Age and acquisition (Brown)

1. What is the difference between the terms ACQUISITION and LEARNING?

• ACQUISITION: Unconscious process that it naturally develops in communicative situations.

• LEARNING: Conscious process of accumulating knowledge of a Language

2. Why is motivation important for L2 students?

If students feel motivated they will learn easily because the LAD will be activated, and that is one of the most important factors when it comes to learning.

3. Why might foreign talk be beneficial?

Because when students think they can understand what the teacher actually says by modifying her/his own speech they will feel more motivated and this will leads students to learn TL easily.

4. What is communicative competence?

Is the way that we use to produce speech, we find three concepts of this which are:

· Grammatical competence; it is related to the accurate use of words and structures in the L2.

· Sociolinguistic competence: It enables the learner to discriminate the social context.

· Strategic competence: This is the ability to organize a message effectively and to compensate, via strategies, for any difficulties.

5. What is Positive and Negative Transfer?

· Positive transfer: when some concepts from L1 and L2 have similar characteristics, the learner may be able to benefit from the positive transfer of L1 Knowledge. For example; if students use the word doctor, even if he/she does not know that this words is equal in Spanish and English.

· Negative transfer (or interference): L1 and L2 are too different, and it is not effective for L2 communication. For example; if students say this is my carpet, referring to a folder, in Spanish, but the similitude between both languages make students do this negative transfer.