Me, myself, and I The new Metacognition concept in language learning and acquisition.

Mauricio Andrés Manrique    

We all know  that we are unique individuals, different  from each other  who acquire language through a process exclusively  human.This language gives us the capacity to perceive and comprehend our world, as well as to produce and use words and  sentences to communicate but this capacity requires a range of tools including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive  vocabulary that we  ourselves  can only  internalize  in a  specific time of our life.

 

  Many theories have been proposed  about how children are able to acquire a language without learning it. Theories that explain how kids just pick up the linguistic input (input in the linguistic context is defined as All words, contexts, and other forms of language to which a learner is exposed), theories that prove that lads also have cognitive abilities  that let them acquire most aspects of language without being explicitly taught.

 

According to Noam Chomsky’s theory a child is born prepared in some manner with these capacities. It seems to be that we all have the equipment installed; we just have to read the manual to use these capacities for learning any language we want.

 

The first of Chomsky's notions is called the "language acquisition device" or LAD. LAD refers to a person's innate childhood ability to learn language. It is through this device that a child is said to unconsciously gather ideas about language rules. Through this generative neural capacity, children acquire rules for understanding and constructing their native language (Chomsky, 1957).

 

If we think of his first notion we can say that we possess a device designed to understand languages and to produce ideas, It seems to be something natural and effortless to acquire a language as Stephen Krashen said "Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill."  “Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding."

 

We also can think of the concept Me, myself and I as the inner factor to understand and develop the function of the brain to acquire a new language, taking into account Vygotsky's most important contribution that concerns   the inter-relationship of language development and thought.  This refers to the profound connection between speech (both silent inner speech and oral language), and the development of mental concepts and cognitive awareness. If we understand that we are independent individuals and different from each other we can have social interaction in the development of cognition,  Vigotsky  strongly believed that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning." to understand our world.

 

And if we include Bruner’s theory that says we learn when we solve problems for different situations, plus the constructivist learning theory  where the learner draws on his or her own past experience and existing knowledge to discover facts and relationships and new truths to be learned, we can come up with the idea that we are beings that can learn and teach  in different styles according to the situations or problems we are facing or dealing with.

 

Me, myself and I as learner is the new  Metacognition concept  that pretends to raise awareness of the importance of knowing ourselves, how our brain works, how  we can   choose the best method for learning a language, as we have different preferences and ways of learning.  We also change and adjust our learning strategies based on our own development and on the different learning situations in which we find ourselves. By understanding ourselves and becoming more aware of these differences, we become more capable of adjusting to new situations throughout our lifetime as learners.

 

 Me, myself, and I as a teacher must understand that we can use different methods, methodologies, strategies and techniques according to the characteristics of our students and the teaching environment. We must remember that all of us are different and maybe that factor makes us equal.

 

Only me, myself and I can make the difference.
 
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