Languages

R. K. Narayan?s Attitude Towards the English Language

Posted on May 15, 2012 |

Dangers of a Global Language

Posted on May 12, 2012 |

            Negative aspects of English as a Global Language

Even though there are many positive aspects of having a global language, there are     negative aspects as well. How would it be possible to carry through a global language? Are there any dangers with having a global language?

       A global language might cultivate an elite class with native speakers, who take advantage of the possibility to think and work quickly in their mother-tongue. If this was the case they might manipulate it to their advantage at the expense of those who has another language as their mother-tongue and in this way create a linguistic gap between people.

       English has a history, sometimes cruel and violent with colonialism and war, and introducing English as the global language might be seen as a threat of future dominance. Perhaps a global language will make people unwilling or unable to learn other languages and make other languages unnecessary.

One of the “risks” having only one language is that the chosen language may become very technical and “impoverished” for non-native speakers, e.g. the Eskimos, who have several words for snow, because they need it. They would probably not be able to express themselves properly if they only had one word for snow. And Swedish people would not be able to use the word “lagom”, a word which says a lot about the Swedish society and people.

Many of the people who answered my question about “English as a Global Language”, expressed a worry that if we only had one language, they would feel “poor” when it comes to expressing feelings and emotions in a language that is not their mother-tongue, that they would not know enough words to be able to really express how and what they feel.

 

English is the mother-tongue of millions of people in different parts of the world.

If English were to become a global language, which standard of the language would be the global standard? Perhaps the standards would become looser.

      Standard English is the English that is usually used in print. It is also the English          

             which is normally taught in school and to non-native speakers learning English.

 This is also the standard that is spoken among educated people and used for news broadcasts.

Historically, the British Standard developed from the south-east part of England     (the area around London). These dialects were spoken in court, used in law and by the government.

       Standard English has a widely accepted grammar, and an accent that comes with this standard, the British English accent, also known as the “Oxford English”, is the accent that is taught is schools.  Furthermore this English has a major cultural influence, especially on the languages in the former Commonwealth countries, e.g. South Africa, Australia, and India as well as the European Union.

        We often hear about “American-English”, “South African-English” or other                 

 “Englishes”, but no such terms really exist. The different types of English are based on the British English but have developed grammatical and vocabulary differences because of influence and “loanwords” from other languages.

 

What will happen to minor cultures and languages if we introduce a global language?

       An introduction of a global language might lead to discrimination of other languages. Losing a language equals losing identity. The language is much more than just a tool for communication. According to Trudgill there is an intimate relation between language and culture and a large homogenisation of culture might lead to a shift in language where native people adopt another language and eventually the old language may die out. There is a difference between “language death” and “language murder”. Language death is when a language disappears naturally; its speakers are leaving it voluntarily, but “language murder” means that the killer language actively discourages use of other languages. Minority languages may be removed from the media and educational systems.

       English is referred to as a “killer language”, which means that it is a dominant language learned subtractive, at the cost of the mother tongues, rather than additively.

       In the United States there have been a few “English Only” movements, the first one in 1803, when they banned the speaking of French among the population in Louisiana. After that, several attempts to remove Spanish and French have taken place. English is declared as the official language in several states in the US. The English-Only movements have been rejected by linguistics; they mean that a language does not create political unity, it takes more than that.

       The use of one single language in a community is no guarantee for social harmony or mutual understanding. This has been proven several times during the history, e.g. American Civil War, Spanish Civil War and former Yugoslavia.

 

This essay has shown that the creation of a global language has numerous advantages and disadvantages. Mutual intelligibility, great career opportunities and reduced administrative costs are some of the advantages a global language would give. The disadvantages are that English is closely linked to the British and the American cultures and history and is therefore not a “neutral” language. Perhaps a language with less historical and cultural connections would be a better option? We are in need of an international language for communication, politics, trade and security, but at the same time we are worried about language death, the advantages native speakers will have and all the disadvantages non-native speakers will face. English is growing, it is a strong language, and its future seems bright. My opinion is that if there will ever be an international language, English is the best option. It is a strong, well developed language with millions of speakers.

Even if a global language might be important, different languages are of importance for their culture and for the development of their native speakers. Languages make the world more interesting and more alive.

A lingua franca can be any language which is used for communication among people who have no native language in common. In many of the former European colonies in Africa, French or English are used as the language of communication in trade and business. In some parts of Africa, other African lingua francas, such as Swahili and Hausa, are used. These languages are indigenous in some countries and have become used because of political reasons.

             When a language is used as a lingua franca, it undergoes a certain amount of reduction and simplification. The simplification often refers to getting rid of irregularities and grammatical gender in the lingua franca. This happens because adults are, unlike children, generally not good language learners, and therefore need a simplified version of the language.

 

Variety of Language

Posted on April 25, 2012 |

Introduction:

The growth of the Internet has fostered hopes that it will promote active democracies around the world. These hopes are based on the multiple sources of information available to users on the Internet, which is believed to lead to better political choices, and the freedom to express one’s views online, regardless of social status differences. However, the Internet also hosts various forms of deviant behavior, such as flaming of other discussants, malicious spreading of falsehoods, and hacking into private networks. These harmful acts may instead inhibit widespread participation and deliberation.

These conflicting situations arguably develop from a key structural characteristic of the Internet—the perceived anonymity of online users. Scott (1998) defined anonymity as “the degree to which a communicator perceives the message source is unknown and unspecified” (p. 387). Speakers in computer-mediated settings have the potential to adopt pseudonymous identities behind text-based personas. People can feel freer to share diverse ideas that they otherwise may suppress (Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 1998). However, anonymity may create difficulties in evaluating messages produced by unknown sources and may undermine credibility, at least in terms of the subjective experience of those reading the messages (Donath, 1999; Flanagin & Metzger, 2007). Thus, an investigation into the impact of user identity cues may indicate whether the very characteristic that makes the Internet a promising space for political discussion also works against its own potential.

An examination of Internet fora, or discussion boards, reveals that their different architectures provide varying degrees of anonymity by attaching users’ information, such as demographic data or number of posts submitted to date, together with the actual discussion board message. These user details can be a type of status cue, providing background information about the source (Donath, 1999). The message text may also contain other identifying information. In the cue-lean world of text-based communication, the language that people use online becomes an important source of background information, possibly revealing their social position, gender, age, social class, and so forth (Gupta, 1998a). In the context of Singapore, the use of the colloquial variety of English, known as Singlish, may function as a heuristic cue that could affect the kinds of judgments that people make about speakers and their opinions. Our study examines the impact of such status cues in text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) with respect to their influence on the perceptions of online discussants and the effects these cues may have in encouraging active participation in online political discussions.

Literature Review

Status Cues and Heuristic Processing in CMC

In a text-based CMC context with few identifying markers, the structural features of the medium may convey latent information compensating for the lack of nonverbal and visual cues, enabling heuristic judgments to be made about discussants. Two perspectives dominate the literature in this area: the cues-filtered-out perspective (CFO) and what might be called the available-cues-matter perspective (ACM). Early research supporting the first perspective (CFO) states that CMC is lacking in social presence, media richness, and social context cues. The social presence theory (Short, Williams & Christie, 1976) is defined as the feeling that interlocutors are sharing the same communicative space. Since CMC is primarily text-based, this theory states that a CMC user would have reduced perception of an audience, as compared to someone engaging in a face-to-face (FtF) interaction. Similarly, the media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1984) claims that the reduction of cues available in CMC makes it less well-suited for certain tasks involving complex negotiation of meaning, as compared to the FtF communication channel. Last, CMC is seen to lack regulating feedback, status and non-verbal cues, personalization, and social norms, resulting in disinhibition and greater equality of participation (Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire, 1984). The above theories suggest that without the cues present in normal FtF interactions as a guide, message processing and interpretation are affected, reducing the efficacy of interpersonal communication.

Psychologically, inferences and evaluations drawn from messages are influenced by preconfigured schemas. These mental structures allow communicators to make sense of their world through organizing perceptual information into neat categories (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). When a situation involving patterns similar to past events occurs, existing schemas are activated. Consequently, there is a higher tendency for a person to evaluate a message or its speaker heuristically based on past events, instead of using high-level cognitive processing to make attributions about the current subject of consideration.

While the use of heuristics makes cognitive processing more efficient, the results may not always be accurate. Some negative consequences of using heuristics have been noted in stereotype studies, where incomplete or inaccurate assumptions are made about sources (Ross, Read, & Toglia, as cited in Bornstein, 1995). Analogously, negative judgments about arguments based on incorrect attributions about speakers will have detrimental effects on the quality of decision-making in online political deliberation. Johnson and Johnson (2000) note that political deliberation ideally helps citizens reach their best-reasoned judgment concerning which alternative will solve the problem at hand. For citizens to reach such judgments, it is important that their evaluations of related arguments are not distorted by irrational biases formed through heuristic evaluations.

The second perspective is available-cues-matter (ACM). Despite some evidence supporting the CFO perspective, it was challenged by some early Internet researchers (e.g., Rafaeli, 1986; Rice & Love, 1987), and more recent research has also argued against its theoretical claims. For example, the Social Information Processing (SIP) theory contests the deterministic CFO view by positing that despite the cue-lean nature of CMC, there are other social markers about a person available, which can be made salient, making the CMC environment in no way inferior to FtF situations in facilitating the development of relationships (Walther, 1992). The crucial mitigating factor is time, since it typically takes longer for text-based communication to evolve. In other words, given adequate time, users can manage relationships within the text-based constraints of CMC, developing substitutes to compensate for the deficiency of traditional non-verbal and paraverbal cues afforded by FtF exchanges. Walther (1996) also proposes the idea of hyperpersonal communication, in which “CMC has surpassed the level of affection and emotion of parallel FtF interaction” (p. 17).

