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Teaching Method and Fundamental Facts
about Second Language Acqusition (SLA)
In this section, I'd like to cite relevant linguistic research findings on how people acquire second languages, and address why my teaching method can seem different when compared to the typical language classroom experience.
I understand language to be “an implicit and abstract mental representation that humans use to interpret and express meaning” (Keating 2016, p. 2). As Keating states, “the mental representations that end
up in people’s minds are of a different nature than the rules of thumb commonly found in textbooks and prescriptive grammars” (p. 2), a distinction that is key in second language instruction (see VanPatten, 2017). Implicit in Keating’s definition is the idea that language lies outside of our conscious awareness, and how it operates in our brains cannot be easily described. Native speakers have an intuition about whether a sentence is possible or not in a language, but often cannot explain why. Pedagogical rules that teachers have devised and which are presented in language textbooks “aren't psychologically real” (VanPatten, 2017, p. 20). These rigit
teaching method
In this section, I'd like to lay out the definition of a language, describe the process of second language acquisition and factors that contribute to it, addressing why my teaching method can seem different when compared to the typical grammar-focused language classroom experience.
I understand language to be “an implicit and abstract mental representation that humans use to interpret and express meaning” (Keating, 2016). As Keating states, “the mental representations that end
up in people’s minds are of a different nature than the rules of thumb commonly found in textbooks and prescriptive grammars”, a distinction that is key in second language instruction (see VanPatten, 2017). Implicit in Keating’s definition is the idea that language lies outside of our conscious awareness, and how it operates in our brains cannot be easily described. Native speakers have an intuition about whether a sentence is possible or not in a language, but often cannot explain why. Pedagogical rules that teachers have devised and which are presented in language textbooks “aren't psychologically real” (vanPatten, 2017). they do not account for all
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teaching
philosophy
In order to teach a language, we first need to understand what language is. I follow Keating's definition of language as “an implicit and abstract mental representation that humans use to interpret and express meaning”. Implicit here means that language lies outside of our conscious awareness, and how it operates in our brains cannot be easily described. For instance, native speakers have an intuition about whether a sentence will work or not; however, they often cannot explain why. Abstract in this definition refers to the idea that how language operates in our minds cannot be easily described. What is crucial here is that the mental representations that are processes in learner's minds are of a different nature than the rules of thumb commonly found in textbooks and prescriptive grammar. As VanPatten (2017) puts it, pedagogical rules that teachers have devised and which are presented in language textbooks “aren't psychologically real” (VanPatten, 2017). They do not account for all of the examples in a language because they are oversimplified explanations of a linguistic system that is too abstract and complex.
Following the aforementioned definition of language, when someone learns a first, second, (or third, fourth, etc.) language, he/she creates new mental representations in his/her mind by extracting rules from the input or the “language that learners hear or see in a communicative context and that they have to interpret and process for meaning” (VanPatten, 2017). In the case of second language learners, this input should be comprehensible and level-appropriate in order to become intake, which is “the subset of data that learners are able to attend and to hold in working memory” (Keating, 2016). If the input is not comprehensible and level-appropriate, it will not become intake and will not be processed and delivered to the learner’s internal system. However, if intake is delivered to the learner’s mind, the system changes and reorganizes itself. Thus, although the linguistic system in
our heads is dynamic, it is also slow. A copious amount of input is needed for the acquisition of linguistic features; far more than most learners are likely to receive in a language classroom (Keating, 2016).
In addition to being slow, the second language acquisition process is also piecemeal. Learners do not acquire one grammatical feature (e.g. Russian case) at a time; they instead learn many different features of a language at once. When learners are exposed to input, not only do they process grammar, but they also process everything else at the same time - syntax, phonology, sentence prosody (stress, rhythm), and vocabulary. Nonetheless, the way in which grammar is often taught in language schools and/or presented in textbooks (usually one grammatical feature per unit) seems to imply the opposite: that learners will master one grammatical topic at a time in isolation from other grammatical topics and linguistic elements, and will then move on to master the next one. The problem with this method is that it generates expectations for both learners and instructors that are contrary to how language acquisition actually happens.
On that note, language acquisition is regulated by a learner’s internal factors, which can be illustrated by two well-documented second language facts. The first is that second language acquisition is stage-like, meaning that all learners pass through similar stages on their way to acquiring morphology, syntax, lexical items, and phonology. Secondly, all language learners follow a natural order, in which grammatical features are acquired in an identical, sequential order. Regardless of age, first language or context of acquisition, all learners follow the same order when acquiring morphology. This order is impossible to avoid or skip because it is constrained by the learner's internal factors. For Russian, learners will acquire case and impersonal sentences first, then location-direction, and lastly verbs of motion and aspect; regardless of the order in which these grammatical topics are presented to learners.
To summarize, second language acquisition is slow, piecemeal, and stage-like; it follows a particular order and requires exposure to copious amounts of input for acquisition process to occur. However, the process of exposing learners to input is often undermined in typical classrooms, where teachers pay more attention to explicit grammar explanations or grammar drills. This is why in my classes involve plenty of Russian from the beginning.
Suggested readings: Gass (2012), Keating (2016), VanPatten (2017). I also highly recommend a fun podcast on Second Language Acquisition: Tea with BVP.
-Olya Ozhiganova