http://fsltheoriesmaucaldasb2012.wordpress.com/
Theories of First and Second Language Acquisition
Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia. Master's program in Didactics of English. Professor: Carlos Mann Ospina Nova, November 2012 cminnova@yahoo.com
Wednesday 5 December 2012
“Teacherese”
MY (E)MERGING THEORY: RUBIK-CUBE SHAPED TESOL “TEACHERESE”
My view of the language is that it is a bio-psycho-social-historical thinking and communication device product of evolution and rooted deeply into animal cognition and the communication of living beings. It is a human universal innate faculty that is realized in a particular communication code –a language-, which is developed and learned within a particular cultural group. A language is in turn real-ized in speech or tongue, which real-izes itself in geographic and social varieties (dialects and accents, acro-, meso-, and basi-lects). A language is a system of systems that cover formal (phonetic, phonologic, morphologic, syntactic, and semantic structures) and functional aspects (sociolinguistic, and pragmatic functioning of the language). Speech varieties are actualized, according to individual ways of expression or idiolect, in the form of register in particular communicative situations. It should be apparent that my view is not just juxtaposition of linguistic views that have developed historically, but an attempt of reconciling them in a unitary conceptual body.
Furthermore, my view of learning has followed the same aggregationist-synthetic procedure. Learning starts with perception, goes to sensation, to attention, to linking to prior schemata, to reflection, to consciousness, to abstraction. It begins as something purely biological in the individual, a matter of paced maturation and development, triggered and fueled by social interaction and individual activity. That is to say, learning has biological and social roots and –like language- despite being an individual reality it is also a social and cultural fact. Behaviorism, innatism, interactionism and a social-cultural perspective do not oppose so much in my view; rather, they complement each other, each underlining a particular aspect the other views do not probably highlight that much. Learning takes all what those theories have stated about it. It takes an individual with all his cognition, emotions, and personality; it also takes a context that situates the matter for learning and provides meaning and sense to it, and it takes a process of action and interaction, to construct it too. Language learning, as any other learning, follows those patterns.
Language learning is a mainly practical process. It is like learning how to walk, or how to drive a bicycle, a motorcycle or a car; it is like learning how to swim; you can be instructed but all you really need is practice; instruction, in practical learning, will never be enough. Simple imitation will never lead to real learning; only real practice will make real, understanding and enduring learning. However, in the case of F/SL, learning can also be theoretically grounded, i.e. in this case formal instruction is central, especially in the case of foreign languages. As language is made for thinking and communication, a second or foreign language will only be learnt from comprehension and use. Practical, in “practical learning”, means individual and social action: comprehension and communication. “Practical” implies knowledge, skill, ability, competence, too.
Finally, my view of teaching. Teachers can be born, but they have to be made; teaching has evolved –like the rest of human knowledge- from an intuitive and empiricist practice into a professional knowledgeable and reflective expertise. Teaching requires pedagogy (a sense of principles and goals, foundations and teleology of education), didactics (as know-how of teaching) and methodology/methods (as skill in classroom communication and conduction).
To conclude, my view of language teaching. It is grounded on the aforementioned views about language, language learning, and teaching. It is a principled or professional practice that does not claim universal validity, for languages, individuals, situations, and classrooms vary. There is only one language, THE language, but many realizations of it, languages; there is only one Human Being, but innumerable persons. I don’t teach what cannot be taught because it is innate, the language; I teach a language. Language teaching must be practical, i.e., communicative, as languages are practical devices for thinking and communication. My students at school are not linguistics students, they are language learners; I do not teach the description of the language; I teach through and for communication. Language teaching is meaning-centered, for you cannot learn anything you don’t understand. It means rote repetition and drilling are out of question. Comprehensive reading and listening, lots of meaningful i+1 input, lots of ZDP interactive practice, lots of productive effort, lots of self-, peer-, and teacher-corrective feedback. The secret, if any, to language learning is lots of sustained willing (conscious or not) effort, which is attainable if adequate motivation is present. In the (language) classroom, it means that motivating topics, activities, materials and classroom arrangements draw students’ interest, which begets their willing and engaged action that leads to learning, while reducing disruptive behaviors due to boredom or lack of interest or comprehension.
