Issues in language teaching

Issues in language learning

• Native children are not taught language, nor do they set out to learn it consciously.
• Aquisition happens subconsciously as a result of massive expossure.
• Instinct acts upon the language they hear and transforms it into an ability to speak it.
• However > expossure to a special kind of language - Exaggerations, higher pitch, simplified sentences, special vocabulary. Matresse: role play. (learn rules of discurse).
• Powerful incentive to communicate effectively > let people know when they are happy, miserable, hungry or alarmed.
• Language aquisition is "guaranteed for children up to six, is steadily compromised from then until shortly after puberty, and rare thereafter" (Pinker 1994)
• Around puberty > ability for abstraction.

The discussion

• We cannot see learning and so we try to find methaphorical parallels to explain what we think is happening.
• Chomsky 1959 > the mind is a computer. Review of Verbal Behaviour (Skinner - conductism).
• Language is the result of mental processing based on the imput we receive
• It is an innate human capacity
• There is some kind of Universal Grammar > A set of rules all languages share > shape of the human mind.
• Language is processed by a "language acquisition device" (LAD)
• Krashen 1984 > Imput is sufficient condition for language aquisition to take place - Input hypothesis
• Language that we aqcuire subconsciously is language we can easily use in spontaneous conversation. > instantly available.
• The only use of learnt language is to monitor BUT the more we monitor the less fluent.
• Successful acquisition is closely related to the language input received > comprehensible input i + 1 - comprehensible but slightly above their level.
• Ss have to be exposed to it in a relaxed setting, when their affective filter is lowered. > roughly-tuned input (discarded the need for finely-tuned input - instruction).
• Dörnyei 2013 > Problem with implicit language learning - "While it does such a great job in generating native-speaking L1 proficiency in infants, it does not seem to work so effectively when we want to master an L2 at a later stage in our lives"
• Language teaching DOES mean teaching language: making sure that Ss are exposed to the highest priority language forms, learn and practice these forms and become skilled at using them. (Swan 2014)
• Experiment Sonbul and Schmitt 2010 > "uninstructed, incidental, approach to L2 vocabulary acquisition does result in lexical gains, but direct instruction clearly adds value to the learning process and leads to greater learning".
• Comprehensible input may lead to some progress but "Ss reach a point from which they fail to see further progress unless they have access to guided instruction" (Lightbrown and Spada 2013).
• Focus on form > Conscious attention to some feature of the language. - occurs naturally in communicative tasks, or because the teacher gives feedback. Sometimes in negotiated interaction (clarification and confirmation). > "get it right in the end" (Lightbrown and Spada 2013)
• Significantly more effective.
• Focus on forms > grammar items one by one. "grammar McNuggets"- artificially packaged into bite-sized chunks for the purposes of teaching.
• (+) focusing on structures learners need to know.
• (-) abstact sequence of learning - violates natural order of acquisition > Does not allow students to adress the forms as they emerge.
• Notice > If students don't notice language they will not process it.
• L2 learners (adults) notice language construction if they come across it often enough enough or if it is salient in some way.
• Language items need "to be relevant to the student at a particular time in order to be conscious intake"
• Language is forming habits > Behaviourism - audiolingual method. - Stimulus/response. (Pavlov)
• Drilling - fall from favor after the arrival of communicative aproach.
• Mindlessly repetitive - communicative language teaching "has to put premium on the unique, individual and sepeatable utterance in unpredictable conversational situations" (Kramsch 2009)
• (+) "the oral drill is the one which can be most productively demanding on accuracy" (Scriener 2011) - Quality repetition is a useful form of practice. - It has to foment deliberate attention. - well defined goals, motivation feedback and ample opportunities of repetition with gradual refinements. (i+1)
• Provoke successive iterations to express slightly different meanings - "utterances repeated are also resignified" (Kramsch 2009)
• Gradually dissapear parts of lines that are being repeated
• write drill lines down
• "fluency circules" (repeat to a colleague)
• "shouted dictation" (one part of the clas dictate a sentence to the other at the same time)
