A factual comparison of foreign (English) language acquisition factors in case of “Cserey-Goga” Technological High School’s monolingual and bilingual students during the COVID-19 period Cover Image

A factual comparison of foreign (English) language acquisition factors in case of “Cserey-Goga” Technological High School’s monolingual and bilingual students during the COVID-19 period
A factual comparison of foreign (English) language acquisition factors in case of “Cserey-Goga” Technological High School’s monolingual and bilingual students during the COVID-19 period

Author(s): Csilla-Ibolya Sólyom
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Foreign languages learning, Language acquisition, ICT Information and Communications Technologies, Distance learning / e-learning
Published by: Universitatea »Babes Bolyai« Cluj - Facultatea de St. Economice si Gestiunea Afacerilor
Keywords: Language acquisition; bilingualism; multilingualism; transfer; learning factors; digital technologies; digitalised teaching;

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of online teaching on the process of foreign language – in my case English - acquisition as L2 or L3 and its factors for high school age students from two different language backgrounds. After providing a brief summary of the major language learning factors, transfer in language acquisition, and a short survey of the current Corona (COVID-19) pandemic, I examine the results of the questionnaire applied to two groups of high school students. The available data indicate that perhaps contrary to expectations the COVID-impact aspect was not the dominant element in the students’ response. I would highlight the comparison between two major groups of students: monolingual – in our case Romanian mother tongued students, and simultaneous bilingual – Hungarian mother tongued students who have already sequentially acquired the Romanian language as their first foreign language. In regards to the factors, I will briefly analyse motivation, attitude, cognitive style/personality, age, aptitude, teaching techniques and extensive use of digital media in English during the COVID-19 period. Literature suggests that those factors contribute more dominantly to second language acquisition and also present a varied dependence on behaviour towards the language, cognitive ability, and also the way they learn. I will consider the unusual circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, and attempt to define their impacting presence in second and third language acquisition processes.

  • Issue Year: XX/2021
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 91-108
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English