Attitude and Aptitude in Second Language acquisition and Learning.

— Name                : Dodiya Mehul M.

— Roll No             : 23

— Enrollment No  : 206910840120011

— Class                 : M.A. Sem 3

— Paper Name      : ELT - 1

— Question       :  Write note on Attitude and Aptitude in Second Language acquisition and Learning.

—Words               :  1450

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— Year                  : 2017/19

— Submitted to     : Smt. S.B.Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

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Question : Write note on Attitude and Aptitude in Second Language acquisition and Learning.

English Language teaching is based on the idea that the goal of language acquisition is communicate completence. It adopts concepts, techniques and methds in classroom for recognizing and managine the communicative needs of languages learnre. According to collinsdictionary, ‘the practice and theory of  learning and teachingEnglish for the benefit of people whose first language is not English.the good comunication skills or the excel in communication skills ne has to acquire expertise in all four skills, he has to develop omterest im listening, verbal comunication, interpretation and inscription skills before a students acwuires with all these skills.Teacher should thus become a learner by thinking about the situationby understanding it through difference point of virews before taching  students and by making them relevant in every circumstances.lets come to the point of our assignment,

What is Attitude :?

According to Business Dictionary, ‘A perdisposition or a tendency to respond postively or negatively toward a certain idea, object, person or situation.’ Attitude influences an individeal’s choice of action and responses to challenges, incentives and reward for major componentsof  attitude are

1.   Affective : Emotions or feeling

2.   Cognitive : belief or opinions held consciously

3.   Conative : inclination for action

4.   Evalustive : positive or negative response to stimuli

the second language is incorporate into the classification system already available in the first language, relies on th previously developed semantic system, and actively employs first language phonology. This all means that the main driving force is not so much inner self development as it is use of first language development. To put it figuratively, second language is looking into the windows cut out by the first language”. Inessence, Ushakova is arguing that an individual can only have a single inner speecthe one developed in the L1. There are two general areas of interest with regard to L2 gesture research: the appropriation of culture-specific gestures and the interface between speech andgesture as related to Slobin’s thinking-for speaking hypothesis. According to McNeill, speaking and gesture form a unit that must be analyzed as a whole, what he calls a „growth point”, a concept closely connected to Vygotsky’s notion of inner speech. The growth point of an utterance combines into a single meaning system – „two distinct semiotical architectures” – and, because each component of the unit possesses „unique semiotic properties”, each can surpass „the meaning possibilities of the other”.  According to Stephen Krashen,

‘The acquisition-learning distinction helps interpret findings in all areas in second language acquisition research and practice. One important area is the one of individual variation. At one extreme end of the continuum, some performers might utilize conscious knowledge of the target language whenever possible. Extreme Monitor users might, in fact, be so concerned with editing their output to make it conform to their conscious rules that fluency would be seriously hampered. At the other end of the continuum, we may find those who almost never monitor their output”.

The most important characteristics of Monitor users are: successful Monitors users edit their second language output when it does not interfere with comunication; this editing results in variable performance, that is, we see Difference types and amounts of errors under different conditions; monitoring generally improves accuracy level; monitor users show an overt concern with “correct” language, and regard their unmonitored speech and writing as “careless”According to Stephen Krashen one of the second language research and practice areas that „the acquisition-learning hypothesis helps to interpret is work in second language aptitude and attitude, providing explanation for what had appeared to be a strange finding: both language aptitude  and attitudeappear to be related to second language achievement, but is not relate to each other. It is possible to have highaptitude and low attitude, low attitude, low aptitude and high attitude, or both high or both low.” Foreign language aptitude, defined as the rate at which persons at the secondary school, university and adult level learn to criterion, has been measured by standardized tests such as the MLAT and the LAB. Attitudinal factors that relate to second language acquisition will be dos that perform one or both of two function. First, they will be factors that encourageintake. They are simply factors that encourage acquirers to communicate with speakers of the target language, and thereby obtain the necessary input, or intake, for language acquisition. Secondly, attitudinal factors relating to acquisition will be those that enable the performer to utilized the language heard for acquisition. Simply hearing a second language with understanding appears to be necessary but is not sufficiented for acquisition to take place. The acquirer must not only understand the input but must also, in a sense, be open to it. A list of attitudinal factors includes integrativily motivation, instrumental motivation as well as empathy. The presence of integrative motivation should encourage the acquirer to interact with speakers of the second language out of sheer interest, and thereby obtain intake. A low filter for integratively motivated acquirers is also predicted for similar reasons. The integratively motivated performer will not feel a threat from the other group and will thus be more prone to engage in “receptive learning” rather than “defensive learning”. According to Stephen Krashen (1981: 37), the good language learner is an acquirer, who first of all is able to obtain sufficient intake in the second language, and second, has a low affective filter to enable him to utilize this input for languageacquisition. The good language learner may or may not be a conscious learner. If he is, he is an optimal Monitor user. Immersion and motivation are the most frequent responses to the question of what factors influence successful second language acquisition. It is anun questionable reality the one that learning a language in the country of the target language, often combined with self-study, ensures a successful acquisition of it. Approaching the second language acquisition process from the good language learner perspective implies an entire list of conclusions: the study of grammar alone is not enough, the mixture of formal and informal experience with the second language enhances the success, the immersion in both formal and informal environments is advisable.

If aspects of aptitude relate directly to conscious language learning, while attitudinal factors generally relate to subconscious language acquisition, certain predictions should hold true. Below we examine these predictions and the supporting eviden. Attitude and aptitude will be statistically independent, as they relate tovery different and independent parts of the language performance and internalization model. Of course, this is a well-established result. Carols reported that aptitude is not related to whether or not a person "likes foreign languages study", and Gardner and Lambert have confirmed and replicated this result using standardaptitude tests and measures of integrative motivation many times The aptitude factor will show a strong relationship to second language proficiency in "monitored" test situations and when conscious learning has been stressed in the classroom. Several studies support this. First, the validity of aptitude tests is usually determined by correlating scores with grades in foreign language classes and/or with pencil and paper grammar test Carroll,  Such correlationsis occasionally, but not always, quite high. Similarly, Gardner concluse "language aptitude appears to be of major importance in the acquisition of second languageses skills acquired through instruction" The relationship between attitude and proficiency in second language will be strongest when  subjects or performers have had sufficient intake foracquisition when Monitor-free measures of proficiency are used. attitude will also relate to proficiency when tests that invited the Monitor are used; here both aptitude and attitude will predict proficiency. The effects of attitude will be weaker in this situation, however. Attitudinal effects are predicted to be present whenever any acquired competence at all is used performance Below we review the evidence for each attitudinal factor with respect to these prediction.

Thus, the acquisition is central and compulsory for real proficiency in a second language and learning is a useful supplement available only in certain situations. Attitude is the single most important factor in second language learning.

Works Cited

ILIESCU, Andreea. ATTITUDE AND APTITUDE. n.d. 3 Nov 2018.

Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language Acquisition. UK: Pergamon Press Inc., 1981.

solanki, Jayshree. slideshare. 25 dec 2015. 3 nov 2018.

UKEsaay. Aptitude In Second Language Acquisition English Language Essay. 4 Dec 2016. 3 nov 2018.