The fourth characteristic of CLT often makes it difficult for a non-native speaking teacher who is not very proficient in the second language to teach effectively. Dialogs, drills, rehearsed exercises, and discussions (in the first language) of grammatical rules are much simpler for some non-native speaking teachers to contend with. This drawback should not deter one, however, from pursuing communicative goals in the classroom. Technology (video, television, audio-tapes, the Internet, computer software) can come to the aid of such teachers. Moreover, in the last decade or so, we have seen a marked increase in English teachers' proficiency levels around the world. As educational and political institutions in various countries become more sensitive to the importance of teaching foreign languages for communicative purposes (not just for the purpose of fulfilling a "requirement" or of "passing a test"), we may be better able, worldwide, to accomplish the goals of communicative language teaching.
[Note: (I) Individual work; (G) group or pair work; (C) whole-class discussion.]
1. (G) With a partner, look at Figure 9.1, which describes language competence, and quickly come up with one example in a current or previous foreign language learning experience of each of the little items on the bottom line of the chart. Share these with the rest of the class».
2. (G) In groups, talk about your current or previous foreign language classes in terms of the extent to which CALP and/or BICS is the primary focus of your class. Identify which activities seem to promote CALP and which promote BICS.
3. (I) Review the discussion of strategic competence. Explain the relationship of strategic competence to language competence. What is the relationship between "compensatory'" strategies and "executive" strategies? Finally, how do the learning and communication strategies discussed in Chapter 5 fit into strategic competence as defined here?
4. (C) Hatch suggested (page 255) that in second language learning, one
should learn how to do conversation and interact verbally first, and out of this interaction will emerge grammatical structures. Does this mean that language classes for adults should somehow teach conversation rules and gambits before teaching basic grammatical or phonological structures? If not, how would you see Hatch's suggestion playing out in a foreign language course?
5. (G) To illustrate conversation rules and conventions in action, try this:
In groups of five to six, appoint two people to be observers only. The rest of the group then engages in a discussion of a controversial topic: abortion, women's rights, nonviolence, race, a current political issue, or whatever. The observers should note on a piece of paper specifically what linguistic (verbal) and nonverbal features members of the group used to accomplish the following: (a) attention getting, (b) interrupting, (c) turn-taking, (d) clarification, (e) topic changing. Observers might also take note of cooperation, face-saving, and politeness conventions that were used. Observers can then report their findings to the rest of the class.
6. (C)The class is invited to offer specific examples of verbal and non verbal features in Joos's five styles. What are some surface linguistic manifestations of differences in style? nonverbal manifestations? How do styles vary cross-culturally? How many styles are appropriate to teach in a foreign language class?
7. (C) Compare English with other languages that members of the class
are familiar with, in terms of gender issues. Are there differences in the way one addresses women and men? in the the way women and men talk? in gender-differentiated grammatical (or morphological) forms? Do other languages reflect sexism, as English does?
8. Arrange groups of four or five people in such a way that each group has members that are familiar with a variety of languages/cultures. (Alternative: arrange homogeneous groups which then share differences afterward.) Using the categories in this chapter, compare nonverbal expressions in English-speaking culture with those of another language/culture. How might such differences be taught in a foreign language class?
9. (C) Illustrate from your own foreign language classes how the principles of CLT (pages 266 and 267) have been applied—or misapplied.
Canale, Michael and Swain, Merrill. 1980."Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing." Applied Linguistics 1:1-47.
The seminal work on communicative competence by Canale and Swain is important reading for the serious student of SLA. It was, appropriately, the inaugural article in the first issue of Applied Linguistics.
Angelis,Paul and Henderson.Thelma (Eds.)-1989. Selected papers from the proceedings of the BAAL/AAAL joint seminar "Communicative Competence Revisited." Applied Linguistics 10 (June).
A decade later, Applied Linguistics devoted a whole issue to "revisiting" communicative competence research.
Bachman, Lyle. 1990. Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yule, George andTarone, Elaine."Eliciting the performance of strategic competence." In Scarcella, Andersen, and Krashen (1990).
