The Linguist On Language

 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.

CHAPTER III: INPUT AND CONTENT

Leading researchers on language acquisition like Stephen Krashen and Beniko Mason, to name only two, have shown that we learn best from input, and that relatively little is to be gained by a major emphasis on deliberate instruction, correction, or forcing output.

While I do not agree with al of Krashen's views, I think he is an important pioneer in the way he has chal enged language teaching orthodoxy. Let's start with his hypotheses.

Stephen Krashen, a pioneer

Stephen Krashen is a proponent of input-based learning. Some of his principles of language learning are as fol ows.

1) Language acquisition (an unconscious process developed through using language meaningful y) is different from language learning (consciously learning or discovering rules about a language) and language acquisition is the only way competence (the tacit knowledge that underlies the language performance of a speaker of a language) in a second language occurs. (The acquisition/learning hypothesis)

 2) Conscious learning operates only as a monitor or editor that checks or repairs the output of what has been acquired. (The monitor hypothesis)

3) Grammatical structures are acquired in a predictable order and it does little good to try to learn them in another order.(The natural order hypothesis)

4) People acquire language best from messages that are just slightly beyond their current competence. (The input hypothesis)

5) The learner's emotional state can act as a filter that impedes or blocks input necessary to acquisition. (The affective filter hypothesis)

I am not sure about 3) above. Structures are so different in different languages that I wonder how the order can be predictable for al people regardless of their native language and regardless of their personality. What is clear to me is that we do not learn grammatical structures based on the teacher's agenda, nor on the agenda of any text book or teaching system. We gradual y get used to them, just as we gradual y get used to words, phrases and even sounds.

Context, context, context

A key to understanding anything in a second language is being familiar with the context.

There are many ways to become more familiar with context. Actual y living the experience is the best but is not always possible. That is why extensive reading and listening is the best alternative to actual y living the experience.

When I lived in Hong Kong and studied Mandarin, I built up a vast library of content on different subjects of interest that I would read and listen to often. Each time I listened I would focus on different words and phrases until they became natural to me.

Even when I lived in Japan, I still had my own language world of reading and listening because it was too difficult to get it all from real life until my Japanese was good enough.

Experiments have shown that if you give language learners a glossary or vocabulary list of new words for a text they have not seen, it will not help them understand the new text. They simply wil not remember these words, which they have tried to learn out of context. If they are already familiar with the subject of a text, they will understand better, but the vocabulary list will not help.

So the lesson is that attempts to memorize isolated vocabulary lists, TOEFL vocabulary lists, technical vocabulary lists, antonyms and synonyms, or memorizing the dictionary which Chinese learners sometimes try to do, are usual y ineffective ways to learn.

Bored with Korean

I was asked how I find the time to learn languages. Let's look at my recent efforts to learn Korean. I believe that you need to go at language learning in concentrated periods of relatively intense effort. These can be two or three months long. Each one of these periods wil bring you a breakthrough to a new level.

During my first spurt of Korean learning I would make sure that I always had audio content in my car CD player, or in my MP3 player. I would get in 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there.

I would try to get in a minimum of 60 minutes every day. In the evenings I would spend 30

minutes reading and reviewing the new words. I think you need to work 90 minutes a day almost every day for a period of 3 months to achieve a breakthrough.