"Implications of the ""natural order of acquisition"" theory in a classroom settingspanish speakers learning english as a second language in a host environment"

Résumé

This study monitors linguistic development in a case of second language learning. In this case, a group of 14 Spanish speaking students enrolled in an ESOL I classroom in a high school in the United States learn English as a second language. Under these circumstances, we have studied the order in which these students incorporated nine morphemes that were taught in this class into their speech. These morphemes are: articles, copula, plural, irregular past, regular past, -ing endings in progressive constructions, auxiliary in progressive constructions, third person singular (-s), and possessive marker (`-s). Results revealed that the frequency in which our students used these morphemes was very similar to the frequency in which these morphemes were used in cases of language acquisition without the intervention of an instructor. Only in two cases, progressive tense markers, which were used less frequently in our study, and past tense endings, which were more frequently used by our students, somewhat differ from the results found in cases of language acquisition. However, attending only to the correctness in the use of these morphemes, we found that the order in which our students were successful at using these morphemes is identical to the order of acquisition established in past studies. Therefore, looking at the data obtained in this study, we can conclude that this ¿Natural Order of Acquisition¿ that was established in cases of language acquisition is also representative of the order in which students incorporate these morphemes into their speech in an educational setting. As a consequence of this, and having this natural order of acquisition in mind, this research presents a series of suggestions that have the goal of enhancing linguistic development in a classroom setting under the present circumstances.