To
close, I wished to say that I have come up with a more or less
consolidated personal theory of S/FL teaching, for which I am indebted
to so many authors from so many schools of thought through history that
it would take really long to list here. Mine is just an amalgamated
remake of concepts I have been inherited. I have given this emerging
personal perspective the form of a Rubik cube. First a cube has six
sides. You can think of each side as one facet of learning (individual
and social cognitive, affective, personality, intelligence factors).
Each side can in turn be seen as made up of various constituents:
cognition embeds reflection, analysis, synthesis, perception… The
emotional side can include a variety of feelings and emotions from
negative to positive ones like anxiety, inhibition, risk-taking, It
means each of the six sides of the cube are composite, complex. From a
different perspective, the three axes can represent the basic
dimensions involved in language and learning: let’s make the vertical
axis the biological bases, while the horizontal left-to-right or across
axis represents society (including culture and history in it) and the
horizontal bottom-to-front or depth axis represents the individual, the
learner. Other aspects can be considered in the cube: corner points,
edges, diagonal lines, respectively representing the confluence of
adjacent aspects and cross-sectional aspects within and across the sides
and side components. The complexity of a cube like the one representing
this perspective can be illustrated by means of the illustrations
accompanying the text here (taken from Google images, all of them). It
is noteworthy to say that I like the Rubik cube this perspective implies
a number of combinations present simultaneously at different moments.
My idea is not to “solve” the puzzle by means of a solution in which
each side is of a uniform color. Instead, I want to emphasize the
complexity that having any given combination on each side implies when
referring it to language learning and teaching.
To learn more, please visit http://fsltheoriesmaucaldasb2012.wordpress.com/
Tuesday 4 December 2012
How can applied linguistics help a teacher become a better professional?
Sandra Liliana Ramos Aristizabal
Teaching a language is a big responsibility. We as teachers should have the required knowledge to provide our students with the necessary tools that enable them to communicate their ideas and express their opinions.
According to some authors, teachers should have language knowledge useful in their role as educators to be able to help their students
with any problem they could confront when learning a language. Applied
linguistic can also be useful to analyze students´ progress in their learning process and to identify appropriate learning and teaching points.
Being a teacher is not only to give students knowledge about a specific issue. When teaching language educators need to be prepared to answer any question from learners, so we must be aware of applied linguistics. That is, to know about some fields such as syntax, semantics, morphology, phonetics and how they operate in the learning of a new language. Teachers will not explain concepts about the fields of linguistics to their beginner students, but if they are able to help overcoming the learners´ difficulties taking into account those aspects of applied linguistics, the results will be better than those expected.
To read more, please visit my site at http://salira.tumblr.com/
Cardonism wreaks havoc in Wikipedia by Diego Cardona
(This theory does not exist yet. It
seeks to give a clear perspective of the author’s point of view towards
language learning and teaching)
Cardonism is a second language acquisition theory and an approach to education that lays emphasis on the ways that people successfully acquire foreign languages, achieving high levels of proficiency. This method was first designed by professor Diego Cardona by studying arduously first and second language acquisition theories and psychology principals. Professor Cardona then selected reliable and valid features of the most important theories as to create an approach that can take advantage of the power and capacity of the human brain. Cardonism is usually divided into three stages by most of the current researchers: pupils’ early production, pupils’ interaction period, and pupils’ language maintenance.
Pupils’ Early Production
Cardona apparently supported Chomsky’s principle in the sense that every human comes to birth with a universal grammar prepackaged in the brain. Accordingly, Cardona states “Every human being that is born with no pathological conditions, is able to acquire any language in the world; any.”Apart from this, Diego’s theory suggests to first reinforce learners’ first language literacy skills before instructing them in a foreign language, as the Linguistic Cording Differences Hypothesis already claimed.
Cardona is recognized as well for being a current promoter of the natural order and input hypothesis, stated by the American linguist Stephen Krashen. Cardonism strongly asserts that students learn a language in a predictable order and such order must be known by language tutors as to foster learning in the classroom.
