Unbeknown to Them, and as Unsuccessful as Their L2 Efforts Were, Schumann’s Alberto and Schmidt’s Wes Are the Most Famous L2 Learners in Sla. What Insights Do They Provide Into the Role of Social Integration and Identity in L2 Acquisition?
Question 3
Unbeknown to them, and as unsuccessful as their L2 efforts were, Schumann’s Alberto and Schmidt’s Wes are the most famous L2 learners in SLA. What insights do they provide into the role of social integration and identity in L2 acquisition?
Word Count: 1789
Introduction
The personalities of Alberto and Wes have been key figures in analysing the effects of social factors on the acquisition of a second language. John Schumann’s study of Alberto, a Costa Rican immigrant living in the United States, led him to recognise the ‘Acculturation Model’ as a theory relating to language acquisition. Acculturation is generally defined as ‘the process of becoming adapted to a new culture’. The study of Alberto led Schumann to declare that the social and psychological distances which exist between the learner and the target community are the decisive factors in the process of acquiring a language. He turned to a range of measures drawn from social psychology and concluded that Alberto’s linguistic failures were attributable to his lack of social integration within American society and his lack of interest in using the target language. This method received only limited support and the inherent weaknesses in Schumann’s argument became apparent in Richard Schmidt’s study of Wes; a Japanese trans-migrant living in the United States. Wes was both socially and psychologically immersed into the English speaking community in Hawaii, however although he was a proficient oral communicator after the three year study, Wes had made very little progression grammatically or in his ability to read and write. This contradiction of Schumann’s theory essentially disproves the ‘Acculturation Method’. The case studies of both Alberto and Wes shall be discussed further and the role of identity and social integration in the acquisition of a second language will be analysed.
Case Studies
Alberto was one of the six learners studied by Schumann which led to his
Unbeknown to them, and as unsuccessful as their L2 efforts were, Schumann’s Alberto and Schmidt’s Wes are the most famous L2 learners in SLA. What insights do they provide into the role of social integration and identity in L2 acquisition?
Word Count: 1789
Introduction
The personalities of Alberto and Wes have been key figures in analysing the effects of social factors on the acquisition of a second language. John Schumann’s study of Alberto, a Costa Rican immigrant living in the United States, led him to recognise the ‘Acculturation Model’ as a theory relating to language acquisition. Acculturation is generally defined as ‘the process of becoming adapted to a new culture’. The study of Alberto led Schumann to declare that the social and psychological distances which exist between the learner and the target community are the decisive factors in the process of acquiring a language. He turned to a range of measures drawn from social psychology and concluded that Alberto’s linguistic failures were attributable to his lack of social integration within American society and his lack of interest in using the target language. This method received only limited support and the inherent weaknesses in Schumann’s argument became apparent in Richard Schmidt’s study of Wes; a Japanese trans-migrant living in the United States. Wes was both socially and psychologically immersed into the English speaking community in Hawaii, however although he was a proficient oral communicator after the three year study, Wes had made very little progression grammatically or in his ability to read and write. This contradiction of Schumann’s theory essentially disproves the ‘Acculturation Method’. The case studies of both Alberto and Wes shall be discussed further and the role of identity and social integration in the acquisition of a second language will be analysed.
Case Studies
Alberto was one of the six learners studied by Schumann which led to his
Bibliography: * Krashen S, 1981, Second Language Acquisition, Oxford, OUP * Hatch E, 1983, Psycholinguistics: A Second Language Perspective, Rowley, MA, Newbury House * Ellis R, 1985, Understanding Second Language Acquisition, Oxford, OUP * Mitchell R & F Myles, 1998, Second Language Learning Theories, London, Arnold * Larsen Freeman, D & M Long, 1991, An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research, London, Longman * Ellis R, 1994, The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford, OUP