NEITHER CROSS- SECTIONAL NOR LONGITUDINAL
I love researches concerning teaching and learning English. What I am curious about is to find out to what extent these researches are right or not in real life. Is what a research says in theory compatible with what happens in real life? Last Friday, I had a good chance to compare what some researches say with what happens while learning English in real life.
I am expected to teach English a girl, aged 4.5, through playing games. I want to list my observations on her language learning process. Besides, I want to add real- life reflections of some researches that I know just in theory.
It is always said that games are influential in facilitating foreign language teaching for young learners since games are already a natural part of young learners’ life. So, they provide a subtle and silent transition from real life to language teaching. I know this fact; however, I have never had a chance to experience this fact in real life until last Friday. When she saw me first, she ran away for fear that I would teach her English. Her mother told her: “She is here to play game with you, nothing else!” The child ended up next to me! I was shocked because I did not expect that it would be so easy.
Total Physical Response (henceforth TPR) is one of the methods I love for young learners while teaching imperatives. This method makes the learner physically active and physical actions, carried out by right hemisphere of the brain, precede left brain language processing. I addressed to TPR many times last Friday, and she was very good at comprehending and taking action after my commands. “Help me, close your eyes, open your eyes, turn your back, give me the red/ yellow/ green… one, come here, find the ball…” are some examples I used the most. Each time I gave these commands, she had almost no failure. In real life, I saw how effective it is on young learners in teaching imperatives.
Critical Age Hypothesis, as it is known, is the name given to the idea that young children can learn second language effectively before puberty because their brains can use the mechanisms that assisted first language acquisition. I think that my sister, aged 11- 12, is good at learning English. Yet, what I saw last Friday is that the little girl is definitely better than my sister in learning English because she is much younger than my sister.
It is always said that younger children pay more attention to sound and prosody in language. This statement is compatible with what I experienced last Friday. She had almost no pronunciation mistake, even I was shocked when she pronounced “giraffe, octopus and another animal.” (I do not remember what it is; however, it is not a common animal.) To be honest, I was not sure how they are pronounced exactly.
A researcher studying negation acquisition divides its development into five stages. The first stage is “no stage” where they make overgeneralization and use only “no” for negation until they reach second stage in negation. I suppose that she is still in the first stage. “No okey, no good, no hot” are some utterences I caught. Yet, this is a developmental error, even for native speakers, and it is the sign of learning.
Lyster (2001) claims that because recasts are generally very ambiguous for especially young learners, children cannot perceive recasts as indicators of their errors when they hear correct utterances. Besides, he finds recasts to be the least effective type of feedback. I think, what I observed last Friday is parallel with this prediction. When the girl said “no okey”, I said “It is not okey” each time both to provide a complete sentence and make her aware of her error indirectly. Yet, I could never correct her usage and she went on saying “no okey!” It may be because there is still time to pass to second stage in negation acquisition. Yet, it can also be accepted to be a real- life reflection of the finding of Lyster.
In linguistics, code-switching is defined as the concurrent use of more than one language, in conversation. She switched a number of Turkish words while we were in any English context. “Ball ları inci gibi dizeceğim, white box ı alabilir miyim” are some sentences I caught. As I know, lack of lexical knowledge in the target language causes code- switching. So, this fact explains why she code- switched.
These are observations relating my theoretical knowledge to real life examples. What I did last Friday is neither cross- sectional nor longitudinal for the time being. Yet, I am planning to record her language process as much as possible and I may turn it into a mini longitudinal study later.
REFERENCE
Lyster, R. (2001). Negotiation of form, recasts, and explicit correction in relation to error types and learner repair in immersion classrooms. Language Learning, 51, 265-301.
Firstly, thank you very much for sharing your ideas with us. I have read many theories in university like the ones you have written here. I agree with you. The younger a learner, the easier s/he learns. We can observe the differences between an adult and a young learner especially on pronunciation. However, if we compare them in terms of grammar, adults are more succesful. They don't insist on their errors. By the way, I wanna share an experience of myself. When I started to learn German in highschool, I wanted to say " I am ill" in German, but I said:"I am Krank" instead of " ich bin Krank" :))
ReplyDeleteThanks Havva, you emphasized a good point . When it comes to grammar training, yes, you are right, adults usually learn faster because they use more cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Children have better memories and rely less on cognitive strategies. It may be because of this reason.
DeleteChildren may insist on their errors more than adults do. So, you, teachers should prevent their errors before fossilization through exposure to language as much as possible.
I suppose that many learners experience what you did while learning German. It is a very common error. I suggest you to read the post "How does your brain work?" It may interset you!
As you said, we, teachers, should prevent their errors before fossilization. But you know that most of the adult and young learners have prejudice about especially English. They don't wanna speak in a different language. Most of them had a failure to learn or understand a different language in their past experiences. So, we must firstly break up their prejudice.
DeleteI think that they are interested in speaking in a foreign language, and it makes them happy if they do not have prejudice. So, we should utilize their interest. Of course you are more experienced than me and I appreciate your idea.
DeleteYoung learner teachers have a cornerstone duty here: "Do not let them set up prejudice". Otherwise breaking up their prejudice may take long time and of course learning takes too long. What about your students?
Now I work at a female high school. And my students are about 16 and 17 years old. So, You can predict my situation:)) I mean, they are too old for your advice:"Do not let them set up prejudice".
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DeleteI see what you mean, they are old for this advice as you say. I think, they already have enough painful days :( Take it easy!
Deletehi! I agree with your findings because young learners can learn even the most complicated structures when they are given in appropriate ways. Games are on of them and I think the age is another important factor in learning another language. So, nice post...
ReplyDeleteHi! Thanks for your commnets Nimet! Games are parts of young learners's lives, so they do not create axiety for learners in the classroom. We should create another opportunities to decrease the gap between class and their life by playing with puzzles, watching cartoons etc. in the class. I think you know them all better than me :)))
Deleteyeah! :) it my speciality, you know... In the following years I hope we will share our experiances more... :D
DeleteI see, we will be good partners in the future as in university years. It makes me happy to cooperate with you ...
DeleteActualy, whether young learners are better at learning a language, or not is a very controversial issue. The first question is: " Is it the second language or foreign language young learner tries to learn?" Why I put this question in the first rank is that I strongly believe that the exposure is the most outstanding factor in this process.If it is the second language, it is easier. Yet, when the foreign language comes into question, -as you said- decreasing the gap between class and their social life is a must via puzzles, cartoons, etc. However, I think that it is a tiresome and "time-consuming" process because in my opinion it is not enough to play with the child one day or two days in a week. By the way, the child you mentioned is a very young learner which means that her concentration span is very low in spite of her high motivation. In order to remotivate her, TPR is a very instrumental method. Hence, I like your activities with her :) Also, TPR is my favorite because it provides many repetitions for the child. Thank you for these observations. :)
ReplyDeleteBecause I am talking about foreign language learning generally, I do not cite about second language learning. Thanks for your distintion. Yes, you are right exposure is an important factor in foreign language learning. That is why students in our counrty cannot learn the language. They are not exposed to it, and it is a foreign language environment. As you said if it is a second language environment, of course, the process is easier because of exposure factor.
ReplyDeleteAgain you are right, playing with a child one day or two day is not enough because of limited exposure. Yet, it is just a strategy to support his learning process. And what is more important in this process is providing a subtle language learning environment via games. My aim is "not to make the child aware of that I am teaching English." So, we generally play the games he wants, not games that I decided before. According to the game, I set an aim, let's say a spontaneous aim :)
How could you decide that her atttention span is low? because of "no- stage"? If so, you may are wrong because no- stage is a stage even a native child go through.