Blog 20: Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

      What is the most important factor in second language acquisition for a non-native speaker? 

1. Answer 1: Age affects a non-native speakers ability to acquire a language in many ways making it one of the most important factors in second language acquisition.
2. Answer 2:  The motivational reason for a non-native speaker to learn the target language is one of the most important factors in second language acquisition
3. Answer 3: Proximity of a persons native tongue to the family group of his or her target language is the most important factor in language acquisition for a non-native speaker.

Best Answer: Age in which that non-native speaker is exposed to and starts to acquire his/her target language. I chose this answer as my best answer because through all my research the age in which someone starts to acquire his/her second language can have great benefits in the development of fluency in the target language. The age in which one starts their SLA process can affect their fluency of pronunciation, the time it takes to grasp grammatical and lexical concepts, and the motivation one has to learn a language.  This answer is better than the other two of my answers because in some ways age of SLA encompasses the other two answers.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

      I first went to my original mentor Dr. Russikoff and asked her my essential question. She told me that it would be almost impossible to argue that one factor is the most important factor in SLA. So together we compiled a list of possible answers to this question. From this list we decided which ones are more important than the others. In the end we ended up with about 5 possible answers, but from there we could not narrow the answer down any further. Those five answers were all arguably of equal importance. From there I researched the five answers and picked the answers I could find the most research on. When it came to picking my best answer I went with my personal belief rather than statistical and scientific evidence. I did this because all three of my answers had enough evidence to allow them to be the most important factor.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

      My original mentor was only able to help me for the first semester of school. After that she got to busy with classes and her new book release that occurred in Taiwan. I solved this problem by finding a new mentor. With my first mentor I got mostly the scientific and factual aspects of linguistics. With my second mentor I really wanted to see how the concepts I learned out of books and articles were applied into a classroom. So I started to do mentor ship being a teachers assistant  at Mt. Sac in a German II class. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

     My two most important sources were the book "How Languages are Learned" by Lightbown and Spada and Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition taught to me by me Dr. Russikoff during my independent component.  The book "How languages are learned" was most important to answer my essential question because it provided me with my first and second answers. The book explains how first languages are learned then links those concepts to second languages. It showed me the progress of a persons cognitive development as related to language acquisition. For example in first language acquisition syntax acquisition occurs in a certain order, that order is the same for second language acquisition. The Krashens theories of second language acquisition were important to answering my essential question because I used his theories about the aspects of a second language to check off if a factor helped or not. Krashen's theories are affective filter, natural order, input, monitor, and acquisition. All three of my answers help in some way or another will all of his theories for successful second language acquisition.