LANGUAGE LEARNING

LANGUAGE LEARNING,THEORY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

LANGUAGE LEARNING

Language learning is essentially fun, or should be, if it is done naturally, in line with how the brain learns. We learned our first language quite well, without explicit instruction. Unfortunately, the teaching of second languages has been turned into a complex classroom ceremony, consisting of obtuse grammar rules, annoying drills, rote memory and tests. The result is that many people are discouraged from learning languages. Maybe they would not learn their first language if it were taught in this way.

One of the most innovative thinkers on language learning is Stephen Krashen, who has pointed out that languages are acquired through meaningful input and not deliberate instruction. His insights are being confirmed by the latest research on how the brain learns, as described in an excellent book by German brain researcher, Manfred Spitzer, Learning: The Human Brain and the School for Life. As Spitzer says, learning takes place in the brain, not at school.

The concepts of natural language learning that reflect the most recent research on how the brain learns.

1. The brain can learn languages, trust it.

The brain learns all the time, and, in fact, is designed to learn. Throughout our lives the brain retains “plasticity”, creating neurons, and neural connections, in response to what it sees, hears and experiences. The brain draws its own conclusions from the input it receives, and is better at forming its own rules than understanding logical explanations. The brain is always at work, consuming over 20% of the body’s calories. We can learn languages right into old age, and in fact it is good for the brain to do so.

·   The brain develops its own rules, naturally, from the observation of the input it receives.

·   The brain takes its time to learn, requiring continued exposure to meaningful and interesting content.

·   The brain can prioritize what to learn, dealing with easier subjects first, and more difficult ones later.

2. The brain needs stimulus. Give it massive amounts of meaningful input.

The brain likes things that are relevant and interesting. So if the task is language acquisition, the most important condition is massive and continuous exposure to interesting and relevant language content. At first, when the language is new, it is helpful to reinforce what has been learned by repetitive listening and reading. As we progress we need to find new, fresh, interesting, stimulating and meaningful content.

• We learn better from stories, real conversations, examples and episodes than from rules and facts.
• We learn best from content that matters to us.
• It is easier to listen to and read content is at the right level of difficulty, however the interest and relevance to the learner is the most important consideration.

3.  The brain will miss things. We can help the brain notice the language.

The brain learns naturally by observing, constantly labeling and creating its own rules. But the brain can miss things. We should, from time to time, review grammar rules and tables, focus on mistakes we have made, or study specific words and phrases that we have learned. We should also attempt to write and speak, if we feel like it. These activities, which dominate traditional language learning, are, however, optional and minor activities in a natural language learning system. They increase attentiveness but should not take away from the main activities of listening and reading.

• Good language output can only come from absorbing massive amounts of language input.
• When we practice output, speaking and writing, or review vocabulary and grammar rules, we increase our attentiveness to the language.
• Heightened attentiveness increases the ability of the brain to notice the patterns and sounds of the language.

4. Learn to engage your emotions in order to increase learning efficiency.

Positive emotions energize the brain, and increase the efficiency of learning. An interesting story, a powerfully narrated audio book, a person we like – these are the things that will engage our emotions. Uninteresting learning tasks, or negative tension, decrease learning efficiency.

• We should stay with content we like, and discard content we do not like. We should do those learning tasks we enjoy doing.
• We should always combine audio with text, and choose narrators whose voice we enjoy. This will make it easier to listen repetitively.
• We need to like the language we are learning and at least some aspects of its culture.

5. When you learn naturally, you will feel motivated by your own success.

Motivation is the basic motor of learning. Success is motivating, as is praise. Any teaching activity which creates frustration, such as traditional grammar based language learning, can demotivate the learner. In a natural learning environment, the main task of the teacher is to encourage the learner to become independent of the teacher, rather than to impose tasks or explanations on the learner.

• Many of us want to learn another language but are skeptical of our ability to do so, because we have not done it before.
• As the strange language starts to acquire meaning through our listening and reading, our brain feels a sense of reward at this new and unexpected experience. This is highly motivating.
• Give language learning a chance, the results will be better than you think.

