The real story about language learning - an Italian experience Matt Absalom | The University of Melbourne

what's going on?

A Damascan way pedagogical reckoning

  • What are all these strange mistakes?
  • "Why can't they get those basic forms correct? I've taught them a million times!" = articles, verb forms, adjectival endings, etc.

Me, myself, I

Teaching Italian for 30+ years

Languages enthusiast - linguist - focus on form

That's how I thought I'd learned Italian

But wait... first and enduring contact in early childhood; a sort of linguistic imprinting: input, input, input

OMG

  • Am I actually teaching anyone anything?
  • Is there any real change in students' language ability? In one ear and out the other? The good are always good, the bad are always bad?
  • How can I understand what's happening?

Me, myself, I again

Some important questions that I asked myself:

  1. What is language learning?
  2. Does what I'm doing contribute to this?
  3. How do I know?
  4. Where can I get some good outside perspectives on this?

Some lessons I've learned:

  1. Rules ain't rules - languages are complex and difficult to explain; we use languages without being able to explain them; each of us has a slightly different representation in our heads (and we can't access it directly); the idea of interlanguage (Selinker, 1972)
  2. Even simple rules aren't simple - trousers/trouser; spaghetti/spaghetto
  3. Telling isn't teaching
  4. Teaching something once doesn't lead to learning
  5. Learning often happens despite or in spite of what I do
  6. Sometimes what I think is just not right - e.g. my own learning of Italian, my decades-long blind faith in explicit teaching of language
  7. Learning additional languages follows identical paths as first languages

What can applied linguistics tell us?

Henshaw & Hawkins (2022) Common ground: Second language acquisition theory goes to the classroom - ...are we all on the same page with respect to what acquisition is? (p. 3); The frustration that comes with not seeing improvement in terms of accuracy is usually because we are guilty of rushing a very slow and complex process... And you can't hurry love or acquisition (p. 191)

Lightbown & Spada (2021) How languages are learned 5e - Classroom-based research on L2 learning and teaching has given us partial answers to many questions (p. 224)

http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles.php?cat=6 - debunking a lot of commonly held assumptions

What do we know or turning the world upside down

  • Comprehensible input is the raw material needed for language acquisition (theory independent)
  • No evidence that explicit teaching leads to implicit knowledge
  • Practising speaking/writing does not improve speaking/writing
  • Second language anxiety is real

VanPatten, Smith & Benati (2020) Key questions in second language acquisition Cambridge

What is comprehensible input?

From Henshaw & Hawkins (2022)

Where do I find comprehensible input?

  • use visual cues: pictures, drawings, charts, objects, etc.
  • use body language: act things out, make gestures, model instructions, etc.
  • use target-language equivalents: paraphrase, rephrase, define in simple terms, use a synonym, use related words but avoid long definitions (if too hard, give a quick translation
  • use examples and common associations: brands, places, famous people, etc.
  • use cognates: words that look or sound similar in both languages (you might need to write the target language form)
  • slow down and simplify: this doesn't mean sacrificing grammaticality or speaking unnaturally

Other resources

  • Resources made for L1 language learners
  • Authentic materials

Maximising input: innovating programs

1. Story-listening and comprehensibility

2. Reading – weekly reading log (Can Second Language Acquirers Reach High Levels of Proficiency Through Self-Selected Reading?)

3. Reflection – a key ingredient

http://beniko-mason.net/story-listening/

Something else the research tells us: time

Krashen is unequivocal about using what time we have to provide compelling input

See Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. (2020). Teaching and learning L2 in the classroom: It's about time. Language Teaching, 53(4), 422-432.

So, what about grammar?

  1. Two questions: Why do we teach grammar? And Is teaching grammar about language acquisition?
  2. My experience (supported by research): Students don't need explicit grammar to progress in learning and not forcing output creates an environment which promotes learning

To finish

I can share two mystical, amazing facts about language acquisition. First, language acquisition is effortless. It involves no energy, no work. All an acquirer has to do is understand messages. Second, language acquisition is involuntary. Given comprehensible input, and a lack of affective barriers, language acquisition will take place. The acquirer has no choice.

Stephen D. Krashen (2003) Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use: The Taipei Lectures Pearson

Grazie!

mabsalom@unimelb.edu.au

CREATED BY
Matt Absalom

Credits:

Created with an image by Smeilov - "woman doesn't understand the book"