• Chain drills (build a story using focus language)
• Language is communication - a way of teaching that actually allows to use language in order to communicate.
• "If the activities are directed exclusively at involving the learners in solving communication problems in the target language, then language learning will take care of itself" (Allwright 1979)
• Provided Ss have exposure and have the desire and need to use the language, they would find the means to.
• Learners at the center - genuinely communicative activities.
• Language focus as a result of communication.
• "Comprehensible output pushes learners to process language more deeply than does input" (Swain 1995)
• To some it is the actual nature of communication which affects successful learning - cooperative interaction > negotiating meaning. > accomodation in ELF.
• Language is grammar/vocabulary
• Focus on cumulative acquisition - easy to progressively more difficult.
• Problems
• The order in which things are taught is not necessarily the order in which they are learnt.
• "natural order" of acquisition does not appear to be determined by formal simplicity. (Krashen 1985)
• The order in which things are successfully learnt subscribes to a predictable develomental path. (Pienemann 1988)
• Syllabuses are focused on what is "teachable".
• If Ss only learn what they are ready to learn, then imposing a grammar syllabus may be less successful than letting language emerge. BUT
• We dont know if teching in the "natural order" is what students nedd and what effect it moght have.
• Can't determine if exposure to elemnts they are not ready for won't help when they notice it again.
• We should be aware of Ss difficulties in learning a language and be ready to help them with language that emerges naturally - help them notice and focus on it.. - Zone of Proximal Development (social-constructivist approach) and Krashen's i+1. However,
• Formulaic language competence "is directly linked to authomatized, fluent language production" (Dornyei 2013) - Focus on this with "beginner learners, delaying teching grammar until later" (Ellis 2014).
• Austin > language is used for doing things > syllabus based on functions.
• Translation
• Direct method's insistence in the use of target language. + teachers from En-speaking countries. + methodology grounded in the problems and advantages of teaching multilingual classes.
• Using the L1 as a "convenient option deprives Ss of important learning opportunities"
• English only polici - belief that it leads to more successful and faster learning - atmosphere helps breed cultural identity and possitive identification.
• However, not allowing students might hinder motivation - The use of mother tongue seems humanistic and learner-centered.
• Eng only policy is a well intended but sometimes misguided intention to avoid the inevitable tendence to transfer to the mother tongue.
• Translating what they have written in Eng into L1 > increased accuracy > forced to think carefully about what they had written (Kim 2011)
• Code of conduct
• Aknowledge the L1
• Use appropiate L1-L2 activities
• Differenciate between levels
• Agree on clear ground rules/ guidelines
• Use encouragement and persuation
• Learning is about people - "people are more central to the learning enterprise than methods or theories or research findings or systems of education" (Maley 2013) > Learning is about self-actualization and personal growth.
• Caring and Sharing in the Foreign Language Class (Moskowitz 1978)
• Humanistic approach > importance of lerners feelings (emotional and aesthetic), social relations, (friendship and cooperation), and self-actualization (path towards individuality) (Byrnes 2013).
• Affective engagement helps students to remember things - people learn better when they feel positive about it.

In summary

• There are a number ot ways that theorists and philosophers have tried to pin down what successful language learning looks like and should be:
• Ss (exept perhaps YL) benefit from some explicit knowledge. - Guided instruction
• Ss will only learn if they pay attention - focus on them - Conscious attention
• Practice does make perfect but only if it is deliberate, meaningful practice (reoriented/transformative quality drilling).
• Ss need chances to activate the language. - oral practice, drilling, peer conversation, role play, presentations...
• Ss tend to learn better when they interact with others.
• Vocabulary and how words cluster together is essential for fluency.
• Language often emerges naturally - T take advantage of the moment.
• Ss will always compare L2 to their L1.
• Teachers should foster positive self-image and be sensitive to their feelings and learning preferences.