- welche Lernstrategien sie einsetzen,
- ob sie allein oder mit anderen lernen,
- wie sie ihre Lernzeit einteilen, wie sie kontrollieren, ob sie erfolgreich gelernt haben.
Die Lernenden selber sind es also, die ihr Lernen initieren, es steuern und organisieren, es evaluieren. Dies setzt eine Menge an Selbstdisziplin und Willenskraft voraus.
Eine gewisse Einschränkung des autonomean Lernens besteht darin, dass wir im Deutschunterricht an bestimmte Lehrziele – sei es durch Lehrpläne, Lehrbücher oder andere Vorgaben – gebunden sind. Dennoch müssen wir immer wieder prüfen, ob gesetzte Rahmen wirklich so eng sind, wie wir manchmal glauben, und wie sie geöffnet werden können.
Wir können und wollen die Lernenden in unserem Unterricht auf das autonome Lernen vorbereiten und ihnen dazu notwendige Hilfen geben. Lernstrategien stellen die wichtigste Voraussetzung dafür dar. Die enge Verknüpfung von Lernerautonomie und Lernstrategien ist der Kerngedanke der Eurodidaktik. Sie stellt das Lenen lernen in den Mittelpunkt und gibt die Anregungen für das Training von Lernstrategien, um letzlich die Autonomie der Lernenden aufzubauen und auszubauen.
In der Didaktik werden zu diesem Thema unterschiedliche Begriffe verwendet: Study Skills, Lernverfahren, Sprachhandlungen, Arbeitstechniken, Lernstrategien, Lerntechniken, Kommunikationsstrategien, Interaktionsstrategien, Operationen etc.
Eine Lernstrategie ist ein Plan der Lernenden. Der Plan der Lernenden beinhaltet, welche Handlungen sie jeweils auszuführen wollen, um ein bestimmtes Ziel zu erreichen. Um sich eine geeignete Lernstrategie zurechtzulegen, müssen sich die Lernenden über ihr eigenes Lernziel im Klaren sein.
Das wesentliche Merkmal von Lernstrategien enthält die „wenn…dann“- Formulierung: Die Lernenden haben ein Ziel (Gespräche üben) und sie haben im Kopf einen Plan, wie sie dieses Ziel erreichen können, z.B. Gesprächspartner erfinden, Phantasiegespräche führen usw.
Bei den Lernstrategien unterscheidet man:
- direkte (kognitive) Strategien und
- indirekte Lernstategien.
Direkte (kognitive) Strategien befassen sich direkt mit dem Lernstoff. Eg geht darum, das neu Gelernte so zu strukturieren, zu verarbeiten und so im Gedächnis zu speichern, dass es gut behalten und abgerufen werden kann. Direkte Strategien gliedern sich in
- Gedächnisstrategien (Wortgruppen bilden, Bilder verwenden, Vokabelkarten verwenden usw.)
- Sprachverarbeitungsstrategien (markieren, sich Notizen machen, Kenntnisse der Muttersprache nutzen, Regeln anwenden, Wörterbuch verwenden, in Lexika nachschlagen usw.)
Indirekte Strategien befassen sich mit der Art und Weise des Lernens (wann? was? wo? wie?).
Hier unterscheidet man Strategien zur Regulierung des eigenen Lernens (das eigene Lernen einrichten und planen, eigene Lernziele bestimmen, den Lernprozess überwachen und auswerten etc.), affektive Lernstrategien (Gefühle registrieren, Stress reduzieren (Musik hören),sich belohnen etc.) und soziale Lernstrategien (Fragen stellen, um Erklärungen bitten, um Korrektur bitten, zusammenarbeiten, Verständnis für fremde Kulturen haben, „mit allen Mitteln wuchern“ etc.)
Lernstrategien als Pläne des Lernenden haben folgende Funktionen:
- Lernziel bestimmen
- Lernaktivität bestimmen
- Lernmaterialien bestimmen
- Lernaktivität überwachen
- Prüfen, ob das Ziel erreicht wurde.
Lernende müssen nicht nur Fremdsprachen lernen, sondern sie müssen vor allem auch lernen, wie sie am effektivsten und erfolgreichsten Fremdsprachen lernen und gebrauchen können. Lernstrategien sollten deshalb zum integralen Bestandteil des Deutsch-als Fremdsprache- Unterrichts gehören, um bei unseren Lernenden die Fähigkeit zu entwickeln, autonom weiter lernen zu können.
Literatur
1. P.Bimmel, U. Rampillon (2000): Lernautonomie und Lernstrategien, Langenscheidt
2. Seminarmaterialien des Goethe- Instituts
3. J. Wüst (2007): Lernautonomie als Hauptpostulate der heutigen Didaktik, Zürich
4. www.goethe.de/referenzrahmen
5. www.coe.int/portfolio
Нищимова Е.А.
