Canagarajah's article and Ch. 7 from Lightbrown and Spada did a great job of summing up what we learned throughout the course of this semester. Canagarajah's article touched on Brown's four major themes. The part of the article that sparked my interest was the brief section that discussed motivation. What are our motivations for learning an L2? Are they intrinsic or extrinsic? I'm sure they vary from culture to culture and even from person to person. I plan on writing my paper about this, that's why it caught my attention. After reading both, I really got thinking about how languages are learned. I obviously don't remember my own L1 acquisition, but was able to relate this information to my own L2 acquisition experience.
Lightbrown and Spada review that languages are not learned mainly through imitation. I agree and disagree. Personally, the imitation factor came into play later when I was trying to sound less "American" and more like a native Spanish speaker. I would imitate how natives pronounced words in Spain. I found myself walking down the street repeating words that I heard. I probably looked and sounded silly, but it really helped.
Another interesting point of review was point #8. "It is essential for learns to be able to pronounce all the individual sounds in the second language." The book talks about the 'melody' of the language rather than the ability to articulate each individual sound. It's not about being perfect, it's about being able to communicate and convey meaning in a properly and be understood.
I would also like to emphasize how important error making is! We are human beings and are going to learn from our mistakes. It is impossible to be perfect. We learn from our mistakes! Errors help teachers too. It allows us to see our students' strengths and weaknesses and gain more insight to what they are thinking and understanding.
How would our learning experience be different if we never made mistakes? However, what if we were never corrected? How would that affect us? Would we be forced to learn through imitation and observation?
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Chapter 6
Lightbrown and Spada hit 6 key points for effective teaching in the second and foreign language classrooms.
1. Get it right from the beginning -
"Supporters of communicative language teaching have argued that language is not learned by the gradual accumulation of one item after another. They suggest that errors are a natural part of the language learning process." (Lightbrown and Spada, 140). Fluency before accuracy. From my previous experience, I have learned that I only learn from my past mistakes. If a teacher were to continually correct every single mistake I had made in the classroom, I would have become frustrated with the language and not wanted to put forth effort into learning it. It wasn't until I made public errors in Spain that I learned the correct way to say certain things. I was then able to convey my message and be grammatically correct at the same time.
2. Just listen... and read
I understand the challenges the book proposes, but I think that listening to a foreign language, hearing how the words are pronounced, and seeing them on the page are crucial. There is not enough emphasis on listening or speaking practice in foreign language classrooms. The main focus is usually on reading and writing skills. They all are equally important.
3. Let's talk
When given the opportunity to talk, students generally have problem coming to a mutual consensus because they are so wrapped up in trying to convey their meaning. Research also has proposed that learners talk more with other learners rather than natives, which I think, from my personal experience, is a confidence factor. Finally, a researcher by the name of Storch found that "learns who participated in the collaborative and expert-novice pairs maintained more of their second language knowledge over time." (153). It's almost like a miniature challenge. When I was in Spain, I felt comfortable talking to the other foreign exchange students, but I knew my Spanish was never going to improve if I didn't step outside of my bubble and talk to native speakers with more expansive vocabularies, more grammar knowledge, and that could have a cultural influence on me.
4. Two for One
This concept can be related to the two for one day. Learners acquire an L2 while studying a different subject in that L2. I think this would be a good exposure to an L2 in a different type of context than a foreign language class, but wouldn't the students struggle with formulating answers since they lack the knowledge of the L2?
5. Teach what is teachable
Simply stated, make the material understandable. Don't try to think you are helping your students out by throwing in grammatically copmlex sentences or big vocabulary words. Build up to those things. As a teacher, it is important to always be assessing where the learner is at, then teach what would appropriately come next.
6. Get it right in the end
This position argues that "learners will benefit in terms of both efficiency of their learning and the level of proficiency they will eventually reach." How can you teach what is teachable with the get it right in the end proposition? I can understand that using the target language with the learners as if they were L2 speakers is crucial, but not necessary all the time. Students need to build up to that level of understanding and proficiency.
Chapter 6 in Saville-Troike touches on acquiring knowledge for L2 use. I think the diagram at the beginning of the chapter did a nice job describing it. In order to have language knowledge, other proponents are necessary. Therefore language knowledge = content + culture knowledge + context + language use. All of these factors are crucial in understanding how to properly convey the L2. The chapter states that "vocabulary is the most important level of L2 knowledge for all learners to develop." While I agree that vocabulary is important, couldn't one argue that you need to be able to form sentences in some sort of grammatically correct structure in order to convey a message? You can't just spit out random words all the time and hope that the listener understands what you mean.
1. Get it right from the beginning -
"Supporters of communicative language teaching have argued that language is not learned by the gradual accumulation of one item after another. They suggest that errors are a natural part of the language learning process." (Lightbrown and Spada, 140). Fluency before accuracy. From my previous experience, I have learned that I only learn from my past mistakes. If a teacher were to continually correct every single mistake I had made in the classroom, I would have become frustrated with the language and not wanted to put forth effort into learning it. It wasn't until I made public errors in Spain that I learned the correct way to say certain things. I was then able to convey my message and be grammatically correct at the same time.
