The Five Principles of Second Language Acquisition

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The Five Principles of Effective Second Language Acquisition I. Introduction For years, the popular methodology for learning a second language was to focus on grammar and sentences first and then on vocabulary. Recently, however, there has been a shift toward recognition that learning vocabulary first leads to more success. Having a base of vocabulary to draw from makes learning grammar and sentence structure easier. The Byki program from Transparent Language was based on this concept of building a solid foundation of vocabulary before tackling other aspects of the language. Byki is an acronym for "Before You Know It". This paper describes how Byki makes use of the five principles of effective vocabulary learning described in Joe Barcroft's Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: A Lexical Input Processing Approach. Following these guidelines helps make this program the best way to vocabulary mastery and ultimately to learning a new language. II. Barcroft's Five Principles of Effective Second Language Vocabulary Instruction Present new words frequently and repeatedly in input. The more frequently language learners are exposed to foreign vocabulary; the more likely they are to remember it. Studies suggest that most learners need between 5-16 'meetings' with a word in order to retain it. Byki does an excellent job providing this repeated exposure. Every word and phrase must be correctly identified multiple times to obtain the highest score, while the variety of exercises and activities prevents this repetition from being boring. Language learners are thus more likely to use and enjoy the program long enough to accomplish a sufficient number of 'meetings' to master the new vocabulary terms. At the same time, a proprietary algorithm tracks each learner's progress and presents the words that need the most work more often than those that have already been

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