Ставропольский государственный университет
THE BENEFITS OF SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
(The view of Australian scientists on the problem)
“Language learning can result in a better understanding of one’s first language in stimulate rigorous thinking and memory. Learning another language may also broaden…linguistic perspectives in communication…”
[The Australian Language and Literacy Policy, DEET 1991].
The learning of languages other than one’s own tends to be regarded uncritically by the public as a general good. However such a broad generalization needs to be examined carefully to perceive how this might vary across different times, different political contexts and different philosophies about education, immigration, international affairs and other major societal concerns. Language learning cannot be ascribed value or lack of value without reference to individual, educational and societal aspirations, and statements on its worth will inevitably reflect sociopolitical positions.
This report will examine varying views on the place of second language learning in the education system and in society, but will take a position for the purposes of the arguments, that the learning of second languages has many benefits. The opinions of foreign linguists will be used in this report to show their interest to the problem and to support it as well. It is also worth mentioning that there exists no literature which attempts to argue that the learning of languages lacks value. Rather, any such position comes being through public policies which neither nor promote language learning. The policy states that “Second language study has been advocated as intrinsically valuable…as educationally, culturally and intellectually enriching” [Lo Bianco 1987: 120]. And that is true for all languages, whether community languages, indigenous languages or languages of international use, whether or not they coincide with those traditionally taught in schools or another educational institutions.
I propose some main (to my mind) categories of benefits conferred by second language study, which will be discussed further in this report. These are: enrichment (cultural and intellectual); cognitive (personal benefits) I accept the evidence that languages are essential to understanding culture, and that early language training helps students to develop insights into other societies’cultures, belief systems and values, and through those, reflect on their own.
In spite of all benefits of second language learning which were pointed above I must admit some possible contributing factors to rather low status and lack of consistent funding of ESL (English as a Second Language) in Russia. One is generally poor record of large numbers of English-speaking Russians in learning a language with any success, which may lid to a public perception that languages are difficult to acquire, and ultimately not rally necessary. For example, the Prime Minister of the Australian Linguistics Society reveals the attitude which can be related to any country including Russia. He says: “ it appears to be widely believed in Australia that foreign languages are essentially unlearnable to normal people, and that Australians have a special innate anti-talent for learning them” [ALS/ ALAA 1981:15].
A second possible contributing factor is community attitudes to other languages in the public sphere, where they are sometimes seen as a “foreign” and threatening. But we must note changing community attitudes in times of globalization. If not long ago studying the foreign languages was an elite, high-status pursuit fairly well removed from ordinary people, in the last years new time made demands for the recognition of necessity in second language learning.
Thirdly, some would argue that since English is now recognised virtually unchallenged as the dominant global language it has become even less necessery for English speakers to learn any other. Crystal refers to “clear signs of linguistic complacency” among English- speakers and a “genuine, widespread lack of motivation” which might well be linked to the spread of English as a global language [Crystal 1997a:15]. Edwards states that while English and American monolinguals complain they have no aptitude for foreign languages, they display a self-satisfied belief that everyone else will have to learn English: [this complaint]…is usually accompanied by expressions of envy for those multilingual Europeans, and (sometimes) by a linguistic smugness reflecting a deeply-held conviction that, after all, those clever ‘others’ who do not already know English will have to accommodate in a world made increasingly safe for anglophones [Edwards 1994:60]. In view of above three factors which we suggest may contribute to the poor status of learning foreign languages, it is worth considering in more details the arguments which have been put forward for the importance of language learning.
The abovementioned five categories of benefits are wide-ranging and comprehensive, comprising individual enrichment, economic benefits, social equity benefits, trade and foreign affairs, communicative abilities and others. The emphasis here is thus on individual benefits, but some mention is made of the other categories. Individual benefits of language learning are usually framed as intellectual, cultural and economic. The economic arguments have little relevance here, but discussion of intellectual and cultural and communicative benefits follows.
Traditionally, the study of foreign language has been justified educationally by the supposed benefits which the rigorous, sustained learning of classical or modern European languages would have on the on the development of disciplined, logical thinking and of problem-solving abilities. It was also claimed that the process of contrasting languages would provide heightened linguistic awareness. It was commonly thought that only European or classical languages (i.e. languages of high status) could provide this intellectual discipline. According to this view, Asian languages are too differently structured and cannot provide intellectual value. This view may well still be held in some quarters, but it is no longer defensible in the face of current thinking about language learning. LoBianco acknowledged that the second language study has long been advocated as intrinsically valuable, but was at pains to point out that this is true for all languages. All languages are complex in linguistic, cultural and socioprogmatic ways and therefor present equivalent, if diverse, challenges to the learner [LoBianco 1978]. It is commonplace for many scientists to acknowledge in very general terms that language learning has cognitive benefits, suggesting that this is so well accepted that it needs little elaboration.