Meanwhile, the Social Identity and Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) theory specifically challenges the unilateral “individuating” outcome proposed by the CFO perspective (Kiesler et al., 1984). If people have a range of identities which become salient depending on the social context and level of identifiability, the SIDE model argues that conformity to group norms will result if one’s social identity is activated. However, if one’s personal identity becomes salient, individuation will occur instead (Spears & Lea, 1994). Like the SIP theory, the SIDE model explores the influence of cues that are available in CMC and that affect the outcomes of online interactions. But while it examines the effect of online anonymity, it does not explicitly address which structural components of CMC determine the richness of a virtual social environment and is thus unable to either dispute or confirm if the medium is contextually barren.

The claims made by the earliy CFO theories and later the ACM perspectives of the SIP and SIDE models in the 1990s represent a historical progression, in keeping with the development of CMC technology and greater user experience. More recent theoretical developments highlight the importance of examining how source information may function as a heuristic cue in online communication. Mitra (as cited in Sparks, 2001) notes that “the anonymity of the IP address serves to disguise many of those social markers (age, gender, ethnic origin, accent, and so on) that in practice serve to either validate or disqualify the opinions of speakers in direct social interaction” (p. 73). These kinds of source cues may provide background information about the speaker’s identity and enable heuristic judgments to be made about the speaker and the message.

Language and Linguistic Style

Since the majority of CMC occurs in a text-based format, it is reasonable to infer that language variables would become an important source of heuristic cues, independent of content or topic of discussion. Some of the language variables that have been examined in the face-to-face context include pragmatic and syntactic codes and standard discourse schemas (Liu & Ginther, 2001). Smith, Siltanen and Hosman (1998) have looked at how powerful and powerless language styles affect evaluations of a speaker’s authoritativeness, sociability, and similarity to the receiver, while Adkins and Brashers (1995) examined the impact of such language styles on attractiveness, credibility, and persuasiveness in CMC. Some studies of perceptions of CMC language variables have focused on politeness/impoliteness or grammar use (Jessmer & Anderson, 2001). These studies suggest that variations in language styles influence the audience’s perception of the speaker or writer. It follows that participants may use language as a heuristic cue to evaluate informativeness, persuasiveness, and credibility in online discussions.

In the multilingual Singapore context, the Singapore Government has promoted the use and learning of English alongside native mother tongues since the late 1960s, both as a tool for economic survival and as the “ethnically neutral” language in a country where racial relations require careful management (Ho & Alsagoff, 1998). Despite its acknowledged importance, English, as the language of the Western world, is not fully accepted as a natural native language. It has been seen as “an objectionable representation of the national character” (Llamzon, 1977, p. 41).

If Singapore English is to be “regarded as a language which is truly Singaporean” rather than a foreign tongue, Llamzon (1977) argued that it was necessary for it to be indigenized. Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) and Singapore Standard English (SSE) developed as two possible indigenous varieties. CSE, more commonly referred to as Singlish, is primarily a contact language,1 with a grammatical structure significantly different from SSE. Its extreme forms feature a truncated sentence structure, with frequent instances of dropped articles, subject deletion, use of pragmatic particles like ‘hor’ and ‘lah’, and zero copula.2 SSE, on the other hand, is a culturally-located variety of English (Gupta, 2001), with Standard English grammar plus a few local words to express local concepts.3

Borrowing from the diglossia model of language (Ferguson, 1959), which describes the situation where two varieties of a language are used concurrently within a community, we may consider SSE to be the high (H) variety. The H is defined as a more standardized form of the language, which is most likely not natively spoken but may be learned in addition to the native variety. Singlish would be the low (L) variety, where the L generally refers to a regionalized dialect of the language. For this study, the terms Standard English and Singapore Standard English are used interchangeably to refer to a language style distinguished by the use of standard grammar, with a few local words or concepts added to its lexicon.

The use of a colloquial or a standard style could lead others to form different kinds of impressions about the speaker. Gupta (1998a) argued that for Singapore English, similar to most languages, the speakers’ style conveys information to others within the community about their social position, and speakers provide such information either consciously or semi-consciously. Empirical support linking language style and social position has been found by Kuo (1977), who noted that proficiency in and household use of English in Singapore were positively correlated with economic prospects, social mobility, educational level, and household income.

Singapore government discourse seems to support the belief that the use of Singlish communicates social inferiority, with users often perceived as being less competent and professional in the global marketplace. Gupta (1998b) cites a talk by Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in August 1994, in which he pointed out that the use of Singlish confused native English speakers and connoted a negative image of Singapore. However, Lee’s belief that using Singlish would cause speakers to appear somewhat unappealing is not entirely unfounded. In Ferguson’s (1959) description of diglossia, he points out that speakers tend to regard the H variety of language (in this case, Standard English) as superior to the L (Singlish); that H is “more beautiful (and) logical” (p. 237). As such, we would expect to see the following effects when colloquial and standard language styles are used:

Source Expertise

Source expertise is another status cue that may be used to make heuristic judgments about a speaker. Several studies examined its effects on persuasion (Eastin, 2001; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Smith et al., 1998). These studies manipulated levels of expertise through titular changes conferred to the same source, demonstrating that people use source expertise heuristically to make evaluations about the message content, and that attitude change is greater when messages are attributed to an expert source. However, the concept of status cues in the discussion fora arena remains a relatively new area of study, because its dimensions are not always clearly delineated. It has been used as a component within the multi-dimensional construct of credibility in previous research (see McCroskey, 1966; Sternthal, Phillips, & Dholakia, 1978) and also as a predictor of credibility in other studies on persuasion (Eastin, 2001; Smith et al., 1998). Here, we used Hoffman’s (1998) conceptualization of expertise, where the accumulation of skill through experience in the field is important in differentiating an expert from a novice. Hoffman proposed that experience gives a person practice in the particular domain of expertise, and “with practice, a skill loses the quality of being conscious, effortful, deliberate, and linear, and takes on the quality of automatic pattern recognition” (p. 84).

Applying this definition to the online discussion forum context, we can identify several characteristics that may provide an indication of experience or expertise. A brief sampling of Singaporean and foreign web-based discussion fora on current affairs revealed that a fair number make use of a similar architecture, in which identifying information about the forum contributor is presented in a sidebar next to the message text. The information that may indicate experience includes: (a) the number of posts made by a discussant, (b) the date that the discussant joined the forum, (c) a designative label (e.g., Expert or Novice), and (d) a star rating (on a scale of one to five). The number of posts indicates the level of participation of the discussant in the particular forum, while the date joined specifies the duration of membership in the discussion board. The hierarchical label demarcates the relative position of each discussant within that forum. The star rating is used in many review sites on the Internet that rate the quality of products, persons, or experiences. By contrast, this rating method when used in online forums corresponds to the number of posts by a discussant (see, e.g., the Liberty News Forum, http://www.libertynewsforum.com/, and sgForums.com, http://politics.sgforums.com/). The star ratings might be used heuristically to indicate both the quality of a discussant’s postings and the level of experience in that forum. The prevalent usage of some kind of experience/expertise indicator in a number of fora raises the possibility that people might make use of these cues to form perceptions of the discussant, which could consequently affect their evaluation of message content.

Hoffman (1998) further points out that experts are different from novices, in that they possess “an articulated, conceptual, and principled understanding” (p. 83) of the area of expertise. An expert knowledge structure is also different from a novice’s, in that it clearly organizes the information related to the domain and is so extensive that abstraction and generalization are possible on a conceptual level. In line with this characterization, it is logical to suggest that people tend to invoke heuristics established through past experience with experts when presented with the above-mentioned indicators on discussion boards. Therefore, discussants who are labeled Experts would be perceived to be more informative than discussants who are labeled Novices, regardless of the knowledge presented.

Similarly, expertise may be linked to persuasiveness. For example, Smith et al. (1998) found that expertise significantly predicted changes in attitude, with high expertise producing a stronger effect and thus being more persuasive. Expertise might also affect perceptions of online discussants’ credibility. Slater and Rouner (1996) consider it self-evident that messages that come from expert and objective sources are seen to be more credible than those from inexpert and biased sources. Eastin’s (2001) study was one of the first to examine the effects of different levels of source expertise on credibility in the domain of CMC. He found that high expertise sources are perceived to be significantly more credible than low expertise sources. Based on the research cited above, we expect the following:

Status Cues and Participation in Online Discussions

For the Internet to function well as a new public sphere, it should allow for widespread participation in the political process (Habermas, 1989). If structural variations in cues online cause related variations in willingness to participate, these must be taken into consideration when evaluating the potential of the Internet as a public sphere. CMC studies in organizational and social contexts have shown that lack of status cues can result in greater equality of participation online (Sproull & Kiesler, 1986). Although he disagrees with the CFO perspective on the issues of cue salience, Walther (1992) also found that initial interactions online are characterized by high equality and low relational dominance. Thus, regardless of which perspective holds, it would seem that the Internet is a platform conducive to encouraging equal participation in political debate, even if this equality is transitory. These perspectives do not, however, predict the effect of different status levels on participation online.

