Thursday, April 25, 2013

Is there any relation between first language and second language?!!!

First and second language are tightly intertwined in which they affect each other and crucially make a definition of how the individual acts in a society and within a community . What is important is to teach students how to benefit from first language to build and support their second language. Every teacher, if he/ she is am affective teacher should build his/ her own standards and limits for students to refer backward to their first language. And the teacher should be careful since not all the concepts can be related to those of first language. On the other hand, they can go back to first language in specific topics without overusing it, or translating from it.
Also they should learn how to think in second language , and not only to refer every single idea to first language, or else they will fall in the trap of negative transfer,(mistakes due to translations between the two languages).
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8 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 25, 2013 at 11:12 AM

    Actually,you raised a very important topic Maria. To which extent we can rely on our native language when we are learning a second language? I think some languages except of Arabic you could refer to it when you are studying another one, because Arabic language differ totally from other languages, because have an own alphabet, own grammar and furthermore another structure, and never forget that deliver from different root.

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  2. UnknownApril 25, 2013 at 12:37 PM

    Many educational rules forbid the use of the first language in teaching a second language. But is this way beneficial for a good learning? Actually, using the first language in explaining is a way to facilitate the ideas and deliver them easier so students can compare, analyze, and understand the second language through the use of their native language. the teacher should find the ways that facilitate her/his work and profit students, it means that the target is to be sure that students understand so it is important to simplify the explanation and this depends on the teacher's responsibility and competence.

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  3. UnknownApril 25, 2013 at 1:18 PM

    This point is very important, Maria. Many of the mistakes langauge learners are unfortunately due to a certain gap that was not properly filled by the teacher.
    As we always say, it's very difficlt to unlearn what you learned.
    Similarly, the students will go on with these errors as they continuously connect L2 to L1, so we have to be careful about these details.

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  4. zainab salloumApril 27, 2013 at 7:52 AM

    Wouldn't this approach send the students a hidden message that "the first language is more important than the second" and that would in turns leads to low achievement on the second language due to its low importance..

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  5. UnknownApril 27, 2013 at 12:39 PM

    Hello Maria, I found this post to be very interesting mainly because my native language is Spanish and somehow I had to be exposed to learn both English and Arabic at the same time, which to be seemed mission impossible. Do you believe the pattern in which we learn different languages affect the manner through which we will develop them throughout time?

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  6. UnknownApril 28, 2013 at 10:20 AM

    no zainab i didn't say that first language is better, the hidden message is for the teachers just to focus more when to use the first language and how to use it? And to reflect this on their students, so they on the other hand will be also able to know when we should go back to our first language

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  7. UnknownApril 30, 2013 at 5:36 AM

    This totally right, Maria.To fix a building is harder than building new one, and this is what we as teachers face every day in our classes. A lot of misconceptions can be discovered in the students' responses. But the good teacher is the one who can catch those mistakes and try to fix it not only in language but in any subject.

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  8. Sahar TahaApril 30, 2013 at 5:47 AM

    Very intresting topic Maria, I came from venezuela when I was 5 years old and I started my education here in a private school where they really concentrate in the second language (English language), for me it was the third language after arabic and spanish and I used to mix spanish and english together and my friends used to make fun of my mistakes, the teacher didn't do anything about that so, I forced myself to forget the spanish language inorder to learn english and it was really a mistake that I still regret till now. Teachers should keep in their minds while teaching a langauge that students may get confused if they already know more than one langauge

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