These two sources, especially the second, offer a good deal of detail on the subject of strategic competence.
Turner, Ken. 1995. "The principal principles of pragmatic inference:
Cooperation." Language Teaching 28: 67-76.
Turner, Ken. 1996. "The principal principles of pragmatic inference:
Politeness." Language Teaching 29: 1-13.
The two pragmatic issues of cooperation and politeness are covered along with an overview of other issues in these two state-of-the-art articles in Language Teaching.
Holmes, Janet. 1991. "Language and gender." Language Teaching 24: 207-220.
The language and gender issue presents some important challenges to researchers and teachers alike. A summary of research through1991 is available in this article, yet another of the very accessible state-of-the-art summaries in Language Teaching.
Dresser, Norine. 1996. Multicultural Manners: New Rules of Etiquette for a Changing Society. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
For a popular treatment of the topic of nonverbal communication, Dresser's guide is informative easy reading.
[Note: See pages 18 and 19 of Chapter 1 for general guidelines for writing a journal on a previous or concurrent language learning experience.]
• In your foreign language, would you say you are "communicatively competent"? Defend your response using some of the categories discussed in
the first part of this chapter.
• Make two lists: activities your teacher uses (used) to promote (a) CALP
and (b) BICS. Do you agree with the proportion of one to the other, given the purposes of your class?
• Are you satisfied with your progress in acquiring some of the discourse
features, conversation rules, and pragmatic conventions of your foreign
language? Describe what you think you can "do," in your language, in these domains.
• Is your foreign language gender-loaded in any way? Describe.
• Describe the verbal and nonverbal manifestations of different styles
(from intimate to oratorical) in your foreign language.
• Does your teacher engage in CLT? Evaluate the methodology of your class on the basis of the four principles of CLT.
CHAPTER 10
THEORIES OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
The principal purpose of this book is to offer teachers and future teachers information for developing an integrated understanding of the principles of second language acquisition (SLA) that underlie the pedagogical process. That purpose has necessarily involved theoretical considerations. A theory, as I noted in the first chapter, is an extended definition. We have examined essential components of an extended definition of SLA. That is, we have attempted to answer the perplexing question "What is SLA?" And we have seen that SLA is, among other things, not unlike first language acquisition, is a subset of general human learning, involves cognitive variations, is closely related to one's personality type, is interwoven with second culture learning, and involves interference, the creation of new linguistic systems, and the learning of discourse and communicative functions of language. All of these categories and the many subcategories subsumed under them form the basis for structuring an integrated theory of SLA.
Is there such an integrated, unified theory of SLA, a standard set of constructs to which large numbers of researchers and teachers predominantly subscribe? The answer is, not exactly. As surely as competing models are typical of all disciplines that attempt to give explanatory power to complex phenomena, so this field has its fair share of claims and hypotheses, each vying for credibility and validity. We can be quite content with this state of affairs, for it reflects the intricacy of the acquisition process itself and the variability of individuals and contexts. On the other hand, we have discovered a great deal about SLA in many contexts, across proficiency levels, and within many specific purposes. We need not be apologetic, therefore, about the remaining unanswered questions, for many of the questions posed in the last, say, five decades, have been effectively answered.
In this chapter we will critically examine a number of current generalizations, hypotheses, and models of SLA. Remember that such "opinion" about SLA may represent one view of that metaphorical mountain of factors we talked about in Chapter 1. From such varied perspectives we should be able to place a large number of variables (which have been defined and discussed in this book) into a reasonably consistent tapestry of factors. That self-constructed system of variables is one's theory of SLA.
To say that second language learning is a complex process is obviously trite. The pages of this book alone bear testimony to that complexity. But complexity means that there are so many separate but interrelated factors within one intricate entity that it is exceedingly difficult to bring order and simplicity to that "chaos" (Larsen-Freeman 1997). We must nevertheless pursue the task of theory building (Long 1990a; Spolsky 1988). Consider, for a few moments, some of the domains and generalizations that describe the skeletal structure of a theory.