The literature on Singlish would seem to suggest that the informal climate created by the presence of a colloquial language cue would encourage participation. Bokhorst-Heng (1998) highlights a Business Times report which comments on how Singlish is “becoming trendy among young professionals as a familiarity marker and an act of identity” (p. 304). Studies show that Singlish is also used in informal online discussions (Fang, 2007; Gupta, 2006). Variations in particular language styles might thus foster affinity or a sense of belonging between lurkers and discussants, encouraging the lurkers to come forward and share their perspectives. We therefore posit the following hypothesis:

Concerning the impact of different levels of expertise on willingness to participate, there is little research to suggest how these two variables might be related. While it can be expressed as a research question, we tentatively proffer a directional hypothesis, based on the earlier hypotheses made about the influence of the expertise variable. To the extent that a low expert source is perceived as less informative, persuasive, and credible than a high expert source, we feel that it is likely that people would be less willing to participate in online discussions with novices than with experts.

Beyond willingness, it is important to understand the reasons why people would participate, in order to gain a fuller understanding of the dynamics of online political discussions. Research by Stromer-Galley (2003) suggested two possible competing motivations for participating in political conversations online. A desire for homophily may motivate people to join discussions and interact with others who have similar interests, as a form of reinforcement of one’s views. On the other hand, a desire for diversity might lead people to seek out discussants unlike themselves, to encounter different opinions and therefore expand their worldview. Stromer-Galley suggested that both perspectives have potentially unfavorable consequences for political talk online. Exposure to similar perspectives may lead to group polarization or the radicalization of one’s initial position, while a coming together of diverse perspectives may simply result in an irrational jumble of opinions. On a more optimistic note, if diversity is the motivation behind political participation, it implies that political discussion participants are being exposed to a wider range of opinions, possibly aiding deliberative conversation. Thus, we investigate how the desires for homophily and diversity might vary in relation to status cues in political discussions online. We also examine change in desires for homophily and diversity over time, regardless of the discussion topic.

Method

Participants

Eighty undergraduates (38 women, 42 men), with a mean age of 21.5, were recruited through email advertisements. They were offered an incentive of $10 for completing the study. Non-Singaporean respondents were screened from the sample to avoid possible confounds brought about by their unfamiliarity with local political issues and discussions.

Design

The experiment had a mixed design, with two between-subjects factors (language and expertise), and one within-subject factor (discussion issue), which were fully crossed. This yielded a 2 (Standard English versus Singlish) x 2 (high versus low expertise cues) x 2 (Unions versus HDB issue) factorial design. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the between-subjects condition, with gender balanced across conditions. The order of presentation for the issues to the participants was also balanced.

Stimulus

Participants were presented with two political discussion message threads extracted from existing online Singaporean fora. One topic concerned a recent dispute between the management and the pilots’ union of Singapore Airlines. The other topic dealt with a recent change in the Singapore Government’s public housing policy, requiring buyers of new Housing Development Board (HDB) flats to pay a 10% deposit upon acquisition. The topics were chosen based on the likelihood that the participants’ involvement with them was low, drawing from the theory that low-involvement issues tend to invoke heuristic, rather than high-level, cognitive processing (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). The discussions were edited to comparable lengths in terms of average number of words per discussant. They were manipulated such that only four different discussants’ postings made up the entire thread, and one particular discussant’s postings constituted half of the discussion, in terms of total number of words. Participants were asked to make their evaluations of this predominant discussant. Language and expertise cues were manipulated only for this discussant, with the attributes of the rest being constant across treatments.

For the manipulation of the language variable, two versions of postings by the predominant discussants were produced, namely a Standard English and a Singlish version. The Standard English version utilized grammatically correct English and standard sentence structures. The Singlish version strongly featured the characteristics of CSE, such as non-standard grammar structures and local jargon. A linguistic expert specializing in the study of Singlish vetted the stimulus materials to ensure that variations in language manipulations were consistent, natural, and did not affect the content of the messages presented. Manipulations of the language used by the predominant discussant necessitated variations in word counts between conditions, but these were kept to a minimum. The postings of the non-dominant discussants were presented in Standard English.

For the manipulation of the expertise variable, the discussion remained the same, but the sidebar information was altered. Specifically, four kinds of identifying information were used to indicate level of expertise of the dominant discussants: the number of posts4 (greater than 1000 for Experts, fewer than 20 for Novices), a hierarchical label (Veteran or Newbie), the date joined (a date in 2001 or a date in 2003), and a star rating (five stars versus one star). Postings made by non-dominant discussants were displayed with median attributes (that is, a few hundred posts, the neutral hierarchical label Member, a random date in 2002, and a three-star rating).

Procedure

The experiment was conducted in two phases. The first phase was carried out in five sessions over three consecutive days. Participants filled out a questionnaire measuring basic demographic information, covariates, and motivations for participating in online political discussions, namely the desires for homophily and diversity. They were then scheduled for the experimental phase and thanked for their participation. The phase one sessions lasted about 30 minutes each.

The second phase was conducted roughly one week later, in seven sessions over three consecutive days, in groups ranging from six to 24 participants per session. Participants were requested to read all the postings from the first discussion forum on a web browser before proceeding to answer questions regarding the predominant discussant. The procedure was repeated with the second discussion thread. The second phase questionnaire included manipulation checks for language and expertise and questions on the study participants’ motivations for participating in online political discussions. The sessions were all completed in about 30 to 40 minutes.

Measures

This study examined the impact of status cues on five general dependent variables (see Appendix). The first three variables examined perceived attributes of the predominant discussant in the forum discussion. Perceived informativeness and persuasiveness were measured using composite indices developed by Ng and Detenber (2005). The indices were seven-point, Likert-type, composite measures with 10 and eight items, respectively, for each variable. Source credibility was measured using McCroskey’s 12-item Source Credibility Scale (taken from Rubin, Palmgreen, & Sypher, 1994), comprised of seven-point semantic differential scales. The scale is divided into two sub-dimensions: authoritativeness and character. The fourth and fifth dependent variables concerned the participants’ desire to contribute to online political discussions. Willingness to participate was measured using a 10-item, seven-point Likert-type scale developed by Ng and Detenber (2005). The competing motivations for participation were the desire for homophily, measured using a four-item, seven-point Likert-type scale, and the desire for diversity, measured using a three-item, seven-point Likert-type scale (Ng & Detenber, 2005).

In examining the dependent variables, the possible mitigating effect of other factors needs to be considered. For example, Sternthal et al. (1978) noted that high credibility sources can be more persuasive than low credibility sources when issue involvement is low. Therefore, to control for this, involvement was measured for each of the two issues using selected items modified from the Personal Involvement Inventory (Ng & Detenber, 2005). Similarly, political efficacy may influence participants’ perceptions of discussants, as well as their willingness to participate in online discussions. Political efficacy generally refers to “the feeling that individual political action does have, or can have, an impact upon the political process” (Acock, Clarke, & Stewart, 1985, p. 187); it is often broken down into two dimensions: internal/self and external/system. In Singapore, an increasing proportion of citizens believe that it is ineffectual to participate in local politics (Ooi, Tan, & Koh, 1998); thus it is especially important to consider the mediating effect this factor may have on participants’ willingness to contribute to online political discussions. Therefore, two dimensions of political efficacy, system and self-efficacy, were measured as controls using scales taken from Craig, Niemi, and Silver (1990; see Appendix). Finally, to control for the possible differences between frequent users and non-users of political discussion fora, the respondents’ frequency of discussing political issues online was measured using a six-item Likert-type scale from Ng and Detenber (2005).

Data Reduction and Analysis

The manipulation check items for the language and expertise variables were combined into separate composite measures. Composite measures were computed for the following control variables: unions issue involvement, HDB issue involvement, self-efficacy, and system efficacy. Individual items for the dependent measures of informativeness, persuasiveness, the two dimensions of source credibility (authoritativeness and character), and willingness to participate were also combined to form five composite measures. Reliabilities for all the composite scores were good for both issues. Table 1 contains the reliabilities for the control measures, while Table 2 reports the reliabilities for the manipulation checks and dependent variables composite measures.

To determine which control measures were significantly related to the dependent variables and therefore should be included as covariates in the ANOVA models, correlation analyses were run. For the Union issue, self-efficacy, r(80)=.27, p=.01, and issue involvement, r(80)=.28, p=.01, were significantly related to the willingness to participate. For the HDB issue, the composite measure for discussion participation, r(79)=.24, p=.03, was related to the measure for authoritativeness. In addition, self-efficacy, r(80)=.38, p<.001, and issue involvement, r(80)=.23, p=.04, were related to willingness to participate. Hence, each control measure was used as a covariate only in specific analyses, as noted below. The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), with issue (Unions or HDB) as the repeated measure, and language and expertise as the between-subjects factors.

Results

Manipulation Checks

Mixed-model ANOVA analyses were run to determine whether there was a perceptible difference in the treatment levels of language and expertise. The overall model for language was significant, F(1, 78)=47.21, p<.001; Standard English (M=4.14, SE=.11), Singlish (M=3.09, SE=.11). For the individual issues, the language manipulations in both discussions were also significant, F(1, 78)=30.87, p<.001 for Unions; F(1, 78)=25.78, p<.001 for HDB.

In the expertise manipulation check, the overall model was significant, F(1, 78)=9.34, p=.003; Novice (M=4.30, SE=.10), Expert (M=4.73, SE=.10). For the individual issues, the expertise manipulation in the Unions discussion was significant, F(1, 78)=16.45, p<.001.

