Methods of Second Language Learning/Acquisition

The Teacher and the Samurai

 

 

Recommended reading for future educators and samurai warriors.

Samurai master Miyamoto Musashi (in The Book of the Five Rings, 1644) once compared the samurai warrior to that of a carpenter: they use a variety of tools. Just as a carpenter uses different tools for different jobs, a teacher should have a variety of methods and techniques at his disposal.

A teacher must not spurn any technique just because these are “traditional” or “old-fashioned”. Nor should he or she be on the constant chase for the “new” or ‘innovative” just for the sake of being new or innovative. Writing about favoring a particular of weapon, Musashi says,

From olden times it has been said: “Great and small go together”. So do not unconditionally dislike extra-long swords. What I dislike is the inclination towards the long sword.

--Musashi is talking about martial arts schools that favor the use of “extra-long swords” (called the tachi) while spurning the use of the normal “long sword” (called the katana). Their reason is that a “one inch gives one handbreadth’s advantage”. But Musashi says of this attitude, “these are idle words of one who does not know strategy”.

The same thing about teachers. A teacher who is too dependent on a single technique is does not really know how to teach.

First, let us define “teaching strategy”, “teaching method”, and “teaching technique”. Here, I use the term teaching strategy to mean the way or plan that a teacher devises in order to teach a lesson. A teaching method is a set of techniques that center on certain principles. Lastly, teaching techniques are individual activities to teach a lesson.

Here, we will outline of three teaching methods and the historical background of each: the Grammar-Translation Method, the Audio-Lingual Method, and the Communicative Approaches.

(Photo from Mentalfloss.Com)

The Grammar-Translation Method was devised to study the “classical languages”: Greek and Latin. It emphasizes the learning of vocabulary and grammar in the second/foreign language. The goal is to be able to read and write in the target language. In use for many centuries, this has been called the “Classical Method”. We could say that is “the oldest trick in the book”. But it does not mean that we should reject it just because it is “traditional”. Some of the techniques are still in use today—such as vocabulary lists, grammar rules, and composition writing—testament to this method’s durability.

Since this method is focused on reading and writing, it does not equip a person for listening and speaking. Thus, a student may be able to explain the grammar rules of a language but unable to hold even a simple conversation. This leads us to the next teaching method.

 (Photo from ICCS.Edu.Ph)

The Audio-Lingual Method was devised for students to learn quickly how to speak in the target language.  It was developed in the United States during World War II, when it was important for diplomats and military officers going abroad to be able to learn how to speak foreign languages quickly. The method emphasizes repetition and drill, mimicry and memorization (“mim-mem”). Because of constant drilling, students learn how to answer automatically routine questions. But here lies its greatest weakness: a person gets too dependent on memorized scripts but once the conversation departs from the script, they can no longer cope. Hence, another method—which is actually a set of methods—was developed.

(Photo from Alphadex.Ro)

The Communicative Approaches refers to sets of techniques designed for students to be able to use the target language in communicative situations. It was created as a response to the artificiality of the Audio-Lingual and the Grammar Translation methods. The emphasis is on fluency, not accuracy—that is, a student may lapse into some errors in grammar but as long as he or she is understood, it is all right. This is the method currently in favor with educators today. The techniques under this method, like language games, role-playing, the use of comics, etc., promise to make language learning more exciting for the students.

(Watch out for techniques under each method in future posts here in Instructional Minutes.) 

The Origins of English for Specific Purposes

Read "The Origins of ESP" in our reference, pp. 101-102; also "Focus on method" from the chapter "Second language acquisition/learning" in The Study of Language by George Yule (2006)  (pp. 165-166) and the chapter "How we cope with many languages: teach them" (pp. 437-440) by David Crystal (2005). Note that this material was already covered in our course in Bilingualism. (For the print materials, copies are available from the instructor.)

Define each of the following teaching methods and give techniques under each teaching method.

Grammar-translation method

Audio-lingual method

Communicative approaches

Post your answers as comments below. Remember to cite your references. Post your assignment by August 30 (Friday).

First language acquisition: The acquisition schedule

(Image courtesy of Shutterstock)

 All normal children develop language at roughly the same schedule. This is what is called the acquisition schedule. While there are children that develop slower or faster than others, there is a discernible and predictable pattern of speech development. Also, there is no “skipping” from one stage to another stage (for example, a child cannot skip from the cooing stage to the one-word stage without going through the babbling stage).

Caregiver speech

“Caregiver” includes parents, older siblings, and other care providers, including nannies. It is also called motherese or child-directed speech.

The characteristics of caregiver speech include:

1) the frequent use of questions: Oh goody, now Daddy push choo-choo?

2) often use of exaggerated intonation;

3) extra loudness;

4) slower tempo with longer pauses.

5) simplified words: tummy, nana

6) repeated sounds and syllables: choo-choo, poo-poo, pee-pee, wawa

Even if babies are in a stage where they can only produce rudimentary sounds, caregivers who “talk” with them treat these sounds as “replies” in conversation.

Cooing stage

The earliest use of speech-like sounds is called cooing.

During the first few months, the child can produce vowel-like sounds, like [i] and [u].

By four months, the child can now move the tongue to the back of the palate to produce sounds like [k] and [g].

By five months, the child can now hear the difference between [i] and [a] and [ba] and [ga].

Babbling stage

Between six to eight months, the baby can already sit up and produce different combinations of vowels and consonants and combinations such as ba-ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga-ga.

In the later babbling stage, there is recognizable intonation and the ability to produce combinations such as ba-ba-da-da. Children can now say mama and dada.

By the time children can pull themselves up and stand, their vocalizations can now express emotions. They can also produce more complex combinations such as ma-da-ga-ba. Children at this stage also attempt to imitate the speech of their caregivers.

One-word stage

At twelve to eighteen months, children can produce one-word “sentences”. This is also called the holophrastic stage. Examples include milk, cookie, cup, and spoon. By saying “milk”, a child could mean Mama, please give me some milk.

Two-word stage

At around eighteen to twenty months, children can have a vocabulary of about fifty words.

By the time he or she is two years old, the child can now say baby chair (‘This is my chair’ or ‘Please put me in the chair’ or ‘I am in the chair’, depending on the circumstances), mommy eat and cat bad. Children at this stage can have a spoken vocabulary of 200 words and understand about five times more than that.

Telegraphic speech

By two to two-and-a-half years old, a child can now form multiple word sentences, which are strings of lexical morphemes (i.e., ‘meaning-carrying’ words like nouns and verbs) like this shoe all wet, cat drink milk, daddy go bye-bye. Some grammatical function morphemes like prepositions also appear (in, on).

By three years old, the vocabulary has grown to hundreds of words and their pronunciation approaches those of adults.

R E F E R E N C E

Yule, G. (2006). The study of language (3rd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. pp.  149-153.