Pupils’ Interaction Period
Cardona also picked some features from Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology. His particular approach points that pupils can only reach high levels of proficiency by interacting through language. For such purpose, teachers may include within their instruction real life interaction tasks, as well as activities that demand the same skills people use in their native language. For instance, listening to the radio, watching TV, reading a book, writing a letter, answering a phone call, etc. It is believed that Cardona also encourages the communicative approach, but in an interview with the magazine Science he replied “There is no research work that indicates there is a better approach than other, it would be a huge mistake to just believe such bias”.
The belief that innatism and social interaction make language possible in a human being is attributed to Cardona as well. He has also expressed his agreement with Jerome Bruner proposal that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition in general and language in particular.
Pupils’ language maintenance
Professor Cardona has pointed that achieving a competent level in a foreign language is not enough to maintain a language learning process alive. Instead, Cardonism theory proposes that there is always a step forward to reach. Indeed, he tenaciously suggests that the best way to keep improving one’s competence in any language (including the native one) is by carrying out tasks that demand a greater cognitive and linguistic skills different from the ones already acquired. In other words, after a language learner can write easily an e-mail in the target language, then he should go further and write an essay or a column stating his point of view towards something. In case that this learner does not attempt to make even more difficult tasks, his foreign language would not progress and will be located into a zone that is called “comfort zone”. This zone consists of the section in which students feel comfortable with what they know about the language, and do not hesitate to learn more as they do not find it necessary. According to Diego, the language users that are located in this zone “lose” progressively their language skills such as vocabulary repertoire, and fluency.
To learn more about this breakthrough and other interesting topics, do not hesitate to visit my site at
Cardonism is a second language acquisition theory and an approach to education that lays emphasis on the ways that people successfully acquire foreign languages, achieving high levels of proficiency. This method was first designed by professor Diego Cardona by studying arduously first and second language acquisition theories and psychology principals. Professor Cardona then selected reliable and valid features of the most important theories as to create an approach that can take advantage of the power and capacity of the human brain. Cardonism is usually divided into three stages by most of the current researchers: pupils’ early production, pupils’ interaction period, and pupils’ language maintenance.
Pupils’ Early Production
Cardona apparently supported Chomsky’s principle in the sense that every human comes to birth with a universal grammar prepackaged in the brain. Accordingly, Cardona states “Every human being that is born with no pathological conditions, is able to acquire any language in the world; any.”Apart from this, Diego’s theory suggests to first reinforce learners’ first language literacy skills before instructing them in a foreign language, as the Linguistic Cording Differences Hypothesis already claimed.
Cardona is recognized as well for being a current promoter of the natural order and input hypothesis, stated by the American linguist Stephen Krashen. Cardonism strongly asserts that students learn a language in a predictable order and such order must be known by language tutors as to foster learning in the classroom.
Pupils’ Interaction Period
Cardona also picked some features from Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology. His particular approach points that pupils can only reach high levels of proficiency by interacting through language. For such purpose, teachers may include within their instruction real life interaction tasks, as well as activities that demand the same skills people use in their native language. For instance, listening to the radio, watching TV, reading a book, writing a letter, answering a phone call, etc. It is believed that Cardona also encourages the communicative approach, but in an interview with the magazine Science he replied “There is no research work that indicates there is a better approach than other, it would be a huge mistake to just believe such bias”.
The belief that innatism and social interaction make language possible in a human being is attributed to Cardona as well. He has also expressed his agreement with Jerome Bruner proposal that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition in general and language in particular.