Although the means were in the proper direction, the difference was not significant for the HDB discussion, F<1. Given this somewhat "weak" manipulation, the results should be interpreted cautiously for the expertise variable. Table 3 summarizes the means by issue for the language and expertise manipulation checks.

Informativeness

Hypothesis 1a postulated that discussants who used Singlish would be perceived as being less informative than discussants who used Standard English, while hypothesis 2a proposed that discussants who were rated as Novices would be perceived as being less informative than discussants who were rated as Experts. Results of the ANOVA model indicated that neither language nor expertise significantly affected informativeness, F(1, 76)=2.74, p=.10, for language; F<1, for expertise. Nor was the interaction between language and source expertise significant, F(1, 76)=3.34, p=.07. Therefore, hypotheses 1a and 2a were not supported. Power analyses indicate that with 80 subjects, there was a 37% chance of detecting a main effect of Singlish and a 44% chance of detecting an interaction effect between Singlish and source expertise.

Persuasiveness

Hypothesis 1b proposed that discussants who used Singlish would be perceived as being less persuasive than discussants who used Standard English, and hypothesis 2b predicted that discussants rated as Novices would be perceived as being less persuasive than discussants rated as Experts. Results showed that neither language nor expertise was significantly related to the perceived persuasiveness of the assessed discussants, F(1, 76)=2.26, p=.14, for language; F<1, for expertise. Language and expertise interactions were not significant, either, F(1, 76)=1.86, p=.18. Hypotheses 1b and 2b were thus not supported. Power analyses indicate that there was a 32% and 27% chance of detecting the main effect and the interaction effect, respectively.

Source Credibility

Hypothesis 1c suggested that discussants who used Singlish would be perceived to have lower source credibility than discussants who used Standard English. Hypothesis 2c postulated that discussants who were rated as Novices would be perceived to have lower source credibility than discussants who were rated as Experts. A repeated measures ANCOVA analysis was run for the authoritativeness dimension of source credibility, with discussion participation as a covariate, while an ANOVA model was constructed for the character dimension. Language did affect perceptions of authoritativeness, but the relationship was right at the level of statistical significance, F(1, 74)=3.94, p=.05; Standard English (M=4.71, SE=.11), Singlish (M=4.40, SE=.11). However, authoritativeness was not related to the expertise variable, F<1, nor was there a significant interaction between language and expertise, F(1, 74)=2.30, p=.13. A power analysis revealed that there was a 32% chance of finding an effect with 80 subjects.

There were no significant main effects for either independent variable on the character dimension of source credibility, Fs<2. However, there was a significant interaction between language and expertise, F(1, 75)=12.23, p=.001. In the Standard English condition, Novices had a higher character source credibility (M=4.65, SE=.13) than Experts (M=4.15, SE=.12). In the Singlish condition, the results were in the opposite direction: Experts were rated with a higher character source credibility (M=4.42, SE=.12) than Novices (M=4.04, SE=.13; see Figure 1). Thus hypothesis 1c was partially supported, but only with respect to the authoritativeness dimension. Hypothesis 2c was provisionally supported in the Singlish condition. However, it was counter-hypothetical in the Standard English condition, since Novices were rated with higher character source credibility than Experts. Follow-up tests on the interaction showed that in the Novice condition, there is a significant difference in Singlish's effect on character source credibility, F(1, 36)=10.11, p=.003, but no significant difference in the Expert condition, F(1, 39)=2.70, p=.11.

Willingness to Participate

Hypothesis 3 predicted that when discussants used Singlish, participants would be more willing to participate in the discussion than when discussants used Standard English. Hypothesis 4 proposed that when discussants were rated as Novices, participants would be less willing to participate in the discussion than when discussants were rated as Experts. The ANCOVA model revealed that willingness to participate was not significantly related to the independent variables, F<1 for both language and expertise. There was no significant interaction found between language and expertise, F(1, 73)=2.03, p=.16. Thus hypotheses 3 and 4 were not supported. Power analysis showed that with 80 subjects, there was a 29% chance of finding the interaction effect between Singlish and source expertise on willingness to participate.

Motivations for Participation

RQ1 sought to investigate if the desires for homophily and diversity were affected by language and expertise. No significant main effects were found. However, for the homophily motivation, the interaction between phases and language was significant, F(1, 75)=9.44, p<.01. There was no difference between phase one and phase two scores in the Standard English condition, but differences were found in the Singlish condition (phase one, M=4.57, SE=.14; phase two, M=4.07, SE=.16). In other words, the use of Singlish by predominant discussants caused the desire for homophily to decrease over time. However, there was a difference in phase one scores for homophily between the conditions. A one-way ANOVA model revealed that this difference was significant, F(1, 78)=4.17, p=.05, Standard English (M=4.19, SD=1.00); Singlish (M=4.57, SD=.67). Thus, results should be interpreted with caution, because random assignment failed to produce equivalent groups at phase one. Over time, there were no main or interaction effects found for diversity between language or expertise, F<1.

Discussion

The results of this study suggest that language and expertise cues in a CMC context do not have quite the impact that was anticipated. In fact, the effects were very limited. Specifically, the status markers of language and expertise did not influence perceptions of a discussant’s informativeness (H1a and H2a) or persuasiveness (H1b and H2b). They also did not affect Singaporean subjects’ intentions to participate in the online discussions (H1d and H2d) or influence their motivations to do so (RQ1). The language and expertise cues did have some influence on perceptions of source credibility (H1c and H2c), but the relationships were not always straightforward. A brief discussion of the significant findings in the study follows.

For source credibility, authoritativeness was found to be related to language style. As predicted, discussants using Standard English were rated as being more authoritative than discussants using Singlish. The individual items in the McCroskey scale suggest that authoritativeness is related to the intellectual competence of the source (Rubin et al., 1994). Thus, the use of H-variety Standard English, which, according to Ferguson (1959) is associated with logic and the expression of “important thoughts,” most likely causes respondents to perceive the source as being more competent. Somewhat surprisingly, however, the labeled expertise of the discussant did not affect perceptions of authoritativeness or intellectual competence. In this particular online context, it appears that how one “speaks” or writes is more influential than the degree of competence ascribed to individuals by various structural features of the website.

For the character dimension, a significant interaction effect was found between language and expertise. When discussants identified as Novices wrote using Standard English they were evaluated more favorably (i.e., more honest, friendly, pleasant, unselfish, nice, and virtuous) than Novices using Singlish. There was no significant effect of language when the discussants were identified as Experts. What this suggests is that Novices benefit from the use of Standard English, but Experts do not, nor do they suffer from using Singlish. It is possible that the Novices using the formal language style may have created some violations of expectations among the participants, leading to higher character evaluations. In contrast, if one is regarded as an Expert, language style does not affect attributions of character.

This interaction may be a consequence of the sequential processing of heuristic cues. In this case, the participants most likely encountered the expertise cue first. The label and other explicitly stated information conveying expertise (or lack thereof) are immediately apparent, or potentially so, upon first seeing the discussion forum. Having seen the expertise label, some expectations about the labeled discussant are set up by the participants based on heuristic processing. By contrast, the language cue is not immediately apparent, as a participant would need to read and process each posting before they are able to perceive the cue’s presence. It is likely that the language cue is processed after the expertise cue and potentially modulated by it. In the case of the present findings, the label Expert seems to override any effect of language style, but for those labeled Novice, language style does indeed matter in terms of attributions of character.

The lack of significant effects from the status cues runs counter to previous research (e.g., Adkins & Brashers, 1995; Eastin, 2001), which found that characteristics such as powerful and powerless language styles and perceived expertise affected source credibility and message persuasiveness. A possible explanation is that the context of an online political discussion can have a strong influence on lurkers (the role assigned to the participants in our study). Their perceptual focus may be diverted toward the quality of argument and other substantive points of message content, rather than assessing information conveyed by status cues. Even so, the findings have some implications for theories relating to expertise, language, and political communication in computer-mediated environments, as discussed below.

The findings imply that the mental processing of expertise cues in CMC is different from that in face-to-face contexts. Studies of the latter have found that higher source expertise has significant effects on persuasiveness (e.g., Smith et al., 1998; see Sternthal et al., 1978, for a review). The absence of a relationship between expertise and perceptions of informativeness and persuasiveness in the present study suggests that the interpretation of status cues online is not straightforward or easily discerned. It may be that the Expert title does not specifically identify the kind of knowledge or experience held by the discussant, as opposed to past conceptualizations of expertise that used titles that were rich in social information. For example, the title of ‘doctor’ implies that the person has had extensive formal education and is also experienced in the area of medicine. By contrast, it is impossible to tell if an ‘expert’ possesses a high level of education, experience, or the kind of specialized knowledge relevant to the topic of discussion.

Our findings also suggest that the language cue does not have a pervasive or uniform impact on all the perception variables examined. One explanation as to why variations in language style did not consistently affect the perception variables is the possibility that the participants in the study, being Singaporeans and familiar with Singlish, had internalized the local language style. They might thus unconsciously discount this as a heuristic cue, choosing instead to evaluate the message content for its own sake. This explanation could be tested by comparing the evaluations of the discussant by a Singaporean versus a foreigner who is not familiar with the local language style. The uses of Standard English and Singlish could also be tested across different communication contexts, such as online and offline, or by varying the topic and degree of formality normally associated with a given context.

