JOIN USCan we stop being so formal?
Many researchers and scholars make a distinction between the learning of a language and its acquisition. We generally assume that a first language is acquired whereas a second language is learnt. This is true to a great extent. However, a second language can also be acquired similar to a child’s first language acquisition.
Acquiring a language means ‘picking it up’ by developing ability in a language by using it in natural, communicative situations. On the other hand, learning a language means ‘knowing about’ a language i.e having a conscious knowledge about the grammatical structure of a language.
Several studies have found that conscious learning has limited function in second language performance. Learnt knowledge is not found to be useful in producing utterances in a second language.
The question, then, is what is our approach to teaching a second language such as English? Are the teachers helping their students to learn English or acquire it? A cursory look at the existing curricula, textbooks and teaching methods and techniques reveals that we are helping our children to learn the language — to gain ‘formal knowledge’ of the language and not helping them to ‘pick up’ the language naturally. This is truer in the case of children studying in government schools. Probably that is one of the reasons why these children are not able to use English in natural, communicative situations.
How, then, can teachers facilitate the acquisition of the second language?
For acquisition to take place, exposure to input is necessary. ‘Input’ refers to the language the child hears, or reads, and attends to for its meaning. Children should get a lot of opportunities to listen to the language before they speak it. They should also develop the ability to read texts in the target language before they are engaged in writing. Or in other words, what is necessary for second language acquisition (SLA) is not output or learner production (i.e using language to speak and write) but exposure to input.
What does research say?
We must also remember that a good deal of SLA happens incidentally. Children’s primary focus of attention is on the message / meaning contained in the input and not on the form. Linguistic features are ‘picked up’ in the process. There are several research findings about second language acquisition which teachers, text-book writers, curriculum designers and policy makers need to understand. Some of them are:
* Learners come to know more than what they have been exposed to in the input.
* Learner’s output (speech) often follows predictable paths with predictable stages in the acquisition of a given structure.
* Second language learning is variable in its outcome.
*Second language learning is variable across linguistic subsystems.
* There are limits on the effects of frequency on SLA.
* There are limits on the effect of a learner’s first language on SLA.
* There are limits on the effects of instruction on SLA.
* There are limits on the effects of output on language acquisition.
It is clear from the above observations that there are developmental sequences in the acquisition of a language. For example, it is easier to acquire ‘ing-’ form first rather than the past tense forms.
Respect the difference
There are individual differences in the degree of acquisition of a second language. Learners vary in their speaking ability, comprehension, and a variety of other aspects of language knowledge and use.
Studies have also indicated that frequency of occurrence of a linguistic feature in the input may not correlate with whether it is acquired early or late. Hence, teaching-learning strategies such as repetition, drilling, memorisation, etc. play a limited role in second language acquisition.
We must also understand that the influence of the first language is selective and varies across individual learners. Moreover, instruction itself has limited effect on SLA. It is found that instruction sometimes has no effect on acquisition. At other times, instruction may be detrimental and can slow down acquisition processes by causing stagnation at a given stage.
However, one of the beneficial effects from instruction is that it may affect how fast learners progress through sequences and acquisition orders.
Based on these findings and the recent developments in the field of English language teaching in many different countries, we need to change the curriculum, the textbooks and our approaches to teaching English.
There are innumerable studies done in the field of Corpus Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Task-based teaching, Content-based instruction and Computer-assisted learning.
It may be worth exploring these areas before implementing new projects such as Nali-Kali or Activity-based Learning or even critical pedagogy for that matter.