lkmj n´lk
7 The best way to learn new vocabulary is
through reading: This statement is absolutely true. But it does not tell
the whole story. Children expand their vocabulary dramatically during their
school years, and reading is the major source of this growth. Second language
learners can also increase their vocabulary knowledge through reading, but few
second language learners will read the amount of target language text that a
child reads throughout more than a decade of schooling. Research evidence
suggests that second language learners benefit from opportunities to read
material that is interesting and important to them. However, those who also
receive guidance from instruction and develop good strategies for learning and
remembering words will benefit more than those who simply focus on getting the
main ideas from a text. What is perhaps most striking in the research is the
evidence that in order to successfully guess the meanings of new words in a
text, a reader usually needs to know 90 per cent or more of the words in that
text.
8 It is essential for learners
to be able to pronounce all the individual sounds in the second language: Research
on pronunciation has shown that second language speakers’ ability to make
themselves understood depends more on their ability to reproduce the phrasing
and stress patterns-the ‘melody’ of the language-than on their ability to
articulate each individual sound. Another important emphasis in current
research is the undeniable fact that most languages of the world are spoken in
many different varieties. Thus, it no longer seems appropriate to insist that
learners be taught only one language variety or that only native speakers of a
particular variety are the best teachers. Rather, learners need to learn to
understand and produce language varieties that will permit them to engage in
communicative interaction with the interlocutors they are most likely to
encounter.
9 Once learners know
roughly 1,000 words and the basic structure of a second language, they can
easily participate in conversations with native speakers: It is true that
most conversational language involves only a relatively limited number of words
and sentence types. However, learners will find it easier to understand and to
make themselves understood if they also have an understanding of some of the
pragmatic features of the new language. It is sometimes useful for them to
focus their attention on such things as how speakers show respect, apologize,
or make requests. The cultural differences in these types of interactions
sometimes lead to communication breakdown or misunderstandings, even when the
words and the sentence structures are correct.
10 Teachers should present grammatical rules one at a time, and
learners should practise examples of each one before going on to another: Second
language learning is not simply linear in its development. Learners may use a
particular form accurately at stage x (suggesting that they have learned that
form), fail to produce the form (or make errors when they attempt it) at stage
y, and produce it accurately again at stage z The decline in accuracy at stage
y may show that learners are incorporating new information about the language
into their interlanguage. We saw, for example, how learners may ask correct
formulaic questions such as ‘What’s that?’, or ‘How do you say proche in
English?”, and then produce questions like “What you’re doing with
that?’ at a later time. Language development is not just adding one rule after
another. Rather, it involves processes of integrating new language forms and
patterns into an existing interlanguage, readjusting and restructuring until
all the pieces fit. Some structure-based approaches to teaching are based on
the false assumption that second language development is a sort of accumulation
of rules. This can be seen in the organization of textbooks that introduce a
particular language feature in the first unit and reinforce it in several
subsequent units, and then move on the next feature, with only rare
opportunities for learners to practise the ones previously taught. This
isolated presentation and practice of one structure at a time does not provide
learners with an opportunity to discover how different language features
compare and contrast in normal language use. It is also likely that, without
opportunities to continue hearing, seeing, and using them, the language
features learned in the first unit will have been forgotten long before the
last.
11 Teachers should teach simple
language structures before complex ones: Research has shown that no matter
how language is presented to learners, certain structures are acquired before
others. This suggests that it is neither necessary nor desirable to restrict
learners’ exposure to structures that are perceived in linguistic terms to be
‘simple’-particularly when this involves the isolated presentation, ordering,
and practice of ‘simple’ to ‘complex’ features. At the same time, there is no
doubt that second language learners benefit from the efforts of native speakers
and fluent bilinguals to modify their speech to help them understand. The
language used in modified interaction may contain a variety of linguistic
structures, some ‘simple’ and some ‘complex’. However, it also includes a range
of adjustments that enable second language learners to engage in interactions
with native and more advanced speakers of the second language more easily-more
repetition, slower rate of delivery, paraphrasing, etc. Teachers must also be
aware, however, that some linguistic forms are so rare in classroom language
that learners have little opportunity to hear, use, and learn them if the
teacher does not make a paint of providing them. These are not necessarily
difficult or complex forms. As we saw in Chapter 6 (Study 31) some common
language forms turn out to be extremely rare in classroom language.
12 Learners’ errors
should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation
of bad habits: Errors are a natural part of language learning.
This is true of the development of a child’s first language as well as of
second language learning by children and adults. Errors reflect the patterns of
learners’ developing interlanguage systems-showing where they have
overgeneralized a second language rule or where they have inappropriately
transferred a first language pattern to the second language. Teachers have a
responsibility to help learners do their best, and this includes the provision
of explicit, form-focused instruction and feedback on error. When errors are
persistent, especially when they are shared by almost all students in a class,
it is important to bring the problem to their attention. This does not mean
that learners should be expected to adopt the correct form or structure
immediately or consistently. If the error is based on a developmental pattern,
the instruction or feedback may be useful only when the learner is ready for
it. It may be necessary to repeat feedback on error many times. Excessive
feedback on error can have a negative effect on motivation, of course, and
teachers must be sensitive to their students’ reactions to correction. The
amount and type of correction that is offered will also vary according to the
specific characteristics of the students, as well as their relationship with
the teacher and with each other. Children and adults with little education in
their first language will not benefit greatly from sophisticated metalinguistic
explanations, but university students who are advanced learners of the language
may find such explanations of great value. Immediate reaction to errors in an
oral communication setting may embarrass some students and discourage them from
speaking, while for others, such correction is exactly what is needed to help
them notice a persistent error at just the moment when it occurs.
13
Teachers should use materials that expose students only to language structures
they have already been taught: Such a procedure can provide comprehensible
input of course, but-given a meaningful context-learners can comprehend the
general meaning of oral or written texts that contain vocabulary and structures
they have not ‘mastered’. Thus, restricting classroom second language materials
to those that contain little or nothing that is new may have several negative
consequences. There will undoubtedly be a loss of motivation if students are
not sufficiently challenged. Students also need to develop strategies for
dealing with ‘real’ or ‘authentic’ material if they are eventually going to be
prepared for language use outside the classroom. They do this first with the
teacher’s guidance and then independently. Restricting students to step-by-step
exposure to the language extends their dependency. When a particular form is
introduced for the first time, or when the teacher feels there is a need for
correction of a persistent problem, it is appropriate to use narrow-focus materials
that isolate one element in a context where other things seem easy. But it
would be a disservice to students to use such materials exclusively or even
predominantly. We should remember that learners who successfully acquire a
second language outside classrooms certainly are exposed to a great variety of
forms and structures they have not mastered.