"The Linguist On Language" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kaufmann Steve)

CHAPTER II: NATURAL LEARNING

In most classrooms, language teaching involves instructing students in a new language, then asking them to produce the language, and then correcting them. This is not how we learn a language naturally. I believe we learn better if we discover the language on our own, with a little help from our friends. I think we retain what we have learned better if we acquire the language natural y.

Before you can speak a language you must first understand it. I like to learn a language first, before I start speaking.

Some people say that they can read and understand a language but cannot speak it. I find far more people who say that they can speak a language, and, in fact, do manage to say things in the language, but obviously do not understand when spoken to at normal speed.

I believe anyone who understands wel , and who can enjoy reading a wide range of content, and who has acquired a large passive vocabulary, can easily learn to speak if and when the opportunity or necessity presents itself. The first job in language learning is to understand. If this is done thoroughly, then speaking wil come easily. It is pointless to put pressure on learners, or for learners to put pressure on themselves, to speak before they understand.

There must be mil ions if not hundreds of mil ions of people who study languages. Many of them are frustrated and do not achieve fluency. Often it is the false friends of language learning that let them down.

These false friends are:

 the classroom

 text books

 grammar explanations

 exercises and drills

 vocabulary lists and books

 conversation class

 thick dictionaries

Why are these false friends? Because they are not natural. They do not offer real communication in the language. Many people who are fluent in a second or third language did not learn primarily from these false friends. They learned by listening, reading and communicating in the language on subjects of interests. Maybe they learned from friends, from TV, or from movies or from necessity, but the key is that they were motivated to learn. They took over the learning process and did not rely on the false friends.

I am learning Russian and I want to be able to speak—fluently —one day. I have stated that I am in no hurry to start speaking with native speakers (although I am ready now). I am enjoying my listening and reading and vocabulary learning. I can do it whenever and wherever I want, stress free. I am discovering a new world. I have said that I do not want someone correcting my undoubtedly poor spoken Russian. This caused some controversy here on my blog. I know that I wil have to start speaking at some point. I know that it wil be difficult to try to remember everything that I have learned. I wil undoubtedly confuse Russian patterns with Japanese or Korean patterns, depending on where my brain decides to go in the confusion of trying to put together Russian phrases for me.

I believe that what happens in the language class is less important than what happens outside the language class. Therefore I think most of the research on language learning is irrelevant since it is based on learning in the classroom and not on how we learn natural y.

Along with the false friends of language learning, there are myths.

1. "You have to have a talent for languages in order to learn."

Is it likely that this talent for languages exists only with certain nations? Is it likely that the Dutch and Swedes are al born with this talent for languages whereas the English are not?

Is it likely that Singaporeans are al talented while the Chinese are not? I do not think so.

Instead it is a matter of attitude and exposure to the language.

2. "I have to go to the country to learn the language."

This is not so. I grew up in Montreal surrounded by French, but I was not interested in learning French until I reached the age of 17. When I became motivated, I learned. There are many immigrants in Canada who never learn to speak wel . Yet I have met people in places like China who were absolutely fluent in English. I learned to become fluent in Mandarin in Hong Kong, a city where the language was not spoken. Exposure alone wil not do it. If you are motivated and know how to create your own interesting language world to learn from, you can learn anywhere. This is the key to effective language learning. I know. I have done it many times.

3. "You have to have an ear for music to learn languages."

I lived in Japan for nine years. I often went to karaoke. Most Japanese men at karaoke bars are good singers, and have a good ear for music. Very few of them are good at languages.

They either are not motivated or do not have an effective system for learning.

4. ―My teacher is no good."

It is not the school or teacher that wil determine language learning success. It is the learner. The greatest role of the teacher is to stimulate the learner, to help the learner become a truly motivated independent learner. It is stil up to the learner to learn.

5. ―Only children can learn languages wel ."

Children are uninhibited. They are encouraged and not usual y corrected. They spend a lot of time using the new language with their peers. They not cling to their own language and culture and resist the new language as adults do. On the other hand adults know more, have a wider vocabulary and can learn faster. If they can imitate the attitude of the child and take advantage of their own greater knowledge and experience, they wil learn faster than any child.

1) The law of unpredictable returns.

If I invest time in learning a word or phrase or language use pattern, I cannot predict the return. For example, I easily remember certain uncommon Russian words but cannot relate to numbers. No matter how many times I hear dates in Russian, they are a blur for me. We cannot control the rate at which language information is acquired. There is also no predictability for the teacher's investment. If a teacher spends 20 minutes of class time on a term or grammar rule, he does not know who already knows it, who picks it up right away, and who wil simply not learn it.

2) The law of massive input.

A direct consequence of the first law is that language learning requires massive input to al ow different elements of the language to click in at their own pace. Input should involve repetition as wel as novelty. This wil stimulate the brain to groove certain connections on the one hand, and create new ones on the other hand. Input can consist of listening and reading, as wel as reviewing vocabulary. The greater the variety of ways that the same material is encountered, the greater the likelihood that some things will stick.

3) The law of pleasure and reward.

Learning wil take place best if the learner experiences pleasure and reward. Pleasure can come from activities where the chal enge is meaningful to the learner and appropriate to his or her skil s, creating a sense of achievement. Enjoyment can also come from hearing pleasant sounds or reading familiar or interesting content. Pleasure increases the production of dopamine in the brain, which in turn improves performance and memory. The study of the language becomes its own reward. Learners remain committed to sustained involvement with the language, for a long period of time.

I enjoy learning languages by starting with a long silent period which can be, as in the case of my Russian studies, over one year long.

