SOCIAL THEORIES.

True/False

1 Social theories differ from other second language theories because they focus on how social forces influence the outcome of language learning. (T)

2 According to the “Social Distance Hypothesis”, learners are believed to be successful because of their emotional receptiveness to language learning. (T)

3 A learner with low psychological distance may have difficulty obtaining good language learning experiences due to high social distance. (T)

4 The relation between the learning group and the target group is called “Acculturation”. (F)

5 Language learning depends on how much experiences the learner has in the target community. (T)

6 When the learning group is big, the members would be more likely to learn the new language. (F)

7 It s not neccesarily to have in mind the response from the target group, because what matters is to be already in. (F)

8 Using Internet is a good way to keep learning the language because you get more social exposure of the same. (F)

9 Getting to know the new culture first contributes to avoid Psychological Distance and Culture Shock. (T)

10 Acculturation is the primary force for language learning. (T)

Answer:

1 What does make Social Theories different from the others (First Language, Attention, and Experience Theories)?

What makes it different is that it doesn’t focus entirely on the person who’s learning the language and the kinds of experiences he/she receives on the language class, and that is because according to these theories second language acquistion is suposed to happen through the interaction with the native speaker community and getting to be accepted by it. Social theories view languager learning within larger sociological contexts and allows questions such as why learners are not motivated and how cultural behavior from the native community can affect the learning proccess.

2 What is the most important factor to acquire the language in Social Theories’ view?

According to the most weel-known Social Theory (Social Distance or Acculturation Theory), psychological distance determines somehow if the learner is going to be succeful or not. That is because learners with low psychological distance are more open to language learning, they are motivated, flexible and ephatic to native speakers, which allows them to keep strong through the proccess and not go back when experiencing the Little culture schock, which in some cases just causes more fascination to the learner because they want to be accepted.

Opposite to learners with high psychological distance, whose emotional receptiveness to language learning and culture are impediment to be successful because they have difficulties switching to a new behavior statement.

3 Why the native community becomes less welcoming when the number of any foreign country grows?

At the beginning, they are open to new people who wants to know their culture but then what makes them be more welcoming is because when people from a specific part of the world start to come, they feel like it is an invassion and they want to protect their customs and show they´re still the ones who control. The example of the Spanish speaker in The United States, where there are cities in where you can find a lot of Spanish speakers Institutions such as stores and churches and that has made the americans to not alwas accept spanish speakers immigrants and get predjudgices about us.

4 What strategies can use a language teacher to help the student to be successful when facing the new culture and the circustances when it is required to speak?

The teacher can decrease student’s psychological distance working to increase their motivation and to dicrease their anxiety and stereotypes of the new culture. He/she can the students to know more about the culture giving themthe opportunity to interact with a native speaker and allowing them to ask questions and talk about his/her own experience if had any.

Define.

1 Acculturation:

It’s the procces in which the learner get to function in the target language culture and become a member of it being at the same time comfortable with the situation.

2 Culture Shock:

It’s a state of anxiety and disorientation as the result of being exposed to a Brand new culture and not having a good impression about it.

3 Social Distance:

It’s the relationship between the learning group and the target group. It is about how different or similar both groups are, for example cohesiveness, size, ethnic stereotypes and contact stance. Social Distance determines in large part the learner’s opportunities for Acculturation.

Making Inferences.

1 When a family moves to a new country, who are going to be more able to acculturate easier when being already there?

Children are the ones with more opportunities to get acculturated because they have experienced less contact with their native culture and language, so that makes them to learn and accept faster than adults because there is less social distance. It’s also important to mention that some communities are more receptive to child language learners than adults learners.

2 People who want to learn the language want to know more about the speaking community and be almost equal to their members, so they always try to have contacto r interactions with them, but when having natural conversation, should errors be corrected in case the learner makes one?

Social Theories do not have a clear position on error corrections, but it states that in the context of a meaningful conversation, natural error correction would favored. If that happens,learners, especially the ones who want to be acculturated will be more awared and monitor their language so that they can make their language as similar to native people as possible.

3 It seems that in Social Theories, the only language skills that is improved is speaking. Is it important for learners to practice writing or listening if they want to be successful and lear as fast as possible?

Yes, it is important because this way they can receive more input and get a larger knowledge about the language. It is not neccessarily to do exercices or things students do in normal classroom. People who want to acculturate will have to do activies regular people do in the country, and one of those activities is for example, reading the newspaper. Reading news and magazines allows the learners to get input and at the same time get informed of what is happening in the context they’re living in. They can also pratice writing by sending emails and letters to friends, people they just know or their families in their native country. The idea is to practice those skills through regular daily activities to get a faster acculturation proccess.

4 What aspects of Social Theories do you agree and disagree with? Explain.

I agree that having contact with the real culture is the way to get adapted and learn faster the language because you’re living probabbly in 100% new language speaking environment and that forces you to speak and acculturate faster. I also agree that foreign languages communities allows more children than adults to join them because they are more fresh and have less predjugices and streoriotypes about cultures and also because children are easier to mold. Adults have some behaviors and thinkings stated.

I can’t say that I disagree in something because this is a very different theory and doesn’t focus on how the indivual learn the language because it almost entirely depends on him/her. This is a very precice theory, very clear and concice way to explain second language acquistion and I don’t disagree anything because their arguments are all true and realistic.