The Implications and applications of Inter Language Acquisition devices in spoken English: A Study on Higher Primary Education students in the Tribal Districts of Odisha

Dr. Sudhansu  kumar Dash

1. Introduction

The impression that persisted among   language researchers for much of the 20th century in the West that language is learned simply by forming habits, by imitating what was heard. In response to this, Noam Chomsky declared that language was too complex to be learned simply through imitation. Furthermore, if children were simply imitating what they heard, researchers would be inadequate to explain the mistakes of children. It appears that children make mistakes because they apply rules where they do not belong, producing speech like “you coughed me.” A phrase they would never hear in their environment. Apparently children do not simply imitate speech in their mind from the input they received to govern their speech. More importantly, they do not receive enough information about language in their environment to give them all the knowledge they needed to know the things that they knew about language. Chomsky hypothesized that humans are born with a “language acquisition device.” This device is a part of the brain specifically for language acquisition and is separate from its other parts. He believed all that was needed to get this device to start working, was input, exposure to language. Later, researchers began noticing that second language learners also produced language that contained mistakes, yet these mistakes were not arbitrary but governed by rules. However, these rules could neither simply be attributed to the influence of the native language nor the target language. Researchers refer to this system of rules as “inter language.” This inter language is transitional. As learners grow in the language, their inter language system becomes more and more similar to the target language. In other words, as they make progress their language becomes more and more correct.

 The Input hypothesis claims that learners make progress in English acquisition through exposure to comprehensible input. Comprehensible input is defined as understanding input that contains structures at our next ‘stage’ –structures that are a bit beyond our current level of competence. This is often designated with the equation “i + 1”. The “i” represents the learner’s current competence in the second language; the “+ 1”symbolizes the features of the input that are beyond the learner’s competence and which he is developmentally ready to acquire. Accordingly, input that is either too simple or complex will not help a learner make progress in spoken English. The process of acquiring an L2 is called inter language continuum and that comprehensible input is indeed important. There are many things to be done to gain access to comprehensible input

The Internet

The internet can be a rich source of free input.

Radio

Many students both successful and non-successful speakers, listen to radio broadcasts like BBC. This can be a good thing, especially for very advanced students, but one must be careful. The stories on the BBC are often very difficult. and most students may not comprehend enough of each story. Of course, one can still listen to the radio, but it should not be the primary source of listening input.

TV/Movies

TV/Movies are sometimes better than radio because they contain pictures. Pictures are helpful because they can help make the input more comprehensible. The problem with TV and movies is that they are often long and difficult, so that one may lose concentration and comprehend little of what is said. Perhaps the best way to view TV shows and movies is to view them in short periods. With friends, one can predict what one thinks will happen in watching the segment, and finally discussing it.  Watching the segment again and again and if possible having a transcript of the program, one can read it to check the comprehension. Of course the watcher can not simply read the dialogues while trying to comprehend spoken English in movies. If so even done , most likely one will ignore the English input and severely weaken the benefits of the activity.

Crazy English

Many students also listen to Crazy English. These are great short segments of language concerning topics that many students are interested in. The great thing is that you can listen to the passages as many times as you need to and also the transcript is available with English grammar tips.

Purchased Materials

Perhaps some of the greatest forms of comprehensible input are instructional books with cassettes/CDs. They provide me with vocabulary and grammar support to understand the reading and listening passages. For one lesson, the same vocabulary and grammatical features would be reinforced through several different listening passages about a similar topic, Then the next lesson would build on this knowledge and introduce new vocabulary and grammatical features while reinforcing the old ones.

 All of these: radio, TV, movies, and Crazy English, can be wonderful sources of comprehensible input. However, it must kept in mind what comprehensible input truly is. If the listener finds himself simply hearing sounds and not comprehending the main idea of the passages, then listening practice is not going to help as much as it should. Being engaged in these activities, he needs to use more strategies to help understanding what he hears. Perhaps the listener needs to look new vocabulary up in the dictionary or listen to shorter sections of the passage The bottom line is that if the listener is not comprehending the main idea of his input, he either needs to employ more strategies i.e. dictionary, repetition, shorten length, etc. to make it comprehensible or find different, simpler sources of input.

