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Language Acquisition Principles Essay

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Language Acquisition Principles
Stephen Krashen is one of the experts when it comes to language acquisition. He has theorized on the subject of second language acquisition for years and has been quite influential in the field of linguistics approaching the subject of second language acquisition by presenting his five hypotheses for his theory of acquiring a second language. His approach comes from his view that acquisition is obtained best through contextual conversation, which demonstrates his Acquisition-Learning hypothesis. This paper will discuss and examine Krashen’s theory which consists of his five hypotheses for second language acquisition and compare it to the method used by Aida Walqui.
Aida Walqui is yet another expert who …show more content…

Those two approaches are an “acquired system” and a “learned system”.
The acquired system is a process like that of a child learning their first language, where language comes from the interaction between the speaker and the listener naturally. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concentrated not in the form of their utterances, but in the communicative act (Krashen, 2007). Krashen believes motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety are factors that create either success or lack of success in the acquisition of a language. Walqui, on the other hand, believes second language development is a learning process and that different students have different learning styles motivated by intrinsic activities such as value, interest, and challenge (Walqui, 2000) She believes the learners have different learning styles. These styles are analytical, global, visual, or auditory. Those learners with the analytical style pick apart words and sentences, while those with global styles learn overall patterns in meaningful context. Walqui also contends that motivation and classroom interaction are essential to one’s learning. For Walqui, motivation is intrinsic and is for personal reasons, such as value, interest, or challenge. She also suggests that the learning process develops with the use of conversation and collaborative work. Methods prescribed by

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