When I listen to, or read, content of my choice, of interest to me, and at my level, in the language that I am learning, I am doing things that I can control. I do not depend on finding someone else who might have the patience to listen to me speak poorly in Russian. I listen. I read. I learn words and phrases. I imitate pronunciation. I observe the patterns of the language. I get used to the language. When I need to, I wil speak.

I googled ―silent period and pronunciation." I was curious to find out if there were many studies to show that an initial silent study period helped in developing better pronunciation.

Certainly I favour the silent period approach to language learning for various reasons. It does, however, depend on the situation of the learner. For someone living where the language is widely spoken, the silent period is not an option. On the other hand for someone like me learning Russian in Canada, it works just fine. I enjoy my learning and do not feel any pressure to speak nor any frustration at my inability to speak.

This evening I have to give a short talk in Japanese to about 30 members of the Japan -

Canada Chamber of Commerce. I am a Director of this Chamber, which consists mostly of recent Japanese immigrants to Canada who are involved in their own businesses here. Here is what I intend to say in Japanese.

Language learning is like fal ing in love. In fact you have to be in love to learn a language wel . I mean in love with the language. You have to have a love affair with the language. You do not have to marry the language. You can have an affair and then move on to another language after a period of time. But while you are learning the language you have to be in love with it. And you wil learn faster if you are faithful to the language while you are studying it.

Just as when you are in love, you want to and need to spend as much time as possible with the object of your love. You want to hear its voice and read its thoughts. You want to lear n more about it, the many words and phrases that it uses to express itself. You think of the language wherever you are. You start to observe the object of your love closely. You notice al the little things it does, you become familiar with its peculiar behaviour patterns. You breathe it.

You hear its voice. You feel it. You get to know it better and better, natural y.

Just as in a love affair, there are things about the object of your love that you do not like.

You ignore these. You only think about the things that you love. You do not question the object of your love. You just accept it. You do not ask why. You do not ask why it behaves a certain way. You do not seek to understand the secrets to its structure. You just want to be with it, and even to imitate it, the highest form of appreciation.

Loving a language is a one-sided love affair. You love the language. It does not love you back. But the good thing is that it is not jealous of you, of your other previous love affairs. It real y does not care if you carry on another love affair at the same time. But, as with people, doing so can create problems. The language does not criticize you. You can use it however you want, as long as you enjoy yourself.

You are not jealous of other people who love the language you love. In fact you like to meet people who love the language you love. It is a lot less bothersome to love a language than to love a person, because the love of the language is its own reward. You do not care what the language thinks of you. You are enjoying your affair with the language and do not expect anything in return. As long as you have that relationship, you wil learn and improve in the language.

If you just use a language without loving it, you wil not improve. If the goal is only to get a better job, or to pass a test, you wil not improve. People are the same way. You cannot have a love affair with someone just to get a better job.

This has been my approach. So when I learn a language I spend most of my initial time just listening and reading and building up my words and phrases. I just want to get to know the language, enjoy its personality and get used to it. I do not want anyone to question me, or explain my love to me. I do not want to speak in the language before I hav e real y gotten to know the language, because I know that I wil not do justice to my love. I only speak in the language when I want to, when I am ready.

1. Resonance in language acquisition. The great imponderable.

Stephen Krashen is one of the leading proponents of the importance of input in language acquisition. Much traditional language teaching does not fol ow Krashen's ideas and suffers from a fundamental flaw. Too often teachers try to coax learners to produce the language, and to produce the language correctly, wel before learners have acquired enough vocabulary or familiarity with the language to be successful. This is counterproductive, because it creates a feeling of inadequacy in the learners' minds, and can cause feelings of frustration and resentment towards the language being studied. It is important to have a positive resonance between the language and the learner. Resonance is a positive response in our brains, cognitively and emotionally, to the messages and impulses that the new language is sending our way. There are at least four important ways to achieve positive resonance with a new language.

2. The resonance of interesting content.

If I enjoy the subject matter I am studying, I learn better. I feel immersed in the content, and therefore in the language. I remember words and phrases, as wel as the scenes and characters of what I am reading or listening to. The language comes alive and resonates. I can often remember where I was and what I was doing, when I was reading or listening to particular episodes of high resonance content.

3. The resonance of combining listening and reading.

The resonance of any learning material is greatly enhanced if I can both listen and read. I usual y listen to content before reading it. I sometimes listen while reading and I often listen repeatedly after reading.

4. The resonance of the culture.

In language learning, ―l’appetit vient en mangeant,‖ the appetite comes with eating. The more I learn a language, the more I get caught up in the culture and way of thinking of the language. I find myself responding to the culture, feeling the culture and participating in the culture. This is high value resonance.

5. The resonance of talking to the right person.

Where resonance real y comes into play is when we start to speak, when we final y have a chance to put into practice what we have learned. I always perform best when speaking with a high-resonance person. By that I mean a person whose use of language, intonation and voice suits me, turns me on, resonates with me. I pick up on the energy of such people, which releases the language within me. I find a rhythm and fluency that I cannot achieve with other people. I come away from such encounters energized, and the effect stays with me long after the conversation is over. A discussion with high-resonance speaking partners unlocks the language potential that I worked so hard to build up through my input activities.

Here are a few low-resonance learning situations for me, or learning situations that I dislike.

 Podcasts, or learning material, which begin with a lengthy musical introduction, or are interrupted by pop music, songs and the like.

 Songs are low resonance for me, because they are not word intense.

 Learning material that is artificial, where the text and voices are not natural.

 Audio content with English in it. Pimsleur and Michel Thomas are examples. On the other hand I find bilingual dictionaries much higher resonance than dictionaries which give explanations only in the target language.

 Speaking to a non-native speaker is lower resonance than speaking with a native speaker, and the poorer the language skil s of the non-native speaker the lower the resonance. That is part of what makes language classes low resonance.