VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7, 8 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 05:23:12 05/02/07 Wed
Author: Arlete Silva da Costa
Subject: Task two - Arlete

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Faculdade de Letras
Professora: Adriana Tenuta Aluna: Arlete Silva da Costa
Disciplina: Produção de Texto- Inglês
Aluna: Arlete Silva da Costa


Task two



The effects of intelligence in Second Language Acquisition



Learning a Second Language ( L2) in a classroom involves what might be called “ a general academic or reasoning ability” ( STERN 1983:368): often referred to as intelligence. Intelligence is the term used to refer to a hyphothesized “ general factor” which underlies our ability to master and use a whole range of academic skills. As Mac Donough ( apud BROWN, 1988 ) emphasizes, it refers to “ capacity rather than contents of the mind.” That is, it is the underlying ability to learn, rather than the actual Knowledge that is supposedly measured by intelligence tests. Some researchs have showed that intelligence interfer in Second Language Acqusition ( SLA) but there are studies that disagree with that. In this way the question is “ To what extent does the intelligence factor influence ( SLA)” ?
Oller and Perkins ( 1978:413) have argued that “ there exists a global language proficiency factor which accounts for the bulk of the reliable variance in a wide variety of language proficiency measures.” They claim that the general factor of language proficiency is identical with the general factor of intelligence.
One of the problems of this point of view is that the “ general factor’ does not appear to be an essential factor in first language ( L1) acquisition. We know that all children, except those who are severely mentally retarded, succeed in developing grammatical competence in their L1 . So, if the intelligence is not a major determinant of L1 acquisition , it is possible that it is also not very important in Second Language Acquisition, particularly when this is acquired naturally.
These two different point of view become clearer for us when, we distinguish the two kinds of language ability existents . The first one is the dimension of language proficiency which is strongly related to overall cognitive and academic skills and can be equated with Oller and Perkins´s general factor and general intelligence.
The second kind of language ability are the skills required for oral fluency and also include sociolinguistics aspects of competence. They are developed naturally.
These two kinds of language ability are independent and are to be found in first and second language acquisition. The distinction between them, explain the effects of intelligence. It is strongly related to the development of academic second language ( reading, grammar, and vocabulary) , but is the main unrelated to ratings of oral productive skills by native speakers.
To conclude, intelligence may influence acquisition of some skills associated with SLA, such as those utilized in the formal study of a L2, but it is much less likely to influence the acquisition of oral fluency skills. Intelligence may be a powerful predictor of success in classroom SLA, particularly when this consists of formal teaching methods but much less so in naturalistic SLA, when L2 knowledge is developed through learning how to communicate in the targert language.


Referências Bibliográficas:

BROWN, James Dean. Undestanding research in second language learning. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge , 1988.

OLLER, John W. Jr., PERKINS, Kyle. Intelligence and language proficiency as sources of variance in self-reported affective variables. 1978:413

STERN, H.H.. Fundamental concepts of language teaching. Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1986 :368

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.