Abstract

ARANGO TOBON, Olber Eduardo; PUERTA LOPERA, Isabel Cristina; MONTOYA ZULUAGA, Paula Andrea  and  SANCHEZ DUQUE, José Wilmar. Psycholinguistic predictors of the acquisition and learning of English as a second language. Av. Psicol. Latinoam. [online]. 2013, vol.31, n.3, pp.546-555. ISSN 1794-4724.

The skills and psycholinguistic competences in the mother tongue (L1) seem to play a fundamental role in the acquisition and learning of a second language (L2). The purpose of this study was to establish the psycholinguistic predictors of the L1 for the acquisition and learning of English as an L2. The sample was made up of 111 children, students in public schools of the city of Medellín. The results of this research project suggest that there are two psycholinguistic factors considered as strong predictors of L1 for the acquisition of English as an L2, the first factor was named syntactic analysis and the second one phono-lexical. In conclusion, the skills in L1 and the aptitudes for the acquisition of the L2 are closely related or at least the psycholinguistic profile in L1 is fundamental for the acquisition and learning of English as an L2.

Keywords : English learning and acquisition; psycholinguistics; bilingualism; second language; psycholinguistic processes; psycholinguistic predictors.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )