what teen learners can learn from children
DESCRIPTION
It is commonly believed that children are better at learning foreign languages than older learners. Do we lose our language learning ability with age or do we change our approach to language learning? In this talk I look at some successful strategies child learners use which teenage learners can draw on and their teachers can tap into.TRANSCRIPT
ETAI AnnualNational conference9 July 2014
WHAT TEEN LEARNERS CAN LEARN FROM
CHILDREN
Leo Selivan
Ability to acquire language is linked to age
Gradual decline in language learning
ability after puberty
“Biological clock” of the brain
CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS
A child’s mind
Image credit:@aClilToClimbeltpics on Flickr
Lateralization of brain function
Image credit:vaXzine via Flickr[CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE
Image credit:Tartanactivist via
Flickr
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE
Image credit:Tartanactivist via
Flickr
LearningAcquisition
KRASHEN’S MODEL
LearningAcquisition
KRASHEN’S MODEL
• Subconscious process
• Similar to L1 learning
• Conscious process
• Formal instruction
TeensChildren
Child learners
see language as a tool for communication
often do not make a conscious decision to study a foreign language
do not worry about making mistakes
Older learners
are aware of language as a phenomenon in its own right
world knowledge & metalinguistic knowledge
different goals, needs, motivation…
DIFFERENCES
“The differences between a child learner and an older learner need not be solely – and perhaps not even primarily – to do with what the brain can handle so much as the profound differences in how children and adults engage with the world.”
Wray 2007, p. 256
THE AGE FACTOR OR… AGE FACTORS ?
Example of a very successful learner
Sociable personality;effective social and learning strategies
Memorised and used recurring word sequenceslike dese, right here, in the high school
CASE STUDY: 5 YEAR-OLD NORA
Fillmore 1979
FORMULAIC LANGUAGE
Idioms fly off the handle
Fixed phrasesif all else fails
Collocations submit a proposal
FORMULAIC LANGUAGE
Idioms fly off the handle
Fixed phrasesif all else fails
Collocations submit a proposal
FORMULAIC LANGUAGE
Short expressions apart from, rather than…
Lexico-grammatical chunks it’s been a long time since…
den Zug verpassen
auf der einen Seite . . . auf der anderen Seite Übung macht den Meister vorsätzliches Missverhalten
From Peters(2012)
NOT ONLY IN ENGLISH
den Zug verpassen (to miss the train) auf der einen Seite . . . auf der anderen Seite (on the one hand . . . on the other hand)Übung macht den Meister(practice makes perfect)vorsätzliches Missverhalten(willful misconduct)
From Peters (2012)
NOT ONLY IN ENGLISH
Ubiquitous in language (55 - 80% of discourse is formulaic)
Help realise various functions
Serve as a basis for fluency
A vehicle of language acquisition (?)
FORMULAIC LANGUAGE
? זה מחר אבל מחר עובד שמח אתה חג !
I like to go to the cinema city
Je m’appele
EVIDENCE FROM MISAPPLIED CHUNKS
THE SOUTHAMPTON STUDY
Learners rely on memorised chunks to produce new utterances
Comment t’appelles-tu? What's your name? / What are you called?
Classroom learners of French
Myles, Mitchell & Hooper 1998
THE SOUTHAMPTON STUDY
Learners rely on memorised chunks to produce new utterances
Comment t’appelles-tu? What's your name? / What are you called?
*Comment t’appelles-tu, le garcon?*What are you called, the boy? *Comment t’appelles-tu, la fi lle? *What are you called, the girl?
Classroom learners of French
Myles, Mitchell & Hooper 1998
Learners’ early correctly produced grammatical structures are chunks
New utterances are beyond their current level of grammatical competence
Grammar eventually catches up with formulaic language
THE SOUTHAMPTON STUDY: CONCLUSIONS
Myles, Mitchell & Hooper 1998
Two approaches
Children don’t need to learn grammar because its principles are innate
Grammar is an abstraction of regularities from a large repertoire of formulas
GRAMMAR ACQUISITION IN L1
Ellis 2012
Two approaches
Children don’t need to learn grammar because its principles are innate
Grammar is an abstraction of regularities from a large repertoire of formulas
GRAMMAR ACQUISITION IN L1
Ellis 2012
Children don’t need to learn grammar because its principles are innate
Grammar is an abstraction of regularities from a large repertoire of formulas
GRAMMAR ACQUISITION IN L1
Ellis 2012
Same process in L2 ?
Wray 2012
THE CARDIFF CARTOON TASK
Wray 2012
THE CARDIFF CARTOON TASK
Lady first instead of Ladies first
THE ADULT ‘APPROACH’ TO L2
break it down
extract rules
reassemble it
Wray (2008)
Image credit:Benjamin D. Esham via Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0]
‘Lego’ approach
Elementary school
How are you?Good morningWhere do you live?Let’s go
Middle school
I went to schoolDid you go to school?I didn’t go to school
L2 TEACHING
LEARN LANGUAGE IN CHUNKS
Learning chunks of language
IMPLICATIONS & EXAMPLES
I don't know
CHUNKS FIRST
I don't knowI don't understandI don't believe itI don't care
CHUNKS FIRST
I don't knowI don't understandI don't believe itI don't care Instead of a more ‘traditional’ approachI believe it – I don't believe it. - Do I believe it?
CHUNKS FIRST
What are you doing?What are you reading?What are you saying?What are you waiting for?
CHUNKS FIRST
How long have you been…How long have you known…How long have you lived…How long have you had…How long have you worked…
PROBABLE LANGUAGE
How long have you been…How long have you known…How long have you lived…How long have you had…How long have you worked…
PROBABLE LANGUAGE
more than 50% of all occurrences of this pattern in the British National Corpus (BNC)
Elementary studentsHow are you?Good morningWhere do you live?Let’s go
EXTENDING EARLY ‘CHUNK PHASE’
Elementary studentsHow are you?Good morningWhere do you live?Let’s go
Intermediate studentsI’ve never heard of it.She lives on her own.What do you want me to do?
EXTENDING EARLY ‘CHUNK PHASE’
Back home in Vietnam I was a doctor. But when I wanted to work here, they told me I had to get a British degree. I didn’t have enough money to study and I needed to support my wife and children. To begin with, I worked in two different places – I did cleaning jobs during the day and at night I worked in a pizza take-away. I hated it, but after a few years I saved up enough money to do a nursing course and now I work in a big local hospital.
HIGHLIGHTING USEFUL CHUNKS
From Innovations Pre-Intermediate by H. Dellar & A. WalkleyCengage- Heinle
Back home in Vietnam I was a doctor. But when I wanted to work here, they told me I had to get a British degree. I didn’t have enough money to study and I needed to support my wife and children. To begin with, I worked in two different places – I did cleaning jobs during the day and at night I worked in a pizza take-away. I hated it, but after a few years I saved up enough money to do a nursing course and now I work in a big local hospital.
HIGHLIGHTING USEFUL CHUNKS
From Innovations Pre-Intermediate by H. Dellar & A. WalkleyCengage- Heinle
TAKING CARE OF “DIFFICULT” GRAMMAR
I’ve never seen Harry Potter
One of the most diffi cult problems I’ve had to deal with was…
The issue of … has become increasingly…
… has become a major topic in recent years
Speaking
Writing
USING QUIZLET FOR CHUNKS
USING QUIZLET FOR CHUNKS
http://quizlet.com/_jqc7r
www.phrasemix.org
Expose learners to formulaic language
Introduce learning strategies to record and practise chunks
Set up situations where learners can practise and recycle them
Provide MORE authentic input (MUSIC, MOVIES)
CONCLUSIONS
Exposure to formulaic language is not enough - Need explicit focus in class
Find out what chunks are relevant to learners
Don’t be too anxious to move into explanations. Memorization should precede analysis.
CONCLUSIONS (CONT.)
El l is , N. C. (2012). Formulaic language and second language acquisit ion: Zipf and the phrasal teddy bear. Annual Review of Appl ied Linguist ics, 32 , 17-44
Wong Fi l lmore, L. (1979). Individual diff erences in second language acquisit ion. In C. J . Fi l lmore, D. Kempler, & S-Y. W. Wang (eds.) , Individual diff erences in language abi l i ty and language behavior . New York: Academic Press, 203–228
Myles, F. , J . Hooper & R. Mitchel l (1998). Rote or rule? Exploring the role of
formulaic language in classroom foreign language learning. Language Learning 48(3), 323–363
Peters, E. (2012). Learning German formulaic sequences: The eff ect of two
attention drawing techniques. Language Learning Journal , 40, 65-79 Singleton, D. (1989). Language Acquisit ion: The Age Factor.
Clevedon: Mult i l ingual Matters Warga, M. (2005). “Je serais tres merciable”: Formulaic vs. creatively produced
speech ` in learners’ request-closing. Canadian Journal of Appl ied Linguist ics, 8 (1), 67–93
Wray, A. (2008). The puzzle of language learning: From chi ld’s play to
‘ l inguaphobia’. Language Teaching 41 (2), 253–271
REFERENCES
Bloghttp://leoxicon.blogspot.comGo to the Presentations tab to download a copy of this Power Point
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