquisition is that of the environment. It is how the students feel during their classes, how comfortable they are while having the class. The culture of the school and the beliefs of the learning language, everything has an impact on the motivation of the second language learning process of the students. Golonka et al. (2014) have stated that the low anxiety language learning environment increases the chances for the second language learning acquisition.

The learning strategies that a language teacher makes use of have a great effect on the language learning of the student. The way the teacher helps his or her students in understanding the concepts of language and the way the teacher take several learning styles into consideration along with different levels of comprehension, all plays a vital role. For example, watching a film in the target language and writing and performing skits in the target language reach multiple learning styles. Offering an immersion experience that help the students to get connected to the language learning in their everyday lives, but rote grammar drills and vocabulary memorization creates ‘meaning-less’ language lessons.

Conclusion

After a thorough analysis of the case study, the report came to the conclusion that acquisition of English as a second language by a non-English speaker could be made easier by following certain methods. The methods included a deeper understanding of the socio-cultural background of the learner, his educational background, his ability to learn new things and the rate at which he learns amongst others. It is also important to have a deep knowledge regarding the various theories of learning and teaching English. Apart from that, theories that provide the methods by which the cultural, social and educational differences could be overcome to achieve maximum positive results must also be known (Dörnyei & Skehan, 2003). In the given case study report, the case of Abhineet Surya from India was analyzed by the use of certain quantitative and qualitative research methods. The report made use of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) version 7.0 that is for non-English speaking background learners. The results analyzed from the questionnaire demonstrated that the subject relies mostly on cognitive strategies to acquire the second language. Cognitive strategies that form the Part B of SILL are acquired by SLLs because it allows them to directly influence learning. The report also linked the various aspects of the subject including his learning background with the different theories that provide insights into Second Language Learning. In particular, Krashen’s theory of Input Hypothesis has been used to elaborate the language learning skills of the subject. The report provided a brief overview of the theory, which states that Second Language Acquisition has five chief elements – the acquisition-learning hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the natural order hypothesis, the input hypothesis and the affective filter hypothesis. In the report, the author has also provided a brief description of the learner’s profile, his demographics and his learning background. Keeping in mind the fact that the learner belonged to an Indian ethnic background, the report presented the association of Australian culture and the Indian culture, the Asian culture in general. In addition, the report was revealed the reasons behind Abhineet’s feeling discomfort communicating in English in the foreign country and being a target of bully. It found that since Abhineet hails from a culture that is markedly different from the one where he came to do his business, it affected his ability to communicate freely. The report also provided a brief analysis of the ‘foreign language anxiety’ faced by the learner while communicating with other Australians. Measures to overcome the anxiety of learning the foreign language have also been presented in the report. In the end, it must be recommended that teachers should include songs and poetry as part of the learning curriculum in order to make the learners enjoy the learning process while acquiring the ability to speak in the language. Further, it can also be recommended that the teachers should make more use of visuals and computer aided teaching so that the learners could learn the words and phrases easily.  Lastly, second language learning could be made a comfortable experience for non-speakers of English when they are allowed to share their views in their own language and appreciated for it

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