6. When we learn, we change. We need to accept this change.

When we learn, our neural networks change, physically. When we learn a new language, we adopt some of the behaviour patterns of another culture and our personalities and our perceptions change. Many of the difficulties that grown-ups face in language learning come from the resistance to change. It is often more comfortable to follow the patterns and pronunciation of our own language, rather than to commit to fully imitating the new language.

·         Children are not afraid to change. Moving to a new country, they learn the language of their new friends without hesitation.

·         Older learners have a stronger vested interested in their own identity, and in what they already know.

·         All learners benefit from the help of an encouraging tutor and an enthusiastic group of fellow learners, in order to overcome these barriers to learning.

7. The Internet – the new world of natural learning at our finger-tips.

The internet offers a wide range of content in many languages, many low-cost websites with efficient learning methodologies, online tutors, and people from around the world with whom to talk and interact.  The internet becomes the classroom, the library, the source of content, the language laboratory, and the support community. The Internet is the home of the language learning revolution, the natural language learning revolution.

• Internet learning is available whenever we want, at no, or little, cost.
• The iPod or MP3 player and other language resources on the Web have created a natural language learning revolution.
• Join a language learning community on the Web today!

CHAPTER TWO

DISTINCTION BETWEEN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION LANGUAGE LEARNING AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate. Language acquisition is one of the quintessential human traits, because non-humans do not communicate by using language. Language acquisition usually refers to first-language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language. This is distinguished from second-language acquisition, which deals with the acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages.

The capacity to successfully use language requires one to acquire a range of tools including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive vocabulary. Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in sign. The human language capacity is represented in the brain. Even though the human language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an infinite number of sentences, which is based on a syntactic principle called recursion. Evidence suggests that every individual has three recursive mechanisms that allow sentences to go indeterminately. These three mechanisms are: relativization, complementation and coordination. Furthermore, there are actually two main guiding principles in first-language acquisition, that is, speech perception always precedes speech production and the gradually evolving system by which a child learns a language is built up one step at a time, beginning with the distinction between individual phonemes.

Language Acquisition vs. Language Learning

There is an important distinction made by linguists between language acquisition and language learning. Children acquire language through a subconscious process during which they are unaware of grammatical rules. This is similar to the way they acquire their first language. They get a feel for what is and what isn’t correct. In order to acquire language, the learner needs a source of natural communication. The emphasis is on the text of the communication and not on the form. Young students who are in the process of acquiring English get plenty of “on the job” practice. They readily acquire the language to communicate with classmates.

Language learning, on the other hand, is not communicative. It is the result of direct instruction in the rules of language. And it certainly is not an age-appropriate activity for your young learners. In language learning, students have conscious knowledge of the new language and can talk about that knowledge. They can fill in the blanks on a grammar page. Research has shown, however, that knowing grammar rules does not necessarily result in good speaking or writing.r A student who has memorized the rules of the language may be able to succeed on a standardized test of English language but may not be able to speak or write correctly.

When we think of "language learning" we need to understand two clearly distinct concepts. One involves receiving information about the language, transforming it into knowledge through intellectual effort and storing it through memorization. The other involves developing the skill of interacting with foreigners to understand them and speak their language. The first concept is called "language learning," while the other is referred to as "language acquisition." These are separate ideas and we will show that neither is a natural consequence of the other.

The distinction between acquisition and learning is one of the hypotheses (the most important) established by the American Stephen Krashen in his highly regarded theory of foreign language acquisition known as the Natural Approach.

CHAPTER THREE

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Language acquisition refers to the process of natural assimilation, involving intuition and subconscious learning. It is the product of real interactions between people in environments of the target language and culture, where the learner is an active player. It is similar to the way children learn their native tongue, a process that produces functional skill in the spoken language without theoretical knowledge. It develops familiarity with the phonetic characteristics of the language as well as its structure and vocabulary, and is responsible for oral understanding, the capability for creative communication and for the identification of cultural values.

In acquisition-inspired methodology, teaching and learning are viewed as activities that happen on a personal and psychological level. The acquisition approach praises the communicative act and develops self-confidence in the learner.

A classic example of second language acquisition are the adolescents and young adults that live abroad for a year in an exchange program, often attaining near native fluency, while knowing little about the language. They have a good pronunciation without a notion of phonology, don't know what the perfect tense is, modal or phrasal verbs are, but they intuitively recognize and know how to use all the structures.