2. Review of Literature

 Review of literature is an imperative to research. In this regard the researcher has taken an attempt to have the studies related to the present work. Ellis (1997)and Mitchell (1998)study that as the speakers use the situational context, repetitions, and clarifications to maximize comprehension, the more likely the learner will receive input just beyond his present competency that is  the i + 1 input . Merrill Swain (Ellis 1997) points out several benefits of learner output in interaction. First, with comprehensible input, meaning can be attained without paying attention to the grammar of the input. While Long focuses on the value of the input gained through interaction, Munshi and Rosenzweig (2006) and Chakraborty and Kapur (2008),where the latter is an unpublished manuscript. Both estimate the returns to attending a school with English (as opposed to some native language) as the medium of instruction .Munshi and Rosenzweig collected their own data on Maharashtrians living in Dadar, whichis located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Using data on parents' income histories andthe language of instruction in their secondary school (Marathi or English), they estimate significant positive returns to an English-medium education. First, the returns to English “that we are estimating is the returns to English-language skills as opposed to the returns to English-medium education. In general, we might think that being taught in English would increase one's English-language skills relative to being taught in some other language, so the latter estimates just need to be scaled up by some factor to obtain the former. Angrist and Lavy (1997), studied  French-language skills significantly These returns are described in greater detail in Munshi and Rosenzweig (2003).Estimates controlling for secular cohort trends suggest somewhat larger effects. That is, we might think of the returns to English-medium schooling as a reduced-form relationship deteriorated in Morocco as a result of a policy that changed the language of instruction in post-primary grades from French to Arabic. However, Angrist, Chin and Godoy (2008)  in Puerto Rico, switching the medium of instruction from English to Spanish in Puerto Rico had no impact on the English-speaking proficiency of Puerto Ricans; thus, it is not a foregone conclusion that instruction in a foreign language will lead to greater proficiency in that foreign language. In fact, the premise of He, Linden and MacLeod (2008) is that Indian primary schools are ineffective at teaching English. A second difference is that our study uses a large, nationally representative data set, which enables us to explore potential heterogeneity in language skills along various dimensions. Bleakley and Chin (2004) provide a brief overview of these studies. Fewer studies estimate the return to a language that is not the country's dominant language. Two studies that estimate the effect of a colonial language are Angrist and Lavy (1997), who estimate the return to French-language skills in Morocco, and Levinsohn (2007), who estimates the returns to speaking English in South Africa. Two that estimate the effect of foreign languages that do not have a colonial past in the country are Saiz and Zoido (2005) and Lang and Siniver(2006). Saiz and Zoido estimate the returns to Spanish, French and other foreign languages between English-language accusation skills and earnings. In order to recover the returns to English-language skills, Roy (2004) studies that the West Bengal policy that changed the medium of instruction from English to Bengali increased educational attainment. They perform a randomized evaluation of a new methodology for teaching English in primary schools. Survey, 2005 helps us clear this hurdle. Additionally, it adds to the small handful of studies that estimates the effect of proficiency in a foreign language that has colonial roots or serves as an international language. Finally,

3. Objectives

1. To study the significance of communication in second language learning

2. To study the proximal development of the tribal students of Higher Primary Education .

3. To study the imput of the target language.

4. To study the grammatical devices in inter language accusation.

4. Methodology

The study is a survey type in nature and was carried out by administering the questionnaire. The study seeks to understand the present problems of English language learners through the information and data provided by the higher primary students of the tribal districts of Odisha through questionnaire at secondary level.

4.1. Universe of the study

320 junior English minors in 52 different higher primary schools from Dhenkanal, Angul, Sundargarh Koraput and Phulbani districts   in Odisha take part in the survey. Most of them are boys and a few are girls, who are around 14 years old. The majority of those participants come from the countryside, who are not well developed in their spoken English as their peers in big cities. In order to pass the HSC examination, they have focused too much on their reading and writing skills instead of developing their speaking competence.. Under the pressure of such a crucial exam which emphasizes the skills of listening, reading and writing, those participants’ inter language accusation skills are thus underestimated.

4.2. Procedure of Collection of Data

Aiming to find out what problems exist in the inter language accusation skills  of those English minors at higher primary schools in Odisha, a survey of questionnaire is employed in this project. The sample questionnaire is composed of 25 close-ended questions. Question 1 to 12 mainly investigates their speaking accuracy. Question 13 to 20 chiefly examine their speaking fluency.320 questionnaires are randomly distributed to those participants, who are given clear instructions on how to complete the questionnaires before they start. All the questionnaires are finished in captive groups and are collected orderly and successfully.

5.  Analysis and Findings

Belief is confirmed by the results of the survey of the researcher. It is found that interaction, the act of communicating with another person, plays a significant part in second language learning. First, comprehensible input is of great value, and is best received through interaction. This is because when a fluent speaker and a less fluent speaker interact, they enter into a negotiation of meaning. As they use the situational context, repetitions, and clarifications to maximize comprehension, the more likely the learner will receive input just beyond his present competency, the i + 1 input. The learner collaborates with the fluent speaker to scaffold that is utilizing discourse, context, or comprehension checks to produce utterances that he would not be able to produce on his own. Thus, learning takes place at the Zone of Proximal Development, the place in between what the learner could do independently and what he could not do even with help. The output helped students to notice a gap between what they say and what they hear; thereby raising their consciousness that some of their grammar is not correct. Second, output provided learners with incentive to formulate and opportunities to test hypotheses. They could apply a rule to an utterance to see if it leads to successful communication or elicits negative feedback. Finally, learners often reflected on their own output, discussing problems and potential solutions. Many scholars agree that interaction, using the target language to communicate with another person, is beneficial for a variety of reasons. If you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with a native speaker on a regular basis, please grasp it. But unfortunately, many students do not have this opportunity. Whom will they speak with? Aren’t there highly fluent non-native speakers for them to speak with? The researcher also asked students how much time they spent each week using English to communicate with highly fluent non-native speakers or their classmates understand students are afraid of listening to poor English and acquiring bad habits. The researcher wondered if there was a difference between successful and non-successful students in the amount of time they spent studying grammar. Apparently, successful learners claim to spend more time each day listening to English than studying grammar. Therefore, a reasonable inference drawn from the study is that the majority of successful language learners in this study use grammar in a subordinate role; their primary focus is on communication, using English as a tool to receive and send messages