It is also possible that the use of truncated or ungrammatical styles is expected in the context of Internet communication. This is consistent with the linguistic concept of language register, which specifies what language style is appropriate and expected to be used in a particular setting (Halliday, 1978). The development of the abbreviated style of writing that is commonly seen in Internet-based interpersonal communication, alongside more formal writing seen on corporate and educational websites, could indicate that both formal and informal registers operate in the online context. Thus, when an ungrammatical or colloquial writing style is used, it may not be seen as an anomaly to normal Internet communication, and it may subsequently be discounted as information relevant to impression formation.

Limitations and Directions for Future Study

The concept of expertise in CMC contexts has not been adequately addressed by existing research, and the present study has its limitations as well. While the characteristics of source expertise we examined may have been ecologically valid, they may not be strong representations of the variable. Furthermore, the discussants’ number of postings, dates joined, star ratings, and the designative labels were all manipulated concurrently, so their individual impact could not be assessed. More research is needed to investigate what these structural attributes of discussion fora mean to online readers. Specifically, a clearer explication is needed of the readers’ criteria for being an expert, the ways in which these cues may be shown, and the impact these cues can have on the perceptions of the contributor and the message content.

With the exception of a very small number of studies (e.g., Gupta, 2006), the use of Singlish online remains largely unexplored. This presented another obstacle, since while there are established rules for Singlish, it was difficult to translate consciously in a natural fashion from Standard English into Singlish and vice versa. There was a trade-off between distinctively manipulating one discussant’s language style and ecological validity. It was unlikely that a single discussant would write very differently from other discussants in the same forum, as discussants tended to adapt to each other’s writing style. If the other discussants decided to adapt to the style of the original discussion poster, it would be difficult to make a naturalistic manipulation based on judgments in language style alone.

To address the lack of information on the use of colloquial styles online, more formal investigation into norms of usage is necessary, particularly into the purposes for employing such styles online, the degrees to which they can be varied, and how they are processed by other participants. More research is needed to discover what language register is seen as appropriate for Internet communication, and if this varies by format (e.g., discussion board or web page), function (e.g., instructional or relational), context (e.g., the message content or topic), or intended audience (e.g., students or professionals). Although this study did not find much evidence for the impact of language style in CMC, we believe that it is still an important concept to investigate further.

Acknowledgments

This project was supported in part by a grant from the Singapore Internet Project. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Communication and Technology Division of the International Communication Association at the annual conference held in New York, NY, May 2005. Correspondence should be addressed to the fourth author.

Second Language Acquisition

Posted on April 15, 2012 |

Second language acquisition is the process by which people learn languages in addition to their native language(s). The term second language is used to describe any language whose acquisition starts after early childhood (including what may be the third or subsequent language learned). The language to be learned is often referred to as the “target language” or “L2″, compared to the first language, “L1″. Second language acquisition may be abbreviated “SLA”, or L2A, for “L2 acquisition”.

The term “language acquisition” became commonly used after Stephen Krashen contrasted it with formal and non-constructive “learning.” Today, most scholars use “language learning” and “language acquisition” interchangeably, unless they are directly addressing Krashen’s work. However, “second language acquisition” or “SLA” has become established as the preferred term for this academic discipline.

Though SLA is often viewed as part of applied linguistics, it is typically concerned with the language system and learning processes themselves, whereas applied linguistics may focus more on the experiences of the learner, particularly in the classroom. Additionally, SLA has mostly examined naturalistic acquisition, where learners acquire a language with little formal training or teaching.

Describing learner language

Through the descriptive study of learner language, SLA researchers seek to better understand language learning without recourse to factors outside learner language. Researchers may adopt an interlanguage perspective, exploring learner language as a linguistic system, or they may study how learner language compares to the target language. Research is centered on the question: What are the unique characteristics of learner language? Much of the research has focused on the English language as the L2, because of the huge number of people around the world learning and teaching it.

Error analysis

The field of error analysis in SLA was established in the 1970s by S. P. Corder and colleagues. A widely-available survey can be found in chapter 8 of Brown, 2000. Error analysis was an alternative to contrastive analysis, an approach influenced by behaviorism through which applied linguists sought to use the formal distinctions between the learners’ first and second languages to predict errors. Error analysis showed that contrastive analysis was unable to predict a great majority of errors, although its more valuable aspects have been incorporated into the study of language transfer. A key finding of error analysis has been that many learner errors are produced by learners making faulty inferences about the rules of the new language.

Error analysts distinguish between errors, which are systematic, and mistakes, which are not. They often seek to develop a typology of errors. Error can be classified according to basic type: omissive, additive, substitutive or related to word order. They can be classified by how apparent they are: overt errors such as “I angry” are obvious even out of context, whereas covert errors are evident only in context. Closely related to this is the classification according to domain, the breadth of context which the analyst must examine, and extent, the breadth of the utterance which must be changed in order to fix the error. Errors may also be classified according to the level of language: phonological errors, vocabulary or lexical errors, syntactic errors, and so on. They may be assessed according to the degree to which they interfere with communication: global errors make an utterance difficult to understand, while local errors do not. In the above example, “I angry” would be a local error, since the meaning is apparent.

From the beginning, error analysis was beset with methodological problems. In particular, the above typologies are problematic: from linguistic data alone, it is often impossible to reliably determine what kind of error a learner is making. Also, error analysis can deal effectively only with learner production (speaking and writing) and not with learner reception (listening and reading). Furthermore, it cannot control for learner use of communicative strategies such as avoidance, in which learners simply do not use a form with which they are uncomfortable. For these reasons, although error analysis is still used to investigate specific questions in SLA, the quest for an overarching theory of learner errors has largely been abandoned. In the mid-1970s, Corder and others moved on to a more wide-ranging approach to learner language, known as interlanguage.

Error analysis is closely related to the study of error treatment in language teaching. Today, the study of errors is particularly relevant for focus on form teaching methodology.

Interlanguage

Interlanguage scholarship seeks to understand learner language on its own terms, as a natural language with its own consistent set of rules. Interlanguage scholars reject, at least for heuristic purposes, the view of learner language as merely an imperfect version of the target language. Interlanguage is perhaps best viewed as an attitude toward language acquisition, and not a distinct discipline. By the same token, interlanguage work is a vibrant microcosm of linguistics. It is possible to apply an interlanguage perspective to learners’ knowledge of L2 sound systems (interlanguage phonology), and language-use norms found among learners (interlanguage pragmatics).

By describing the ways in which learner language conforms to universal linguistic norms, interlanguage research has contributed greatly to our understanding of linguistic universals in SLA. See below, under “linguistic universals”.

Developmental patterns

Ellis (1994) distinguished between “order” to refer to the pattern in which different language features are acquired and “sequence” to denote the pattern by which a specific language feature is acquired.

Order of acquisition

Researchers have found a very consistent order in the acquisition of first language structures by children, and this has drawn a great deal of interest from SLA scholars. Considerable effort has been devoted to testing the “identity hypothesis,” which asserts that first-language and second-language acquisition conform to the same patterns. This has not been confirmed, probably because second-language learners’ cognitive and affective states are so much more advanced. However, orders of acquisition in SLA do often resemble those found in first language acquisition, and may have common neurological causes.

Most learners begin their acquisition process with a “silent period,” in which they speak very little if at all. For some this is a period of language shock, in which the learner actively rejects the incomprehensible input of the new language. However, research has shown that many “silent” learners are engaging in private speech (sometimes called “self-talk”). While appearing silent, they are rehearsing important survival phrases and lexical chunks. These memorized phrases are then employed in the subsequent period of formulaic speech. Whether by choice or compulsion, other learners have no silent period and pass directly to formulaic speech. This speech, in which a handful of routines are used to accomplish basic purposes, often shows few departures from L2 morphosyntax. It eventually gives way to a more experimental phase of acquisition, in which the semantics and grammar of the target language are simplified and the learners begin to construct a true interlanguage.

The nature of the transition between formulaic and simplified speech is disputed. Some, including Krashen, have argued that there is no cognitive relationship between the two, and that the transition is abrupt. Thinkers influenced by recent theories of the lexicon have preferred to view even native speaker speech as heavily formulaic, and interpret the transition as a process of gradually developing a broader repertoire of chunks and a deeper understanding of the rules which govern them. Some studies have supported both views, and it is likely that the relationship depends in great part on the learning styles of individual learners.

A flurry of studies took place in the 1970s, examining whether a consistent order of morpheme acquisition could be shown. Most of these studies did show fairly consistent orders of acquisition for selected morphemes. For example, among learners of English the cluster of features including the suffix “-ing,” the plural, and the copula were found to consistently precede others such as the article, auxiliary, and third person singular. However, these studies were widely criticized as not paying sufficient attention to overuse of the features (idiosyncratic uses outside what are obligatory contexts in the L2), and sporadic but inconsistent use of the features. More recent scholarship prefers to view the acquisition of each linguistic feature as a gradual and complex process. For that reason most scholarship since the 1980s has focused on the sequence, rather than the order, of feature acquisition.

Sequence of acquisition

A number of studies have looked into the sequence of acquisition of pronouns by learners of various Indo-European languages. These are reviewed by Ellis (1994), pp. 96-99. They show that learners begin by omitting pronouns or using them indiscriminately: for example, using “I” to refer to all agents. Learners then acquire a single pronoun feature, often person, followed by number and eventually by gender. Little evidence of interference from the learner’s first language has been found; it appears that learners use pronouns based entirely on their inferences about target language structure.