2. Just listen... and read
I understand the challenges the book proposes, but I think that listening to a foreign language, hearing how the words are pronounced, and seeing them on the page are crucial. There is not enough emphasis on listening or speaking practice in foreign language classrooms. The main focus is usually on reading and writing skills. They all are equally important.
3. Let's talk
When given the opportunity to talk, students generally have problem coming to a mutual consensus because they are so wrapped up in trying to convey their meaning. Research also has proposed that learners talk more with other learners rather than natives, which I think, from my personal experience, is a confidence factor. Finally, a researcher by the name of Storch found that "learns who participated in the collaborative and expert-novice pairs maintained more of their second language knowledge over time." (153). It's almost like a miniature challenge. When I was in Spain, I felt comfortable talking to the other foreign exchange students, but I knew my Spanish was never going to improve if I didn't step outside of my bubble and talk to native speakers with more expansive vocabularies, more grammar knowledge, and that could have a cultural influence on me.
4. Two for One
This concept can be related to the two for one day. Learners acquire an L2 while studying a different subject in that L2. I think this would be a good exposure to an L2 in a different type of context than a foreign language class, but wouldn't the students struggle with formulating answers since they lack the knowledge of the L2?
5. Teach what is teachable
Simply stated, make the material understandable. Don't try to think you are helping your students out by throwing in grammatically copmlex sentences or big vocabulary words. Build up to those things. As a teacher, it is important to always be assessing where the learner is at, then teach what would appropriately come next.
6. Get it right in the end
This position argues that "learners will benefit in terms of both efficiency of their learning and the level of proficiency they will eventually reach." How can you teach what is teachable with the get it right in the end proposition? I can understand that using the target language with the learners as if they were L2 speakers is crucial, but not necessary all the time. Students need to build up to that level of understanding and proficiency.
Chapter 6 in Saville-Troike touches on acquiring knowledge for L2 use. I think the diagram at the beginning of the chapter did a nice job describing it. In order to have language knowledge, other proponents are necessary. Therefore language knowledge = content + culture knowledge + context + language use. All of these factors are crucial in understanding how to properly convey the L2. The chapter states that "vocabulary is the most important level of L2 knowledge for all learners to develop." While I agree that vocabulary is important, couldn't one argue that you need to be able to form sentences in some sort of grammatically correct structure in order to convey a message? You can't just spit out random words all the time and hope that the listener understands what you mean.
Monday, April 4, 2011
April 5
Although the Firth and Wagner article was both difficult to read and understand, I can gather that it divides native speakers from non-native speakers, learner from user, and target language from interlanguage. They pose very interesting questions about other dichotomies that need to be further researched.
I found this one to be the most interesting.
4. Purity versus hybridity: Are languages separated
from each other, even at the most abstract level of
grammatical form? And how do they associate with
other symbol systems and modalities of communication?
(Khubchandani, 1997; Makoni, 2002).
I related this back to the question of which language do you think in? When you read in your L2 does it transfer back to your L1 as you read, or does it stay in the L2 the whole time? Same goes for writing.
It is to my understanding that Canadarajah was asking if we can raise our students' awareness of their communication strategies, attitudes and linguistic identities. Researchers are aware that English is one of the fastest growing languages and is a main source of communication in multilingual contexts. This article talks about English Lingua Franca, which is exactly what I just said. It is a process of accommodation, and defined as any language that is widely used as a means of communication among speakers of other languages.
LFE is based on interaction. On page 925 of Canadarajah (speaking about ELF) it says, "Speakers are able to monitor each other's language proficiency to determine the mutually appropriate grammar, phonology, lexical range, and pragmatic conventions that would insure intelligibility."
Everything that we have read about is coming together, especially the importance of dynamic and interactive learning. SLA speakers need interaction in order to communicate efficiently, accommodate, and learn about the culture they want to assimilate into.
I found this one to be the most interesting.
4. Purity versus hybridity: Are languages separated
from each other, even at the most abstract level of
grammatical form? And how do they associate with
other symbol systems and modalities of communication?
(Khubchandani, 1997; Makoni, 2002).
I related this back to the question of which language do you think in? When you read in your L2 does it transfer back to your L1 as you read, or does it stay in the L2 the whole time? Same goes for writing.
It is to my understanding that Canadarajah was asking if we can raise our students' awareness of their communication strategies, attitudes and linguistic identities. Researchers are aware that English is one of the fastest growing languages and is a main source of communication in multilingual contexts. This article talks about English Lingua Franca, which is exactly what I just said. It is a process of accommodation, and defined as any language that is widely used as a means of communication among speakers of other languages.
LFE is based on interaction. On page 925 of Canadarajah (speaking about ELF) it says, "Speakers are able to monitor each other's language proficiency to determine the mutually appropriate grammar, phonology, lexical range, and pragmatic conventions that would insure intelligibility."
Everything that we have read about is coming together, especially the importance of dynamic and interactive learning. SLA speakers need interaction in order to communicate efficiently, accommodate, and learn about the culture they want to assimilate into.
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