THE TREASURE CHEST FOR A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER: Doing Magic in class

The experience of learning Slovak, an utterly different new language,   made me reflect on my role as an English teacher.  Something that any teacher should take into consideration is that first impressions are everything in the learning process. I am aware that teachers must create an environment of understanding and trust in their first class, so students feel less inhibited and can participate freely in the different tasks. Returning to the Slovak class, the teacher took this aspect into account because she was kind, recursive, and patient at the moment we did not get what we had to do. The more pleasant the first class is, the better impression the students will have in order to continue learning.                                                                        Karle Ospina

THE TREASURE CHEST FOR A FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER

An Integrative Approach

       Teaching a foreign language is a wonderful and an endless adventure. It represents a long journey where teachers expect not only to help their students achieve their academic goals, but also to have the chance to enjoy their own job. First of all, they get ready with all the tools they consider can be useful for their journey. For instance, they get their linguistic competence as well as the methodology that best help their students develop their competences. Then, they start looking for the activities and materials that will contribute in the learning of the different topics. Nevertheless, during the journey they realize that teaching is not that easy and that it requires getting aware of other important issues. What they need is to go in search of the TREASURE CHEST that will help them get a handle on every situation related to the students and their learning process. So, if you are a foreign language teacher you must find this chest in order to come across with the eight spheres that contain important teaching and learning insights.

     Once the TREASURE CHEST is open, you will find the first sphere containing an important aspect to have in mind in the learning process: THE AFFECTIVE FACTORS. The affective states of the students are the major factors intervening in language learning. On account of this, teachers need to free their students from inhibitions so that they can freely interact and use the language. This is possible if teachers build up trust and understanding between themselves and their students. So, more positive than negative feedback; more praise than criticism might be the first step. According to Stephen Krashen (1982) and his AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS, affective variables can act as a mental block, also termed AFFECTIVE FILTER, and prevent comprehensible input to be absorbed. When the learner is unmotivated and lacks confidence the affective filter goes up. When the learner is not anxious the filter goes down. Adults are more likely to have a higher affective filter due to events that occurred in adolescence. (Krashen, 1982).

     After having found the first sphere, you will see the second one. It contains the psychological theory called the BEHAVIORISTIC APPROACH. This approach lies within language acquisition is environmentally determined, that the environment provides the learner with language, which acts as a stimulus, to which the language learner responds. All learning is the establishment of habits as a result of reinforcement and reward. When responses to stimuli are coherently reinforced, then habit formation is established (Skinner, 1986). It is highly probable that most foreign language teachers take account of this theory because they usually implement new activities and techniques in their classes. Thus, if the response of the students is positive, they continue implementing those activities and techniques; otherwise, they will be discarded. In this way, teachers identify what kind of stimulus they must provide for the benefit of the learning.

     The third sphere includes the SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY proposed by Lev Vigotsky who highlights the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition (Vigotsky, 1978). He points out that individual development cannot be understood without reference to the social and cultural context within which it is embedded. Therefore, higher mental processes in the individual have their origin in social processes. Another important aspect in this theory that facilitates and guides the learning process is the fostering of the MKO (More Knowledgeable Other). It refers to someone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or concept. In this case, teachers, adults, and peers can be very helpful in the learning process, so as to assist the child in the developing of their skills. Additionally, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is an important principle in this theory and it is integrally related to the concept of MKO. It refers to the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner. On account of this fact, teachers must promote collaborative activities such as pair work and group work where less competent children develop their skills with help from more skillful peers.

    
     UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR AND THE INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS is enclosed in the fourth sphere. Noam Chomsky talks about the existence in the human brain of a Language Acquisition Device. According to this theory there are grammatical rules which are common to all human languages, so language acquisition would be difficult or even impossible without an innate grammar. It is a well known fact that, some languages have certain grammatical features in common, namely nouns and verbs. In addition to this, foreign language learners tend to deduce the rules of the foreign language by resorting to their native language in order to communicate their ideas. At this point teachers can assist their learners to understand the differences between the first and the second language and that some structures are not the same in both languages. Therefore, learners must be careful not to transfer all messages from their first language to the second language because they might commit some errors. The greater the differences between the two languages, the more negative transfer can be expected.

     The fifth sphere is related to Jerome Bruner and his CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY. His theoretical framework is based on the theme that language development comes about when the social support network of the child works in conjunction with innate mechanisms. This is what Brunner calls Language Acquisition Support System (LASS). He also refers to the spiral curriculum that takes account of how the most effective learning occurs. According to Brunner (1960) learning is more successful with early exposure and subsequent scaffolding of more complex concepts that occurs over earlier developing ones. Certainly, this concept of scaffolding is really beneficial in the design of any curriculum, being that teachers can decide what concepts must be introduced at the beginning of the learning process and which ones at the end. Consequently, this process can facilitate language learning in a more coherent way.

     The sixth sphere brings the COMPREHENSIBLE OUTPUT HYPOTHESIS. The originator of this hypothesis is Merrill Swain (Swain, 1985) who claims that the way of acquiring a language is not merely as simple as “understanding the message” as Krashen (1985) states in his Input hypothesis. In other words, the development of the communicative competence of the learner does not merely depend on comprehensible input: the output of the learner has an independent and indispensable role to play. The exposure to the target language plays an important role in this hypothesis because the learner is “pushed” to communicate and to produce a comprehensible output in order to be understood. It is probable that foreign language learners produce incorrect utterances in the process of communicating with native speakers. However, native speakers do not care about minor inaccuracies if the message is understandable; they attend to meaning rather than form. Furthermore, through the social practice learners can monitor their output and ask for clarifications in order to improve their speech and overcome the gaps in the communicative competence.

     The seventh sphere keeps an important aspect in foreign language learning: THE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE. The learner not only needs to get the structure of the language, but also to use the language in a real life situation. Widdowson (1983) points out that a competent language user should possess not only knowledge about the language, but also the ability and skill to activate that knowledge in a communicative event. The components of the communicative competence are grammatical, textual, functional, and sociolinguistic and they are immersed in the following four abilities: listening, reading, speaking, and writing.

     Finally, the last sphere contains the INTERACTION HYPOTHESIS. Michael Long (1996) claims that the development of language proficiency is promoted face to face interaction and communication. In addition, this theory claims that the effectiveness of comprehensible input is greatly increased when learners have to negotiate for meaning. This occurs when there is a breakdown in communication which interlocutors attempt to overcome. Thus, the participants in a conversation resort to some strategies such as slowing down speech, requests for clarification, and paraphrasing so that the interaction can progress.

     As a result of having found the eight spheres, you as an English teacher have a better understanding of what learning a foreign language implies and the role you play in this process. If you take these revelations into account, you will succeed in your teaching practice.

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REFERENCES

·       Krashen, Stephen D.  Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning.  Prentice-Hall International, 1982.

·       Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

·       Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

·       Chomsky, Noam, 1986. Knowledge of language: its nature, origin and use.

·       Praeger, New York.

·       Widdowson, H. G. (1983). Learning Purpose and Language Use. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

·       Long, L. (1982). Native Speaker/Non Native Speaker Conversation in the Second

             Language Classroom. In M. A. Clark & 1. Handscombe (Eds.), On TESOL

            '82 (pp. 207-225). Washington, D.C. U.S.: Teachers of English to Speakers

·       Swain, M. (1985). Communicative Competence: Some Roles of Comprehensible Input and Comprehensible Output in its Development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, MA.: Newbury House.