Pupils’ language maintenance
Professor Cardona has pointed that achieving a competent level in a foreign language is not enough to maintain a language learning process alive. Instead, Cardonism theory proposes that there is always a step forward to reach. Indeed, he tenaciously suggests that the best way to keep improving one’s competence in any language (including the native one) is by carrying out tasks that demand a greater cognitive and linguistic skills different from the ones already acquired. In other words, after a language learner can write easily an e-mail in the target language, then he should go further and write an essay or a column stating his point of view towards something. In case that this learner does not attempt to make even more difficult tasks, his foreign language would not progress and will be located into a zone that is called “comfort zone”. This zone consists of the section in which students feel comfortable with what they know about the language, and do not hesitate to learn more as they do not find it necessary. According to Diego, the language users that are located in this zone “lose” progressively their language skills such as vocabulary repertoire, and fluency.
http://theoriesofsla.tumblr.com/
Last class some colleagues shared very interesting research questions that could lead to fabulous research studies. However, a word of caution here might be worth adding! beware:
Once an advisor has been assigned to your research study, you will experiment what desperation is. Change this, change that, include this, exclude that, emphasis on this, do not repeat that and so on. The only solution you will find to end up your thesis will be following every single instruction and feedback your instructor gives to you. Research advisors kill researchers’ creativity and innovation.
It should not be that way.
Last class some colleagues shared very interesting research questions that could lead to fabulous research studies. However, a word of caution here might be worth adding! beware:
Once an advisor has been assigned to your research study, you will experiment what desperation is. Change this, change that, include this, exclude that, emphasis on this, do not repeat that and so on. The only solution you will find to end up your thesis will be following every single instruction and feedback your instructor gives to you. Research advisors kill researchers’ creativity and innovation.
It should not be that way.
My own experience learning Slovak
" I could gladly express
from my experience that we teachers are constantly researchers and scientists;
we are always observing our classroom, introducing some changes, evaluating and
assessing our students and ourselves, and we are craftsmen modeling the people
of the future. " Maria Eugenia Guapacha
Developing cognitive skills requires addressing a variety of tasks such as the metacognitive skill strategies used by learners, everyone has his own way to process information and reflect about his learning process. Solving - problem skills, not all the students develop the same strategies to get into a solution. Intelligence, it is demonstrated that some learners present higher levels of understanding and intelligence than others. Memory, association and connection seen as abilities to retain information. Interest and curiosity flow out from intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learning. Risk taking, it is an overriding impulse that helps students to learn and experiment emotions. And finally, the learning styles that are the varied ways students like and are more feasible for them to approach learning.
Developing cognitive skills requires addressing a variety of tasks such as the metacognitive skill strategies used by learners, everyone has his own way to process information and reflect about his learning process. Solving - problem skills, not all the students develop the same strategies to get into a solution. Intelligence, it is demonstrated that some learners present higher levels of understanding and intelligence than others. Memory, association and connection seen as abilities to retain information. Interest and curiosity flow out from intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learning. Risk taking, it is an overriding impulse that helps students to learn and experiment emotions. And finally, the learning styles that are the varied ways students like and are more feasible for them to approach learning.
My own experience learning Slovak
Since I finished my B.A. program in foreign
languages, I had not had the chance to learn a new language by my own. I had
thought that learning more languages were not necessary for I speak three
languages that I consider enough for me to communicate and use them as a
cultural and professional tool. Nowadays that perspective has changed!
In the light of my Masters
assignments and challenging new discoveries and learning, I was required to
undertake a new learning experience, that one of learning Slovak language. I
only had 15 days to try by myself some things of this foreign language.
Fifteen days passed very
fast and I had to face a known and overwhelming experience in that session of
the masters’ class. We had a Slovakian teacher just right in front of us
speaking in Slovak almost for an hour. My mind and memories came back
immediately 12 years ago when I received my first English class at the university
with a teacher who did not stop speaking in English. At school I always had a good performance in
the English class and I considered myself as a good student in this subject,
but where was everything that I had learnt at school and why was not I able to
understand just a little thing of what the teacher said?
Now I can answer the
question. One reason is that in that time I thought that I knew English because
of the fact that I was able to read and somehow to write it but I had never
been exposed to that language before, at this moment I know that to be
competent and to master a language, it is not enough to read it and to understand
it, but also to listen and to speak it.