Language study is credited with assisting cognitive processes as it constitutes an “intellectual stimulus” and includes “new ways of thinking, learning and organising knowledge” [ALS/ALAA 1981:24]. Language learning can help learners to understand that there are alternative ways of conceiving and labeling the physical universe. Evidence from Canadian and other research in bilingual education suggests that bilingual children show greater cognitive flexibility and creativity in problem-solving. [Lambert and Tucker 1972, Bain and Yu 1978] In addition I can say that the second language learning can improve learning in other academic subjects providing an analytical and communicative skill that enhances learning in other fields. The more, second language learning gives deeper knowledge of the structure and processes of communication, it provide access to different bodies of knowledge which are not unavailable to the monolingual speaker and give access to a wider range of ideas in a greater variety of areas. Another important thread in the literature which looks at intellectual aspects of second language learning is the potential for extending learners knowledge of an understanding of languages in general and their first language in particular. It gives the ability to analyse the function and structure of language and can enhance understanding of how language works and act as a mirror to one’s own language and culture.
Most authors concede that language study has only the potential to cause all these developments, and Liddicoat [2002] states that language learning does not inevitablydo anything. He says that bilingualism (within which we can include learning a second language to a high level) can confer intellectual, psychological, social and cultural benefits “given the right conditions”. So, too, does Jessner emphasis that bilingualism can be cognitively advantageous “under certain circumstances” [Jessner 1999:201-202]. These authors do not elaborate in these instances, having other concerns, but from what we know about bilingualism and second language learning we can suppose what these conditions and circumstances might be. In the case of bilingualism, a supportive home and school environment, and continuing linguistic and conceptual development in L1 (native language) are crucial. In formal second language learning , the needs are for sound teaching, appropriate and relevant materials, continuity, and explicit teaching of linguistic and cultural features of language, or focus on form and function. In the absence of all or some of these features, language learning may deliver on few or none of its claimed virtues. I would provide a more detailed analysis of the benefits of language learning than any cited above, and it is worth considering in some detail the aspects of their analysis which bear on intellectual development. I make a distinction between the substance, the process and the outcomes of language learning. Regarding the substance a basic process of memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules, second language learning necessitates going through a process of stages of ‘metaphorization’ in order to understand culturally contexted language use, and that this process occurs in understanding even linguistically simple texts. The process of language learning involves the links between text and context, and provides a balance between inductive and deductive learning. The outcomes of language learning, apart from the most apparent ones of abilities to speak the language concerned and the vocational opportunities that offers, include “a set of transferable skills in terms of analysis and synthesis of information in contexts of communication.
One further aspect of the intellectual contribution of language learning is language awareness. Learners are assisted to develop language awareness tools such as ‘noticing’ and linguistic intuition, and to apply them both to their mother tongue and to the language they are learning. There is evidence, too, that bilinguals possess greater awareness than monolinguals, most notably in the work of Ben-Zeev [1977] who summarised her findings as follows: a) a bilingual indulges analysis, or practices a form of ‘incipient contrastive analysis’; b) bilinguals work hard to keep their two languages separate by maximising their perception of the structural difference between them and keeping a lookout for contrastivity; c) bilinguals are more sensitive to linguistic feedback than monolinguals and therefore more open to concentrate.
The next benefit of second language learning is cultural one. It is often claimed to have the benefit of broadening cultural horizons and this is clearly of relevance to teachers who are charged with teaching elements of culture themselves. What most concerns us here are ways of discussing culture which are most relevant to language and language learning. Language does not exist apart from culture, that is, the socially inherited assemblage of practices and benefits that determines the texture of our lives. Cross-cultural communication is an important feature of education, politics and business, as well as international contacts. Whether it is possible to have multiculturalism without multilingualism? How does culture relate to language learning and teaching? As it is known all teachers of foreign language are teachers of culture and students are learning cultural practices from the very first day of a language course, whether or not these explicitly pointed out by the teacher. A major point made by many scientists is that language learning gives us insights into the cultures of the peoples who use that language, and that any such insights develop without a knowledge of the language must inevitably be shallow. Language is the deepest manifestation of culture. It facilitates the expression of universals and those features that are specific to a particular culture, i.e. its “way of looking at the world”. ALS/ALAA [1981:13] gives a powerful justification for how the study of languages contributes to an enriched understanding of the world: The very discovery that different cultures express the same reality in different ways and sometimes emphasise different aspects of reality is a significant contribution to any young child’s educational development, for this is what liberates people from ethnocentrism…German ‘Gesundheit’, Italian ‘prego’, Indonesian ‘selamat makan’ highlight different forms of communicative behaviour which do not have parallels in English. Only by studying a particular language in depth can a person actually experience what it is like to try and think in another way, and to project oneself into a different mode of organizing reality. The more, through successful learning of a second language one can reflect on one's own language and culture.