Abstract

This paper explores a general theory of Second Language Learning and considers the relevance of such a theory for second Language teaching. In this paper, I have tried to concentrate on conditions which help us develop more effective approaches to learn a second Language. From this point of view the conditions are divided into three parts: premise conditions, individual conditions and social conditions, in this way, these conditions are able to account for differences between individual Language Learners and between different kinds of learning-------for example, formal and informal learning, and learning for general and special purposes. The conditions are precise and clear about the nature of the goals and outcomes of learning, and contain the factors which have an effect on the second Language Learning, so I can see that the goal of this paper then is certainly not to propose a new method but rather to explore a general theory of second Language learning by examining the conditions under which Languages are learned and to consider the relevance of such a theory for the Language teaching.

Key words: Premise conditions, Social conditions, Individual conditions.

Outline:

Ⅰ. Introduction
Ⅱ. Premise conditions
knowledge and skills including the learner’s first or native Language.
Ⅲ. Social conditions.
A. opportunities for second Language Learning
B. formal instruction
Ⅳ. Individual conditions
A. individual ability
B. motivation and attitude
Ⅴ. Conclusion
Ⅵ. Endnotes
Ⅶ. References

Ⅰ. Introduction

This paper is an introduction to some of the discoveries and ideas about the recent research into the second Language Learning. I have tried to focus on these conditions which help us develop more effective effect on Second Language Learning, these conditions are divided into three parts: premise conditions (present knowledge and skills), social conditions (opportunities), and individual conditions (ability, motivation). These conditions are necessary, without which learning is impossible, the greater any one is, the greater the amount of learning, In the following parts, I can discuss them carefully.

Ⅱ. Premise conditions

Knowledge and skills at the moment including the learner’s first or native language which have an effect on Second Language Learning.
In the past years, research in first Language acquisition has had an enormous influence on the study of Second Language Learning both at the theoretical and at the practical level.
Researchers in first Language acquisition at the theory have been studying the Language Learning, such as concepts on imitation and habit—formation have, to a large extent been replaced by notions which emphasize the child’s own creativing in constructing his knowledge of the language. These same ideas have stimulated researchers to study Second Language Learning and to seek out concrete evidence to support these ideas.
First Language researchers, at the practical level, have developed new skills for collecting and analyzing children’s speech, these skills, together with others, have been used in the field of Second Language Learning accumulate some evidence about the sequence and process.
The gap between theories and methods in the two fields has become more and more smaller. So it’s natural that a there has been to consider the similarities and differences between first and Second Language Learning. In addition, many researches see their long-term goal to produce a single theory of language acquisition which would account for first and Second Language Learning. After all, the two experiences are general human capacity to learn and use Language.
Several years ago, from the studies by Linguists, we have known that: “Stern (1983)drew a conclusion that Second Language Learning is based on the methods and processes of the first language” (1) “creative construction hypothesis has also had considerable influence on people’s theories about Second Language learning, Halliday(1975)” (2) “Halliday’s ‘functional’ approach to Language and Language Learning has also had considerable influence in the field of foreign and Second Language Teaching” (3) As with the morpheme studies, The work carried out on negative and interrogatives has had considerable influence in the field of second Language Learning” (4)So we can summarize the statements as a premise condition:Premise condition: knowledge and skills at the moment including general knowledge of the learner’s first or native Language influence the Second Language Learner’s Language development which form a basis of the second or any other Language

Ⅲ. Social condition
Social conditions which are necessary factions for learning the second Language play an important role in the Second Language Learning, Second Language Learning of any kind takes place in a social context, in which provides opportunities for Second Language Learning. (Informal and formal learning) and formal instruction.A, opportunities for leaning
In this part, opportunities refer to informal and formal learning, in the common view. There is a distinction between what is usually called natural Language Learning, learning a second Language in the environment in which its purpose is to use or communicate, and formal or classroom learning. Learning it in a situation where only one person (the teacher) has command of it, and the teacher is working to control the exposure so that it will lead to learning, So we can see ‘spontaneous’ and ‘guided’ Language Learning.
The distinction between the two is usually stated as a set of contrasting conditions, in natural Second Language Learning, the Language is being used for communication, but in the formal situation it is used only to teach. In natural Second Language Learning, the Learner is surrounded by fluent speakers of the target Language. But in the formal classroom, only the teacher is fluent. In natural Learning, the context is the real outside world, open and stimulating; in formal learning, it is the closed four walls of the classroom. In natural learning, the language used is free and normal; in the formal classroom, it is carefully controlled and simplified. Finally, in the natural learning situation, attention is on the meaning of the communication; in the formal situation, it is meaningless drill.