Studies on the acquisition of word order in German have shown that most learners begin with a word order based on their native language. This indicates that certain aspects of interlanguage syntax are influenced by the learners’ first language, although others are not.

Research on the sequence of acquisition of words is exhaustively reviewed by Nation (2001). Kasper and Rose (2002) have thoroughly researched the sequence of acquisition of pragmatic features. In both fields, consistent patterns have emerged and have been the object of considerable theorizing.

Variability

Valid though the interlanguage perspective may be, which views learner language as a language in its own right, this language varies much more than native-speaker language, in an apparently chaotic way. A learner may exhibit very smooth, grammatical language in one context and uninterpretable gibberish in another. Scholars from different traditions have taken opposing views on the importance of this phenomenon. Those who bring a Chomskyan perspective to SLA typically regard variability as nothing more than “performance errors,” and not worthy of systematic inquiry. On the other hand, those who approach it from a sociolinguistic or psycholinguistic orientation view variability as a key indicator of how the situation affects learners’ language use. Naturally, most research on variability has been done by those who presume it to be meaningful.

Research on variability in learner language distinguishes between “free variation,” which takes place even within the same situation, and “systematic variation,” which correlates with situational changes. Of course, the line between the two is often subject to dispute.

Free variation, variation without any determinable pattern, is itself highly variable from one learner to another. To some extent it may indicate different learning styles and communicative strategies. Learners that favor high-risk communicative strategies and have an other-directed cognitive style are more likely to show substantial free variation, as they experiment freely with different forms.

Free variation in the use of a language feature is usually taken as a sign that it has not been fully acquired. The learner is still trying to figure out what rules govern the use of alternate forms. This type of variability seems to be most common among beginning learners, and may be entirely absent among the more advanced.

Systematic variation is brought about by changes in the linguistic, psychological, social context. Linguistic factors are usually extremely local. For instance, the pronunciation of a difficult phoneme may depend on whether it is to be found at the beginning or end of a syllable.

Social factors may include a change in register or the familiarity of interlocutors. In accordance with communication accommodation theory, learners may adapt their speech to either converge with, or diverge from, their interlocutor’s usage.

The most important psychological factor is usually taken to be planning time. As numerous studies have shown, the more time that learners have to plan, the more regular and complex their production is likely to be. Thus, learners may produce much more target-like forms in a writing task for which they have 30 minutes to plan, than in conversation where they must produce language with almost no planning at all.

Affective factors also play an important role in systematic variation. For example, learners in a stressful situation (such as a formal exam) may exhibit much less target-like forms than they would in a comfortable setting. This clearly interacts with social factors, and attitudes toward the interlocutor and topic also play important roles.

Learner-external factors

The study of learner-external factors in SLA is primarily concerned with the question: How do learners get information about the target language? Study has focused on the effects of different kinds of input, and on the impact of the social context.

Social effects

The process of language learning can be very stressful, and the impact of positive or negative attitudes from the surrounding society can be critical. One aspect that has received particular attention is the relationship of gender roles to language achievement. Studies across numerous cultures have shown that women, on the whole, enjoy an advantage over men. Some have proposed that this is linked to gender roles. Doman (2006) notes in a journal devoted to issues of Cultural affects on SLA, “Questions abound about what defines SLA, how far its borders extend, and what the attributions and contributions of its research are. Thus, there is a great amount of heterogeneity in the entire conceptualization of SLA. Some researchers tend to ignore certain aspects of the field, while others scrutinize those same aspects piece by piece.”

Community attitudes toward the language being learned can also have a profound impact on SLA. Where the community has a broadly negative view of the target language and its speakers, or a negative view of its relation to them, learning is typically much more difficult. This finding has been confirmed by research in numerous contexts. A widely-cited example is the difficulty faced by Navajo children in learning English as a second language.

Other common social factors include the attitude of parents toward language study, and the nature of group dynamics in the language classroom.

Early attitudes may strengthen motivation and facility with language in general, particularly with early exposure to the language

Input and intake

Learners’ most direct source of information about the target language is the target language itself. When they come into direct contact with the target language, this is referred to as “input.” When learners process that language in a way that can contribute to learning, this is referred to as “intake.”

Generally speaking, the amount of input learners take in is one of the most important factors affecting their learning. However, it must be at a level that is comprehensible to them. In his Monitor Theory, Krashen advanced the concept that language input should be at the “L+1″ level, just beyond what the learner can fully understand; this input is comprehensible, but contains structures that are not yet fully understood. This has been criticized on the basis that there is no clear definition of L+1, and that factors other than structural difficulty (such as interest or presentation) can affect whether input is actually turned into intake. The concept has been quantified, however, in vocabulary acquisition research; Nation (2001) reviews various studies which indicate that about 98% of the words in running text should be previously known in order for extensive reading to be effective.

A great deal of research has taken place on input enhancement, the ways in which input may be altered so as to direct learners’ attention to linguistically important areas. Input enhancement might include bold-faced vocabulary words or marginal glosses in a reading text. Research here is closely linked to research on pedagogical effects, and comparably diverse.

Interaction

Long’s interaction hypothesis proposes that language acquisition is strongly facilitated by the use of the target language in interaction. In particular, the negotiation of meaning has been shown to contribute greatly to the acquisition of vocabulary (Long, 1990). In a review of the substantial literature on this topic, Nation (2000) relates the value of negotiation to the generative use of words: the use of words in new contexts which stimulate a deeper understanding of their meaning.

In the 1980s, Canadian SLA researcher Merrill Swain advanced the output hypothesis, that meaningful output is as necessary to language learning as meaningful input. However, most studies have shown little if any correlation between learning and quantity of output. Today, most scholars contend that small amounts of meaningful output are important to language learning, but primarily because the experience of producing language leads to more effective processing of input.

Pedagogical effects

The study of the effects of teaching on second language acquisition seeks to systematically measure or evaluate the effectiveness of language teaching practices. Such studies have been undertaken for every level of language, from phonetics to pragmatics, and for almost every current teaching methodology. It is therefore impossible to summarize their findings here. However, some more general issues have been addressed.

Research has indicated that many traditional language-teaching techniques are extremely inefficient. However, today a broad consensus of SLA scholars acknowledge that formal instruction can help in language learning.

Another important issue is the effectiveness of explicit teaching: can language teaching have a constructive effect beyond providing learners with enhanced input? Because explicit instruction must usually take place in the learner’s first language, many have argued that it simply starves learners of input and opportunities for practice. Research on this at different levels of language has produced quite different results. Most notably, pronunciation does not show any significant response to explicit teaching. Other traditional areas of explicit teaching, such as grammar and vocabulary, have had decidedly mixed results. The positive effect of explicit instruction at this level seems to be limited to helping students notice important aspects of input. Interestingly, the higher-level aspects of language such as sociopragmatic and discourse competence have shown the most consistently strong effects from explicit instruction. Research has also shown a distinct effect of age on the effectiveness of explicit instruction: the younger learners are, the less benefit they show.

However, research has again and again shown that early exposure to a second language increases a child’s capacity to learn language, even their first language.

Learner-internal factors

The study of learner-internal factors in SLA is primarily concerned with the question: How do learners gain competence in the target language? In other words, given effective input and instruction, with what internal resources do learners process this input to produce a rule-governed interlanguage?

The critical period research to date

Main article: Critical Period Hypothesis

How children acquire native language (L1) and the relevance of this to foreign language (L2) learning has long been debated. Although evidence for L2 learning ability declining with age is controversial, a common notion is that children learn L2s easily, whilst older learners rarely achieve fluency. This assumption stems from ‘critical period’ (CP) ideas. A CP was popularised by Eric Lenneberg in 1967 for L1 acquisition, but considerable interest now surrounds age effects on second language acquisition (SLA). SLA theories explain learning processes and suggest causal factors for a possible CP for SLA, mainly attempting to explain apparent differences in language aptitudes of children and adults by distinct learning routes, and clarifying them through psychological mechanisms. Research explores these ideas and hypotheses, but results are varied: some demonstrate pre-pubescent children acquire language easily, and some that older learners have the advantage, whilst others focus on existence of a CP for SLA. Recent studies (e.g. Mayberry and Lock, 2003) have recognised certain aspects of SLA may be affected by age, whilst others remain intact. The objective of this study is to investigate whether capacity for vocabulary acquisition decreases with age.

A review of SLA theories and their explanations for age-related differences is necessary before considering empirical studies. The most reductionist theories are those of Penfield and Roberts (1959) and Lenneberg (1967), which stem from L1 and brain damage studies; children who suffer impairment before puberty typically recover and (re-)develop normal language, whereas adults rarely recover fully, and often do not regain verbal abilities beyond the point reached five months after impairment. Both theories agree that children have a neurological advantage in learning languages, and that puberty correlates with a turning point in ability. They assert that language acquisition occurs primarily, possibly exclusively, during childhood as the brain loses plasticity after a certain age. It then becomes rigid and fixed, and loses the ability for adaptation and reorganisation, rendering language (re-)learning difficult.

Cases of deaf and feral children provide evidence for a biologically determined CP for L1. Feral children are those not exposed to language in infancy/childhood due to being brought up in the wild, in isolation and/or confinement. A classic example is ‘Genie’, who was deprived of social interaction from birth until discovered aged thirteen (post-pubescent).

Such studies are however problematic; isolation can result in general retardation and emotional disturbances, which may confound conclusions drawn about language abilities. Studies of deaf children learning American Sign Language (ASL) have fewer methodological weaknesses. Newport and Supalla (1987) studied ASL acquisition in deaf children differing in age of exposure; few were exposed to ASL from birth, most of them first learned it at school.

