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chapter1.CommunicatingintheSecondLanguage
beliefisthatduringchildhood(upuntilpuberty),thereisaperiodwhenthe
humanbrainismostreadytoHreceive”andlearnaparticularlanguage.This
periodisreferredtoasthecriticalperiod”12(Yule,1996,p.171).TheCritical
PeriodHypothesishasbeenanalysedbymanyresearchers(cf.Lenneberg,1967;
Krashen,1973;Penfield&Roberts,1959,Arabski,1983,Wileyetal.,2005)and
itseemsthatcertainlinguisticaspectsaremoreafectedbytheageofaper-
son.Ayoungercriticalagehasbeensuggestedforlearningphonologythan
forgrammar.Interestingly,asSingletonandLengyel(1995)believe,thereisno
criticalperiodforlearningL2vocabularyasitispickedconsciouslythrough
theapplicationofdeclarativememory.
Anadditionalnoteofcautionthatmaybesoundedhereisthattheac-
quisition-learningdistinctionandtheknowledgeonedevelopsasaresultof
exposuretoeithernaturalorclassroomsituationsislinkednotonlywithage,
butalsowithahigherorlowerlevelofanxiety.AccordingtoDewaeleand
AlSaraj(2013,p.72),H[p]articipantswhohadstartedlearninganFLatalater
agereportedhigherlevelsofFLAindiferentsituations.Thecontextinwhich
aFLhadbeenacquiredalsoplayedarole:participantswhohadacquiredaFL
onlythroughformalclassroominstructionfeltsignificantlymoreanxious
thanmixedandnaturalisticlearners.”13Researchalsoshows(Dewaele,2007,
p.181)thatthecontextofacquisitionsignificantlyimpactsthethreeconstitu-
entpartsofpragmaticcompetenceintheL2,thatisself-perceivedproficiency,
communicativeanxiety,andperceptionofthecharacteristicsoftheL2.Inhis
study,theparticipantsabsorbingthelanguageinitsnaturalistic(target)setting
turnedouttobemoreproficientandlessanxiousthanstudentspickingthe
languageintheclassroomcontext.Moreover,HtheauthenticuseofL2during
theprocessoflearningitcontributestoattaininghighlevelsofit”(Dewaele,
2007,p.181,inKiliańska-Przybyło,2017,p.121).
AuthenticcommunicationinanL2canbeseenastheresultofacomplex
systemofinterrelatedvariables.Theproblem,however,isthatteachersof
12Onaterminologicalnote,adistinctionissometimesmadebetweenHcritical”andHsensitive”
periods,thelattertermsuggestingmilderpost-CPefectsonlearningoutcomesthanthe
former.Somestudiesusethesetermsinterchangeably,whileothersuseonlyoneofthem
(Ruben,1997).Here,forthesakeofsimplicityandconsistency,Hcriticalperiod”willbeused
asagenericcoverterm.
13
Asthepresenceofanxietycansignificantlydetermineone’soverallcommunicationefec-
tivenessitwillbediscussedseparatelyininsection1.1.5.
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