So we will look at them in turn, and then return to some in more detail:
Communication condition (natural): The language is being used for communication.
This condition provides us with a necessary kind of practice, a very valuable form of practice.
Learning Goal condition (formal): The Language is being used so that it can be learned.
As the Goal is learning, the tasks of the learner are smaller and more within his or her grasp, it is easy to give time for memory and opportunity for sufficient practice.
Fluent speakers condition (natural): Many speakers in the environment are fluent and native.
As a result, the learner is exposed to a wide variety of forms and styles with which he or she can match his or her own knowledge.
Teacher Model condition (formal): Only one speaker (the teacher) is fluent; the majority in the environment (classroom) are not fluent.
In this way, learners have not time to practise, but it is good to learn fluently in a way.
Open Area condition (natural): The learning takes place in the open or in unconstrained areas.
The natural environment provides a lot of contextual clues for understanding language in use, and makes it easy to see the rules for Language use in different physical and social contexts.
Classroom condition (formal): The learning takes place in a closed physical space, a single classroom.
In this way, it is possible to hear better; table comfortable physical surroundings make concentration possible.
Uncontrolled Language condition (natural): The Language is normal and uncontrolled.
The learner is exposed to a wide range of natural styles and registers; the Language is normal.
Simplified Language condition (formal): The Language is simplified and controlled.
The teacher can make sure that Language used is within the competence of the Learners; the simplification is particularly important for the analysis and synthesis.
Comprehensible Input condition (natural): The learner is expected to understand; there fore the speaker makes an effort to see that language is comprehensible.
In this way, one can know a new item in a language only when one knows its meaning.
Drill Input condition (formal): The learner is expected to learn; therefore ample practice is given to develop automatic control.
Without practice, learning is likely to be uneven; with it there can be systematic.
In this part, we have discussed opportunities for Second Language learning, however, we should continue discussing the formal instruction.

B. Formal instruction

A great number of adults learn a second Language through formal instruction. Formal instruction occurs in classrooms when attempts are made to raise learner’s ability about the target language rules.
Formal instruction has produced a lot of results. But generally it supports the hypothesis that formal instruction helps SLA, it provides opportunities to receive comprehensible input, and so it makes the learner perform a wider range of Linguistic task than the naturalistic Learner.
A lot of evidences indicate Second Language Learner; particularly adult beginners are likely to benefit from the classroom setting. For the beginners, it’s difficult to again comprehensible input in the exposure type environment of a natural setting, but they are much more likely to obtain it in the intake –type environment of a classroom setting.
“Studies of the effects of formal instruction on SLA so suggest that formal instruction may not easily influence a particular, type of language task. Such as casual and spontaneous conversation, but it may help learners perform other types of tasks, such as those a associated with planned speech, writing or career—oriented examination.” (5)
So we might state a generalized condition for learning in formal situations as follows:
Formal Language Learning—Teaching condition: In formal Language Learning situations, A lot of opportunities to observe and practise the new Language can be provided, the more these match the learner’s comprehensible ability, the more efficient the learning will be.

Ⅳ. Individual conditions

So far in this paper, I have looked at two set of conditions which influence how successful a person is in learning a second Language: the nature of the person’s premise condition and social conditions, here I turn to some individual conditions which have an influence on the second language learning.
A, individual ability
Now I propose to use ‘ability’ in a broader sense, the term is referred to notably intelligence, and language aptitude.
Intelligence is one of the factors, which are connected with Second Language Learning. “There is a link between general intelligence (‘IR’) and second—Language—Learning ability. This was found, for example, by Gardner and Lambert in the studies. As a further example, Paul Pimsleur (1968) found that a school Learner’s average grades in all school subjects were often a good means of predicting how good he would be at Language Learning.” (6) And “As we might expect, Intelligence have generally been found to correlate best with the more ‘academic’ Language skills which are of ten stressed at school, such as reading or performing in grammar--manipulation tests (Geness, 1976)” (7) from these, we know;(a) If the learner receives a high score in a standard intelligence test, he or she is likely to score well in tests of formally taught Language skills, therefore, we should find a significant correlation between intelligence test scores and formal school Language test results.
(b) A learner receives a high or low score in a standard intelligence test is not connected with his or her acquiring social and communicative functions in a second Language in natural situations, so we should find no correlation between intelligence test scores and natural Second Language Learning. (c) As for older learners the nature of the learning situation or the intellectual learning methods might lead to an effect. So we may be stated as a condition:

