Chapter 7: Ideas about Language Learning

Chapter 7:
This is a great chapter to end the book on!  I like how the author has us reflect on our thoughts and views we had before reading the book, and then think about how they have changed after reading and discussing second language acquisition.  Lightbrown and Spada discuss 17 ideas we have about second language acquisition and how they relate to the studies presented in the previous chapters.  One point I found interesting was the point 10 that teachers should present grammatical rules one at a time, and learners should practise examples of each one before going to another (189).  I was not aware of the thought of developing interlanguage through exploration before I read this book.  The author explains "Language development is not just adding one rule after another.  Rather it involves processes of integrating new language forms and patterns into an existing interlanguage, readjusting and restructuring until all the pieces fit" (189).  Another interesting point is number15: Students learn what they are taught (192).  The authors make the point that learners use their own internal learning mechanisms to discover rules and relationships with languages that nobody actually teaches them.  This shows how complex our brains are and that all students can learn a second language.