Something that surprised me in this chapter was the gender differences among language learners. I have never thought of this idea before reading this, however I have experienced it. For Dad tends to use a lot more slang, and less formal English, while my Mom tries to speak very proper English. This is something I noticed, but have always associated with their personalities, however, perhaps it is a macrosocial factor.
Unlike chapter four, which focused on the brain and the individual, this chapter put much emphasis on cultural aspects of L2 learning and interaction. I found this interesting because joining this class, I really wanted to expand my knowledge on SLA especially in a cultural sense. I was surprised with Kleifgen's study (106-107) when the teacher's modification of input had no significant change on the children, or there is no evidence I should say, but there was a significant evidence on the university students. This further questions age, and how much age contributes to somebody's ability to learn a language.
I would like to believe that gender differences would affect different cultures on various levels. I believe that in America, we value proper speech in the professional level so I believe you see a lot of professional using the same register. On the other hand, in Japan where men are the business community, women (I can only assume) probably speak more local/social and men would probably speak more affluent dialects more suitable for the business world. It would have have to come back to the input children receive while learning languages. What values/beliefs does the culture merit as the way things ought to be. In a lot of cultures, age is king to different phases of development.
ReplyDeleteI found the gender points interesting also. I would like to broaden the topic to more of a sociocultural spectrum -- like JP was saying, maybe in Japan, France, Venezuela...etc. Gender differences always play into a culture and language.
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