Results showed a linear decline in performance with increasing age of exposure; those exposed to ASL from birth performed best, and ‘late learners’ worst, on all production and comprehension tests. Their study thus provides direct evidence for language learning ability decreasing with age, but it does not add to Lennerberg’s CP hypothesis as even the oldest children, the ‘late learners’, were exposed to ASL by age four, and had therefore not reached puberty, the proposed end of the CP.

Other work has challenged the biological approach; Krashen (1975) reanalysed clinical data used as evidence and concluded cerebral specialisation occurs much earlier than Lenneberg calculated. Therefore, if a CP exists, it does not coincide with lateralisation.

Although it does not describe an optimal age for SLA, the theory implies that younger children can learn languages more easily than older learners, as adults must reactivate principles developed during L1 learning and forge an SLA path: children can learn several languages simultaneously as long as the principles are still active and they are exposed to sufficient language samples (Pinker, 1995).

There are, however, problems with the extrapolation of the UG theory to SLA: L2 learners go through several phases of types of utterance that are not similar to their L1 or the L2 they hear. Other factors include the cognitive maturity of most L2 learners, that they have different motivation for learning the language, and already speak one language fluently.

Other directions of research

Empirical research has attempted to account for variables detailed by SLA theories and provide an insight into L2 learning processes, which can be applied in educational environments. Recent SLA investigations have followed two main directions: one focuses on pairings of L1 and L2 that render L2 acquisition particularly difficult, and the other investigates certain aspects of language that may be maturationally constrained. Flege, Mackay and Piske (2002) looked at bilingual dominance to evaluate two explanations of L2 performance differences between bilinguals and monolingual-L2 speakers, i.e. a maturationally defined CP or interlingual interference.

Flege, Mackay and Piske investigated whether the age at which participants learned English affected dominance in Italian-English bilinguals, and found the early bilinguals were English (L2) dominant and the late bilinguals Italian (L1) dominant. Further analysis showed that dominant Italian bilinguals had detectable foreign accents when speaking English, but early bilinguals (English dominant) had no accents in either language. This suggests that, whilst interlingual interference effects are not inevitable, their emergence, and bilingual dominance, may be related to a CP.

Sebastián-Gallés, Echeverría and Bosch (2005) also studied bilinguals and highlight the importance of early language exposure. They looked at vocabulary processing and representation in Spanish-Catalan bilinguals exposed to both languages simultaneously from birth in comparison to those who had learned L2 later and were either Spanish- or Catalan-dominant. Findings showed ‘from birth bilinguals’ had significantly more difficulty distinguishing Catalan words from non-words differing in specific vowels than Catalan-dominants did (measured by reaction time).

These difficulties are attributed to a phase around age eight months where bilingual infants are insensitive to vowel contrasts, despite the language they hear most. This affects how words are later represented in their lexicons, highlighting this as a decisive period in language acquisition and showing that initial language exposure shapes linguistic processing for life. Sebastián-Gallés et al (2005) also indicate the significance of phonology for L2 learning; they believe learning an L2 once the L1 phonology is already internalised can reduce individuals’ abilities to distinguish new sounds that appear in the L2.

Most studies into age effects on specific aspects of SLA have focused on grammar, with the common conclusion that it is highly constrained by age, more so than semantic functioning. B. Harley (1986) compared attainment of French learners in early and late immersion programs. She reports that after 1000 exposure hours, late learners had better control of French verb systems and syntax. However, comparing early immersion students (average age 6.917 years) with age-matched native speakers identified common problem areas, including third person plurals and polite ‘vous’ forms. This suggests grammar (in L1 or L2) is generally acquired later, possibly because it requires abstract cognition and reasoning (B. Harley, 1986).

B. Harley also measured eventual attainment and found the two age groups made similar mistakes in syntax and lexical selection, often confusing French with the L1. The general conclusion from these investigations is that different aged learners acquire the various aspects of language with varying difficulty. Some variation in grammatical performance is attributed to maturation (discussed in B. Harley, 1986), however, all participants began immersion programs before puberty and so were too young for a strong critical period hypothesis to be directly tested.

Mayberry and Lock (2003) questioned whether age restrains both L1 and L2 acquisition. They examined grammatical abilities of deaf and hearing adults who had their initial linguistic exposure either in early childhood or later. They found that, on L2 grammatical tasks, those who had acquired the verbal or signed L1 early in life showed near-native performance and those who had no early L1 experience (i.e. born deaf and parents did not know sign-language) performed weakly. Mayberry and Lock concluded early L1 exposure is vital for forming life-long learning abilities, regardless of the nature of the exposure (verbal or signed language). This corresponds to Chomsky’s UG theory, which states that whilst language acquisition principles are still active, it is easy to learn a language, and the principles developed through L1 acquisition are vital for learning an L2.

Scherag, Demuth, Rösler, Neville and Röder (2004) also suggest learning some syntactic processing functions and lexical access may be limited by maturation, whereas semantic functions are relatively unaffected by age. They studied the effect of late SLA on speech comprehension by German immigrants to the U.S.A. and American immigrants to Germany. They found that native-English speakers who learned German as adults were disadvantaged on certain grammatical tasks whilst performing at near-native levels on lexical tasks. These findings are consistent with work by Hahne (2001, cited in Scherag et al, 2004).

One study that specifically mentions semantic functions acquisition is that of Weber-Fox and Neville (1996). Their results showed that Chinese-English bilinguals who had been exposed to English after puberty, learned vocabulary to a higher competence level than syntactic aspects of language. They do, however, report that the judgment accuracies in detecting semantic anomalies were altered in subjects who were exposed to English after sixteen years of age, but were affected to a lesser degree than were grammatical aspects of language. It has been speculated (Neville and Bavelier, 2001, and Scherag et al, 2004) that semantic aspects of language are founded on associative learning mechanisms, which allow life-long learning, whereas syntactical aspects are based on computational mechanisms, which can only be constructed during certain age periods. Consequently, it is reasoned, semantic functions are easier to access during comprehension of an L2 and therefore dominate the process: if these are ambiguous, understanding of syntactic information is not facilitated. These suppositions would help explain the results of Scherag et al’s (2004) study.

Some researchers have focused exclusively on practical applications of SLA research. Asher (1972) insists teenagers and adults rarely successfully learn an L2, and attributes this to teaching strategies. He presents an L2 teaching strategy based on infants’ L1 acquisition, which promotes listening as central in language learning: listening precedes, and generates a ‘readiness’ for, speaking, assumptions supported by Carroll (1960). Asher shows that in L2 acquisition, in this case German, listening fluency is achieved in around half the usual time if the teaching is based on L1 acquisition, and that learners taught in this way still develop reading and writing proficiency comparable with those whose training emphasises literacy skills.

Similarly Horwitz (1986) summarises findings of SLA research, and applies to L2 teaching some principles of L2 acquisition honed from a vast body of relevant literature. Like Asher, Horwitz highlights the importance of naturalistic experience in L2, promoting listening and reading practice and stressing involvement in life-like conversations. She explicitly suggests teaching practices based on these principles; ‘[m]uch class time should be devoted to the development of listening and reading abilities’, and ‘[t]eachers should assess student interests and supply appropriate…materials’ (Horwitz, 1986, p.685-686). The ‘audio-lingual’ teaching practices used in the present study are based on principles explicated by Asher and Horwitz; listening featured heavily, closely followed by reading and speaking practice. The vocabulary items taught were deemed relevant for all learners, regardless of age, and, according to Pfeffer (1964), they are among the most commonly used nouns in everyday German language.

Cognitive approaches

A great deal of research and speculation has taken place on the cognitive processes underlying SLA. Ellen Bialystok has modelled the process of acquisition in terms of gaining increasing attentional control over language use. In other words, as the processes of word selection and utterance construction become increasingly automatic, learners’ language ability also improves.

Language transfer

Main article: Language transfer

Language transfer typically refers to the learner’s trying to apply rules and forms of the first language into the second language. The term can also include the transfer of features from one additional language to another (such as from a second to a third language), although this is less common.

Contrastive analysis, discussed above, sought to predict all learner errors based on language transfer. As subsequent research in error analysis and interlanguage structure showed, this project was flawed: most errors are not due to transfer, but to faulty inferences about the rules of the target language.

Transfer is an important factor in language learning at all levels. Typically learners begin by transferring sounds (phonetic transfer) and meanings (semantic transfer), as well as various rules including word order and pragmatics. As learners progress and gain more experience with the target language, the role of transfer typically diminishes.

In the UG-based framework (see Linguistic universals below), “language transfer” specifically refers to the linguistic parameter settings defined by the language universal. Thus, “language transfer” is defined as the initial state of second language acquisition rather than its developmental stage.

Linguistic universals

Research on universal grammar (UG) has had a significant effect on SLA theory. In particular, scholarship in the interlanguage tradition has sought to show that learner languages conform to UG at all stages of development. A number of studies have supported this claim, although the evolving state of UG theory makes any firm conclusions difficult.

A key question about the relationship of UG and SLA is: is the language acquisition device posited by Chomsky and his followers still accessible to learners of a second language? Research suggests that it becomes inaccessible at a certain age (see Critical Period Hypothesis), and learners increasingly depended on explicit teaching (see pedagogical effects above, and age below). In other words, although all of language is governed by UG, older learners might have great difficulty in gaining access to the target language’s underlying rules from positive input alone.

