The Development of English as a Second Language for a Native Korean Speaker
by The ESL industry is booming in Asia and other parts of the world. While many Koreans study English over the phone, quite a few go to other countries where English is more prevalent. This is a field that is wide open to researches such as this.
Introduction
Second language acquisition progresses differently for different people. Some may learn faster than others, or more completely. Much research has been done on second language (L2) acquisition and the area is replete with theories, some supporting each other, some contradictory. My goal now is to determine which theories would apply to my test subject, Eui-hyun ko, or Violet as she is known by her English name.
I observed Violet on several different occasions, and I will use data from three separate occasions to cite her development in the English language. I will also use language development theories to try to identify her developmental stage, and see if her strengths and weaknesses are consistent with those proposed by the theories.
Observation Periods
First Occasion: Interview by Peach and Violet
The first time I met Violet was in her Intensive English class. They interviewed me regarding university life, and we had a good exchange. However, I noticed that Violet was less inclined to talk, and does so with a softer voice than that of Peach. This could be a personality trait or what theorists call “silent period”, but I was able to gather data on her. I consider this her spoken English during this initial observation as her more natural English, since she assumed that she was the one observing and not the one being observed.
Second Occasion: Presentation
The second time I observed Violet was in her presentation for her Intensive English class in the Benitez Theater. Violet’s speech was carefully prepared, so there were fewer errors in her grammar and vocabulary. However, my observations were more on her pronunciation and diction, as well as her accent and speech patterns.
Third Occasion: Interview of Violet
I observed Violet a third time recently. The interview was about many unrelated things, making sure she doesn’t get too comfortable in one topic. Her English has been improving rapidly, so I noticed fewer errors on grammar, vocabulary, and diction. The errors I did notice consisted of overgeneralizations and some very rudimentary phoneme errors. I did notice that she has excellent sentence forming skills, though she may lapse to phrases during conversations as is common to most English speakers.
Analysis
I am going to focus on three aspects of Violet’s speech, that is; pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. When I talk about her pronunciation I am contrasting her speech to how a native speaker may say a certain word. Grammar is concerned primarily with her word order and use of articles and pronouns, while vocabulary will be about her use of words, use of prefixes and suffixes, and word substitution.
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