6. Suggestion

Finding opportunities to interact here are some ways to practice  English that does not require  to speak with a foreigner rather speak with Fellow English Language Learners I do not know why so many students do not speak English with their classmates. Most foreign teachers have students practice with each other in class. So why would one not speak with a classmate because he would rather wait for a foreigner? For when he does get a foreign teacher, the teacher will instruct him to speak with his classmates. But remember, if you are listening to comprehensible input diligently on cassettes or TV programs, you will still be hearing native speakers every day. In this case, the benefits surely outweigh the dangers. The students should often have an “English Day. “a day when they would only speak to each other in English. This type of activity can be fun and helpful to develop oral fluency and confidence.

6.1. Strategies

 The learner should not be afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes are normal.

One should know that one will not always be understood. When not   understood, the following strategies may be used.

a) Repeat yourself

b) Use gestures (hand movements and body language)

c) Say the same thing in a different way

d) Use examples

e) Give definitions or synonyms for words

 Realize you will not always understand what the other person is saying. When you do not understand, you may use the following strategies:

a) Make guesses about what is being said.

 b) Check these guesses by asking questions.

c) Check your understanding by restating what you think the person means.

Strategies are helpful for comprehending a listening passage. When listening, the listener should try the following:

6.1.1. Before Listening:

1. Look at the title of the passage and any pictures.

2. Ask yourself questions: What do you know about this topic?

3. What do you think this passage will be about?

4. What information do you hope this passage will tell you?

6.1.2. During Listening:

1. Focus your attention on what is being said.

2. Listen for the main idea.

3. Listen for key words and ideas.

4. Relate what you hear to what you already know.

6.1.3. After Listening ask yourself:

1. Did the passage match my guess?

2. What did I learn from this passage?

3. Summarize the main idea of the passage in 1-2 sentences.

4. Write down any new words you feel are important.

The researcher also  suggests that you will acquire language best when you study in such away that you 1) listen to large amounts of comprehensible input, 2) have opportunities to use the target language to communicate with others, and 3)support your learning with some grammatical learning focused on making input comprehensible and developing awareness.

In days old, teachers and students spent countless hours talking about grammar. Often these students had a lot of knowledge about the language, but little ability to use it. In recent times, some teachers have claimed that grammar teaching is useless. Grammar will be learned naturally through listening to comprehensible input and interacting with others. Often students taught in this way can communicate very well, but often do not speak accurately. Regarding the right way to study grammar the researcher believe grammar study should focus on two areas: a) making input comprehensible and b) developing awareness to help the learner notice the grammar of the input. First, a little knowledge of grammar can make input a lot more comprehensible.

In English, subject-verb agreement is completely unnecessary to comprehend the meaning of the sentence. Thus, because a student can subconsciously ignore the grammar, he may not learn to speak accurately. This phenomenon is called “fossilization which means when a student, though he may speak fluently, continues to make the same mistakes over and over again even though he has heard the correct way to say them a thousand times. It may be suggested that when students learn about grammar, this knowledge can help them to pay attention to not only the meaning of the input, but also its grammatical form. Even though they might not yet speak the form correctly; if the students are aware of the correct form, they can then notice it in the input. Eventually, after noticing a grammatical feature enough, they will use it correctly. Although unable to test this idea of noticing directly,. Accordingly, if the goal is to improve spoken English, the student should do well not to let the memorization of grammatical rules and such activities dominate his English study. Rather, make listening and using the target language the focus of his study. The study after a keen observation recommends studying grammar for the following reasons: 1) to make input comprehensible and 2) to develop awareness to help the learner notice the form of input and their own output. This may help the student eventually internalize these grammatical rules rather than storing them up in his short-term memory where they will be quickly forgotten after the test. The suggestion for studying grammar here is designed to help the student improve the accuracy of his spoken English.

Tips for Grammar Study

Study grammar to help you understand input.

Study grammar to help you notice grammatical features in input.

Do not be frustrated that you can not apply the grammar rules

you learn in spontaneous speech. This is perfectly normal.

Continue to notice these troublesome features in input

7. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the researcher confesses that his knowledge of SLA theory is incomplete and the scope of the study is limited. He does not claim to have a magic formula for language learning. Nevertheless, based on theory and data from real successful language learners, improvement in   English skills is possible the following are practiced that is

Move beyond a motivation that simply desires to pass a test to one that views language as a key that unlocks opportunities, listening to comprehensible input on a daily basis and overcoming fear of losing face. advantage of opportunities to use English to communicate with both native and proficient nonnative speakers should be found and taken.

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How to Improve Your Spoken English

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