Individual variation

Research on variation between individual learners seeks to address the question: Why do some learners do better than others? A flurry of studies in the 1970s, often labelled the “good language learner studies,” sought to identify the distinctive factors of successful learners. Although those studies are now widely regarded as simplistic, they did serve to identify a number of factors affecting language acquisition. More detailed research on many of these specific factors continues today.

Language aptitude

Tests of language aptitude have proven extremely effective in predicting which learners will be successful in learning. However, considerable controversy remains about whether language aptitude is properly regarded as a unitary concept, an organic property of the brain, or as a complex of factors including motivation and short-term memory. Research has generally shown that language aptitude is quite distinct from general aptitude or intelligence, as measured by various tests, and is itself fairly consistently measurable by different tests.

Language aptitude research is often criticized for being irrelevant to the problems of language learners, who must attempt to learn a language regardless of whether they are gifted for the task or not. This claim is reinforced by research findings that aptitude is largely unchangeable. In addition, traditional language aptitude measures such as the Modern Language Aptitude Test strongly favor decontextualized knowledge of the sort used in taking tests, rather than the sort used in conversation. For this reason little research is carried out on aptitude today. However, operators of selective language programs such as the United States Defense Language Institute continue to use language aptitude testing as part of applicant screening.

Age

Main article: Critical Period Hypothesis

It is commonly believed that children are better suited to learn a second language than are adults. However, in general second language research has failed to support the Critical Period Hypothesis in its strong form, which argues that full language acquisition is impossible beyond a certain age.

Strategy use

The effective use of strategies has been shown to be critical to successful language learning, so much so that Canale and Swain (1980) included “strategic competence” among the four components of communicative competence. Research here has also shown significant pedagogical effects. This has given rise to “strategies-based instruction.”

Strategies are commonly divided into learning strategies and communicative strategies, although there are other ways of categorizing them. Learning strategies are techniques used to improve learning, such as mnemonics or using a dictionary. Learners (and native speakers) use communicative strategies to get meaning across even when they lack access to the correct language: for example, by using pro-forms like “thing”, or non-linguistic means such as mime. Communicative strategies may not have any direct bearing on learning, and some strategies such as avoidance (not using a form with which one is uncomfortable) may actually hinder learning.

Learners from different cultures use strategies in different ways, as a research tradition led by Rebecca Oxford has demonstrated. Related to this are differences in strategy use between male and female learners. Numerous studies have shown that female learners typically use strategies more widely and intensively than males; this may be related to the statistical advantage which female learners enjoy in language learning.

[edit] Affective factors

Affective factors relate to the learner’s emotional state and attitude toward the target language. Research on affect in language learning is still strongly influenced by Bloom’s taxonomy, which describes the affective levels of receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and self-characterization through one’s value system. It has also been informed in recent years by research in neurobiology and neurolinguistics.

Affective Filter Furthermore, researchers believe that language learners all possess an affective filter which affect language acquistion. If a student possesses a high filter they are less likely to engage in language learning because of shyness, concern for grammar or other factors. Students possessing a lower affective filter will be more likely to engage in learning because they are less likely to be impeded by other factors. The affective filter is an important component of second language learning.

Anxiety

Although some continue to propose that a low level of anxiety may be helpful, studies have almost unanimously shown that anxiety damages students’ prospects for successful learning. Anxiety is often related to a sense of threat to the learner’s ego in the learning situation, for example if a learner fears being ridiculed for a mistake.

Socio-Cultural Factors

Second language acquisition is defined as the learning and adopting of a language that is not your native language. Once you have acquired a foreign language, you have mastered that language.

Second language acquisition may be more difficult for some people due to certain social factors. One highly studied social factor impeding language development is the issue of extraverts versus introverts.

Studies have shown that extraverts (or unreserved and outgoing people) acquire a second language better than introverts (or shy people).

One particular study done by Naiman reflected this point. The subjects were 72 Canadian high school students from grades 8, 10 and 12 who were studying French as a second language.

Naiman gave them all questionnaires to establish their psychological profiles, which also included a French listening test and imitation test. He found that approximately 70% of the students with the higher grades (B or higher) would consider themselves extraverts.

Extraverts will be willing to try to communicate even if they are not sure they will succeed. Two scientists, Kinginger and Farrell, conducted interviews with U.S. students after their study abroad program in France in 2003. They found that many of the students would avoid interaction with the native speakers at all costs, while others jumped at the opportunity to speak the language. Those who avoided interaction were typically quiet, reserved people, (or introverts).

Logically, fear will cause students not to try and advance their skills, especially when they feel they are under pressure. Just the lack of practice will make introverts less likely to fully acquire the second language.

Motivation

Main article: Motivation in second language learning

The role of motivation in SLA has been the subject of extensive scholarship, closely influenced by work in motivational psychology. Motivation is internally complex, and Dörnyei (2001, p. 1) begins his work by stating that “strictly speaking, there is no such thing as motivation.” There are many different kinds of motivation; these are often divided into types such as integrative or instrumental, intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to the desire to do something for an internal reward. Most studies have shown it to be substantially more effective in long-term language learning than extrinsic motivation, for an external reward such as high grades or praise. Integrative and instrumental orientations refer to the degree that a language is learned “for its own sake” (integratively) or for instrumental purposes. Studies have not consistently shown either form of motivation to be more effective than the other, and the role of each is probably conditioned by various personality and cultural factors.

Some research has shown that motivation correlates strongly with proficiency, indicating both that successful learners are motivated and that success improves motivation. Thus motivation is not fixed, but is strongly affected by feedback from the environment. Accordingly, the study of motivation in SLA has also examined many of the external factors discussed above, such as the effect of instructional techniques on motivation. An accessible summary of this research can be found in Dörnyei (2001).

In their research on Willingness to communicate, MacIntyre et al (1998) have shown that motivation is not the final construct before learners engage in communication. In fact, learners may be highly motivated yet remain unwilling to communicate.

Concepts of ability

Numerous notions have been used to describe learners’ ability in the target language. The first such influential concept was the competence-performance distinction introduced by Chomsky. This distinguishes competence, a person’s idealized knowledge of language rules, from performance, the imperfect realization of these rules. Thus, a person may be interrupted and not finish a sentence, but still know how to make a complete sentence. Although this distinction has become fundamental to most work in linguistics today, it has not proven adequate by itself to describe the complex nature of learners’ developing ability.

The notion of communicative competence was first raised by Dell Hymes in 1967, reacting against the perceived inadequacy of Chomsky’s distinction between linguistic competence, and has proven extremely popular in SLA research. It broadens the notion of the kind of rules that competence can include. Whereas Chomsky treated competence as primarily grammatical, communicative competence embraces all of the forms of knowledge that learners must have in order to communicate effectively.

A closely related concept is proficiency. Proficiency is usually distinguished from competence, which refers to knowledge: “proficiency refers to the learner’s ability to use this knowledge in different tasks” (Ellis, 1994, p. 720). Because any test of competence is a task of some sort, it may be argued that all measures of competence are in effect measuring some form of proficiency.

Both proficiency and competence are internally complex; they do not reflect a single attribute, but many different forms of knowledge in complex interrelationship. Research, such as much of that discussed here, requires some unitary concept of ability, but it has been clearly shown that different aspects of language ability progress at vary different rates. For example, Kasper and Rose (2002) review numerous studies of the complex relationship between grammatical and pragmatic proficiency. The measurement of language ability, although necessary for both research and teaching, is inevitably problematic.

References

Canale, M. and M. Swain (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics 1(1): 1-47.

MacIntyre, P.D., Clément, R., Dörnyei, Z., & Noels, K.A. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. The Modern Language Journal, 82 (4), 545-562.

Dewaele, J. and Furnham, A. “Personality and Individual Differences.” Personality and Speech Production: A Pilot Study of Second Language Learners 28 (2000): 355-365

Naiman, N., Frohlich, M., and Stern, H. “The Good Language Learner: A Report.” Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (1975)

4 Easy Tips For Learning German From Top German Language Classes In Navi Mumbai And Thane

Posted on April 5, 2012 |

1. Study German Culture: Learning German in Navi Mumbaican also be achieved watching German movies but English subtitles! These you can watch at the comfort of your home meaning that you can learn German in Mumbai without stress. This will help you in understanding the German culture and pronunciation. You can also listen to German music and this would help improve your ability to communicate in German. There are some tapes onGerman Classes in Mumbai that you can also watch.

2.Read German Language Books: An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. Read books you can also listen to German news and keep a German dictionary by you when you do this be sure that in no time you would have learnt how to speak German. Learning German is no harder than English, French or Spanish. More than 60,000 books are published in Germany, which is sold all over the world.

3.Join German Language Classes: To learn German language you need a mentor who would put you through the basic rudiment of the German course. There are some schools that offer German classes in Navi Mumbai and Thane. Decide to attend German classes in Navi Mumbai that would help make a poor student good and a good one superior. If you are a beginner or intermediate Spanish learner, a classroom setting is more or less necessary. It may also be a good point to visit your Spanish course counselor and discuss your requirements.

4. Start speaking from today: Don’t be shy or hesitant to speak German in public places. You may not be able to master the German language in starting attempts. But remember one thing “practice makes man perfect.” You have to start from today and one fine day you will be the master of your own. Why to wait now? Start moving and become the fine German Speaker and everyone who you come across will appreciate you.

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