First, take a look at a taxonomy that was proposed several decades ago (Yorio 1976), represented in Figure 10.1. This list of factors begins to give you an idea of the many different domains of inquiry that must be included in a theory of SLA.
Certain factors subsumed in the chapter topics of this book are also a set of domains of consideration in a theory of SLA:
1. A theory of SLA includes an understanding, in general, of what language is, what learning is, and for classroom contexts, what teaching is.
2. Knowledge of children's learning of their first language provides
essential insights to an understanding of SLA.
3. However, a number of important differences between adult and child learning and between first and second language acquisition must be carefully accounted for.
4. Second language learning is a part of and adheres to general principles of human learning and intelligence.
5. There is tremendous variation across learners in cognitive style and within a learner in strategy choice.
6. Personality, the way people view themselves and reveal themselves in communication, will affect both the quantity and quality of second language learning.
7. Learning a second culture is often intricately intertwined with learning a second language.
8. The linguistic contrasts between the native and target language
form one source of difficulty in learning a second language. But the creative process of forming an interlanguage system involves the learner in utilizing many facilitative sources and resources. Inevitable aspects of this process are errors, from which learners and teachers can gain further insight.
9. Communicative competence, with all of its subcategories, is the ultimate goal of learners as they deal with function, discourse, register, and nonverbal aspects of human interaction and linguistic negotiation.
However general those nine statements are, they, along with taxonomies such as Yorio's, constitute a framework for a theory of SLA. That framework has had substance built into it in the course of each chapter of this book. The interrelationships within that framework have been dealt with. One cannot, for example, engage in contrastive analysis and draw implications from it without knowledge of the place of interference in human learning in general. In comparing and contrasting first and second language acquisition, it is impossible to ignore affective and cultural variables and differences between adult and child cognition. Determining the source of a second language learner's error inevitably involves consideration of cognitive strategies and styles, group dynamics, and even the validity of data-gathering procedures. No single component of this "theory" is sufficient alone: the interaction and interdependence of the other components are necessary.
A theory of SLA is really an interrelated set of hypotheses and/or claims about how people become proficient in a second language. In a summary of research findings on SLA, Lightbown (1985: 176-180) made the following claims:
1. Adults and adolescents can "acquire" a second language.
2. The learner creates a systematic interlanguage that is often characterized by the same systematic errors as [those of] the child learning the same language as the first language, as well as others that appear to be based on the learner's own native language.
3. There are predictable sequences in acquisition so that certain structures have to be acquired before others can be integrated.
4. Practice does not make perfect.
5. Knowing a language rule does not mean one will be able to use it in communicative interaction.
6. Isolated explicit error correction is usually ineffective in changing language behavior.
7. For most adult learners, acquisition stops—"fossilizes"—before the learner has achieved nativelike mastery of the target language.
8. One cannot achieve nativelike (or near-nativelike) command of a second language in one hour a day.
9. The learner's task is enormous because language is enormously complex.
10. A learner's ability to understand language in a meaningful context exceeds his or her ability to comprehend decontextualized language and to produce language of comparable complexity and accuracy.
A similar set of statements was made by Lightbown and Spada (1993) outlining some myths about SLA—'what one should not conclude to be necessarily a correct generalization. Certain claims about SLA demand caution; our response to them might be prefaced with a "Well, it depends" sort of caveat. Following are some of those "popular ideas" that may not be supported by research (Lightbown & Spada 1993:111-116):
1. Languages are learned mainly through imitation.
2. Parents usually correct young children when they make errors.
3. People with high IQs are good language learners.
4. The earlier a second language is introduced in school programs, the greater the likelihood of success in learning.
5. Most of the mistakes that second language learners make are due to interference from their first language.
6. Learners' errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation of bad habits.
We have seen in this book that the above statements—if they are not downright false—require considerable expansion, contextualization, and modification before we can claim their veracity.