Coming back to the Slovakian
experience, although I did not feel the same frustration that I felt in the
first class at the university, I had a strange feeling. I was really motivated
because I had studied Slovak on line by myself (this time I knew that I had to
foster the four skills and I had developed new strategies for learning a
language) however I felt a little bit “puzzled”
because I did not understand a word of what she said. Some minutes later she
started by asking basic information, I felt a relief because finally I could
understand something, that was the information that I had been studying during
those days. Those short minutes were exciting, but once she turned to another
task, that excitement vanished. I started nodding and saying yes to everything
she asked, similar to the first experience. I seemed too dumb trying to figure
out what she meant to do.
The teacher tried to do her
best to encourage us and to make us understand but all her efforts were not successful.
We just pretended to understand, except at the moment of proving our
understanding by following her commands. We, or at least me, guessed all the
time. Despite of all the emotions that day, it was a nice practice.
Now, my intention within
this article is to share the aspects and strategies involved in this
experience.
CONTEXT OR SETTING
We all were English teachers,
experts in understanding foreign languages learning. In my case I knew that
that was the beginning of learning another language. The fact of being an English
teacher helped me to understand that process; nevertheless, it did not mean to get
all Slovakian speech because I had never had the chance to get exposed to
authentic listening and speaking models.
METHODS USED BY THE TEACHER
The teacher used Slovakian,
her native language, all the time. She used different strategies to make herself
be understood. She tried by all means that we could understand through TPR exercises,
drawings on the board, miming, and overall interaction and use of language in
context. I received a lot of input but, unfortunately, it was not
comprehensible.
MY FEELINGS
I experienced a mixture of
feelings: excitement, anxiety, happiness, frustration and so on. I was excited
because it was the first time I was listening to a Slovakian native speaker and
I enjoyed listening to that mysterious and exquisite language, its words,
sounds, pronunciation, accent, rhythm, etc., also excitement because I wanted
to show that I had been studying and practicing that language and I wanted to
interact and share my scarce knowledge with others. I felt anxious when I did
not understand any word different from the basic things I could learn by my
own. And happiness because of the new experience and reflections related to the
learning process with my students. We felt almost the same feelings they
experience when learning English with us and when some of them are not good at
languages.
INTERACTION
I was in an environment in
which I felt comfortable; interacting with my classmates, we all had the same
opportunities and advantages to learn. I was not shy or afraid of making
mistakes because we all were under the same conditions. Maybe some of them with
a little bit more practice than others, but no one had any disadvantage. The interaction
was the clue to have an effective learning.
MY STRATEGIES
I am pleased to have learnt
at least some personal information phrases, I can say hello and introduce
myself in Slovak and I can prove it in all skills. As an English teacher I implemented
varied strategies to start learning this language.
I took advantage of my good
memory skills trying to remember the whole phrases and repeating them several
times. I also used mnemonics by associating the pronunciation of words or
phrases with some expressions in my native language, Spanish. I love studying grammar
and practicing through exercises. Grammar helped me interpret the linguistic form
and structures of Slovak and assisted me in writing exercises. Vocabulary was
also a powerful tool, by increasing my lexicon I could form at least one
sentence. Therefore I tried to learn as many words I could, related to personal
information.
I also found an effective language
online lesson that helped like, understand and learn this interesting language.
This is the web site: https://sites.google.com/site/marekhlavac/slovak_lessons_beginner_overview
SOME CONCLUSIONS
Learning a foreign or
second language requires discipline. The learner needs time to practice and go deeper
into it, by learning and discovering cultural aspects besides of its structures.
We also need to have a purpose or interest. In my case it was only an
assignment and I did not have any other purpose to keep on learning, moreover I
had no one to practice with, I am not planning to travel to that country, I have
no chance to interact or to be exposed to it through radio stations or channels
on TV.
Finally,
that experience helped a lot to understand my students’ feelings and processes
when learning English in the classroom. Not all of them are good at languages
no matter all the efforts they make or I make. I understand that the starting
point is difficult but they can go through with patient and having an effective
learning and teaching process.
https://sites.google.com/site/marekhlavac/slovak_lessons_beginner_overview
Want to know more about my site? please visit
http://mariaeugeniaguapacha.blogspot.com/
Want to know more about my site? please visit
http://mariaeugeniaguapacha.blogspot.com/
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