CHAPTER FOUR

LANGUAGE LEARNING

The concept of language learning is linked to the traditional approach to the study of languages and today is still generally practiced in high schools worldwide. Attention is focused on the language in its written form and the objective is for the student to understand the structure and rules of the language, whose parts are dissected and analyzed. The task requires intellectual effort and deductive reasoning. The form is of greater importance than communication. Teaching and learning are technical and based on a syllabus. One studies the theory in the absence of the practice. One values the correct and represses the incorrect. Error correction is constant leaving little room for spontaneity. The teacher is an authority figure and the participation of the student is predominantly passive. The student will be taught how to form interrogative and negative sentences, will memorize irregular verbs, study modal verbs, learn how to form the perfect tense, etc., but hardly ever masters the use of these structures in conversation.

Language-learning inspired methods are progressive and cumulative, normally tied to a preset syllabus that includes memorization of vocabulary. It seeks to transmit to the student knowledge about the language, its functioning and grammatical structures, its contrasts with the student's native language, knowledge that hopefully will produce the practical skills of understanding and speaking the language. However, the effort of accumulating knowledge about the language with all its irregularity becomes frustrating because of the lack of familiarity with the language.

Innumerable graduates in Brazil with arts degrees in English are classic examples of language learning. They are certified teachers with knowledge about the language and its literature but able to communicate in English only with poor pronunciation, limited vocabulary and lacking awareness of the target culture.

INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACQUISITION AND LEARNING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

The clear understanding of the differences between acquisition and learning makes it possible to investigate their interrelationships as well as the implications for the teaching of languages.

First, we ought to consider that languages are complex, arbitrary, irregular phenomena, full of ambiguities, in constant random and uncontrollable evolution. Therefore, the grammatical structure of a language is too complex and abstract to be categorized and defined by rules.

Even if some partial knowledge of the functioning of the language is reached, it is not easily transformed into communication skills. What happens in fact is the opposite: to understand the functioning of a language with its irregularities is a result of being familiar with it. Rules and exceptions will make sense and grammar, word choice and pronunciation will be employed appropriately if it "sounds" right. Language analysis and the deductive, rule-driven study of grammar are not only ineffective to produce communicative ability, but also frustrating. It is much easier and more enjoyable to acquire a language than it is to learn a language.

In his Monitor Hypothesis Krashen admits that the knowledge obtained through formal study (language learning) can serve to monitor speaking. Krashen, however, doesn't specify the language that would be the object of study, but it is logical to assume that he was using the study of Spanish as the basis for his inferences and conclusions because it is the dominant foreign language in the United States, and particularly in the state of California, where Professor Krashen lives and works.

Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the characteristics of the target language, their degrees of irregularity and difficulty and how that affects the applicability of Krashen's theory. It is also necessary to analyze the personal characteristics of the players in the teaching-learning arena.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE EFFECTS OF ACQUISITION VS. LEARNING ON MOTIVATION

Approaches inspired by acquisition or learning will have different effects on the learner’s level of motivation along the learning process.

Acquisition-inspired approaches are normally detached from a syllabus and naturally more geared towards the learner’s needs and individual goals. They will also have activities based more on conversation rather than the study of grammar. As a result, they will produce more readily useful knowledge and raise the level of motivation as the learner builds up his communicative skills.

Learning-inspired approaches, normally tied to a syllabus, will emphasize the production of knowledge about the target language, especially its grammatical structures, at the expense of communicative skills. They will hardly meet the learner’s immediate goals. If not offset by a lively and charismatic teacher, the learning-inspired approach will drain the motivation, especially considering that proficiency in a foreign language can take a long time to be attained.

The graph below represents the predictable effects of acquisition and learning on motivation.

CONCLUSION

Krashen finally concludes that language acquisition is more efficient than language learning for attaining functional skills in a foreign language not only in childhood.

Language learning is limited to a complementary role in the form of support lessons and study materials, and will be useful only for adult students that have an analytical and reflective learning style and make good use of the monitoring function. Language learning will also be more useful for languages with a higher level of regularity, as well as in situations where the number of students per group cannot be reduced.

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