Intelligence condition: The ability to do well in standard intelligence tests is connected with school—related Second Language Learning, but is not connected with the Learning of a second Language for informal and social functions. Except the older Learners.
Beyond the intelligence, There is a set of more specific Language—Learning abilities called ‘Language aptitude:” one of the best known of these tests, the Modern Language Aptitude Test of John Carroll and Stanley Sapon (1959) and a decade late, the Elementary Modern Language Aptitude Test (Carroll and Sapon 1976) and by Paul Pimsleur with his Language Aptitude Battery (1966), focus on the following abilities in the belief that they form pout of language aptitude: the ability to identify and remember sounds, the ability to induce grammatical rules from language examples.” (8) From these, we can summarize these theories as three specific aptitude conditions:
Sound Discrimination condition: The better a Learner can discriminate between the sounds of the language, the more successful his or her learning of speaking and understanding a second Language will be.
Memory condition: In learning a new language, the better the learner’s memory. The faster he or she will learn new words and the larger his or her vocabulary will be.
Grammatical condition: The better a learner’s ability to recognize constituents and understand recombination and meaning, the faster he or she will learn the grammatical structure of a second language.
B, motivation and attitude
As for second Language learner, his or her attitude and motivation are important factors which have a considerable influence on the second language learning, from Gardner’s studies, we know that attitude has an indirect rather than a direct effect on second language learning, but they lead to motivation which does; motivation refers to the combination of effort, plus desire to achieve the goal of learning, plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language. We know that motivation involves four aspects, a goal; effortful behavior; desire to a attain the goal and favorable attitudes towards the activity in question. We might summarize this claim so for by setting a condition on attitudes leading to motivation, as follows:
Attitude condition: A learner’s attitudes affect the development of motivation.
Motivation condition: The more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will spend learning an aspect of a second Language.
The effects of attitudes on motivation and proficiency have been investigated in a large number of studies, these by Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972). These researchers have related their findings to two basic kinds of motivation, which they call ‘integrative’ and ‘instrumental’ these are distinguished as follows:
“Instrumental motivation occurs when the Learner’s goal is functional, a Learner’s desire to learn a second language because it is useful for some functional; instrumental goals such as getting a job. Passing an examination at. Integrative motivation occurs when the learner’s goal is social. The learner’s desire to learn a second language in order to communicate with native speakers of the target language” (9) so we can state them as conditions.
Integrative Motivation condition: Integrative motivation, some favorable attitudes to the speakers of the target language, has a positive effect on the learning of a second language, and in particular on the development of a native—like pronunciation and somatic system.
Instrumental Language Learning or Teaching condition: If you need to speak to someone who does not know your language, you can learn that person’s language or help that person to learn your language.
The above two conditions are important to learn a second Language, in this part; we have discuss some conditions about individuals, which have a considerable influence on second language learning.

Ⅴ. Conclusion

From the above, we can see that if you want to master a foreign language, you must possess these conditions (premise conditions, social conditions and individual conditions), these conditions are necessary in learning a second language, knowing these conditions can help us learn the foreign language and does a lot good to second language teaching in our society. So we should try our best to make best use of these conditions in order to help us learn a second language or any other language.

Ⅵ. Endnotes.

1).      “Foreign Langua, ges and Their Teaching” 李哲“第一语言习得和第二语言习得比较研究” 2002年6期P44
2).      “Foreign and Second Language Learning” William Littlewood P6
3).      “Foreign and Second Language Learning” William Littlewood P9
4).      “Foreign and Second Language Learning” William Littlewood P12
5).      “Modern Linguistics” 何兆熊、梅德明 P272
6).      “Foreign and Second Language Learning” William Littlewood P62
7).      “Foreign and Second Language Learning” William Littlewood P63
8).      “Foreign and Second Language Learning” William Littlewood P62
9).      “Modern Linguistics” 何兆熊、梅德明 P273、P300

Ⅶ. References:

Ellis, Rod “The study of Second Language Acquisition” 上海外语教育出版社
Seliger, H.W.et al “Second Language Research Methods 上海外语教育出版社
William Littlewood “Foreign and Second Language Learning” Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
何兆熊、梅德明 “Modern Linguistics” Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
覃先美、王崇义等 “A Guide to Graduation Thesis Writing for College English Majors”
湖南师范大学出版社