TEXT:
How do people overcome fossilization and achieve nativelike fluency in second language acquisition?
There are a lot of common misconceptions about fossilization
and language development. It's impossible to correct all of them
in a post here, but I'll address a few that have been mentioned
below.
Fossilization is a stage at which a second language speaker
seems to cease making progress toward becoming more targetlike in his or her use of the language, so a "learning plateau" is a
reasonable analogy. The comparison wherein "the L2 learner has
his own linguistic system" that's still influenced by L1 and other
things is known as the "interlanguage." The question researchers
cannot conclusively answer is whether or not that "plateau" is
reversible after a certain point, be it age, fluency level, etc., in
order to start making progress again.
Different people are motivated by different things, which range
from need (to pass a test, to get a job, to watch movies without
subtitles, to make friends, etc.) to learning style (preferring to
study from texts, liking/disliking impromptu, small-talk with people
just to practice, preference for/against learning formal rules, and
aptitude). It is easy to remember verb conjugations. There is no
single formula.
Finding someone who can correct your errors tactfully and
effectively most certainly does not need to be demotivating,
depressing or draining whatsoever. I'm a very fluent non-native
speaker of Spanish, and I actively request that my native speaker
(NS) friends correct me when I make a mistake, or use a phrase
that sounds funny in their dialect, etc. How else will I learn?
It's fascinating to learn little details like that now after so many
years. As long as they don't do it in a mocking or condescending
way, or at a socially inappropriate time, why wouldn't I want their
help? Of course, if you correct a beginner every time they try to
utter a sentence, it could be discouraging - and obnoxious - but
everything in moderation.
One of the biggest cognitive challenges is whether or not L2
speakers can learn to consciously notice differences between
their L2 efforts and the way a NS talks. There are decades of
research on this (my own included) and I'll gladly give references
if anyone actually cares. Noticing falls into two broad categories.
First, the ability to "notice the gap," i.e. hear a NS say a
sentence and think, "Hmm, I understand what he meant but I've
never heard that word before; it must mean ___" or "I know what
he meant but it would not have occurred to me to say it that
way; I'll try to remember that for later." The second is the ability
to "notice the hole," i.e. when the L2 learner is trying to speak/
write and realizes that his "interlanguage" lacks a word, sound or
structure needed to accurately convey his own thought. If he can
seek the input necessary to fill the hole, he has a much stronger
chance of acquiring it. The thought processes involved during
that moment are holding the forms (or lack thereof) in working
memory, and the longer it stays there for further processing, the
greater the possibility that it is retained in long-term memory for
later use. The NS interlocutor can help promote noticing through
corrective feedback (also a subject of decades of research, for
which I'm also happy to provide resources if anyone is genuinely
interested.)
I have been using a variety of strategies for years as a language
coach when working with my clients, whether helping IT executives
from India and Egypt learn to write more grammatically accurate
e-mail or helping priests from Nigeria improve prosodic aspects
of their pronunciation (i.e. stress and intonation patterns.)
Each person is different. I have found no evidence to support
the argument that a person who has fossilized cannot begin to
make progress again toward a more target-like L2 use at least
in some areas, with the right motivation, input and effort. The
question is only about how much progress, in what areas, in
how much time, and through what methods.
Adapted form: https://www.quora.com/How-do-people-overcome-fossilization-andachieve-native-like-fluency-in-second-language-acquisition
Acesso em 22/09/2023