I was doing a bit of reading this weekend and came across an interesting article from the National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning about the myths associated in the public mind with language learning. They are ideas I hear a lot, especially from adult learners who see themselves as struggling to learn a second language. The research mostly deals with our perceptions of children learners and is written I think to help administratiors and mainstream classroom teachers gain a better understanding of the challenges their ESL students face, but I think they are myths that affect adult learners as well. So here are the myths as presented in the article:
1. Children learn second languages quickly and easily. But, according to the research, "it has been consistently demonstrated that adolescents and adults perform better than young children under controlled conditions."
2. The younger the child, the more skilled in acquiring a second language. Again, in academic settings, the older children proved to be better language learners than the younger children. But in both of these first two myths, the one big exception is the acquisition of native like pronunciation and accent - in this case, younger is proven to be better.
3. The more time students spend in a second language context, the quicker they learn the language. Here the myth argues for complete immersion as the best way to go about learning a language. But research shows again, that competence in the first language can be a huge benefit and indeed a great tool for accessing and learning the second language. And while this article is focused on young children in US school settings, it seems valuable to consider the point that author and linguist Greg Thompson makes for slowly moving into more and more immersion, but not beginning with complete and total immersion.
4. Children have acquired a second language once they can speak it. Many a mainstream teacher has been fooled by the smooth talking ESL student only to find they cannot comprehend their history text book or write a simple report. Communicative competence is great, but to truly know the language, we must delve into and work on all areas of language including reading, writing, listening and sociolinguistic competence. Going through my ESL training, there was an axiom that students could become communicatively competent in 1-2 years, but that it took 4-6 years to become academically competent.
5. All children learn a second language the same way. This one seems a no brainer, and yet the majority of ESL program in the states treat all of their children the same way. Looking at the Turkish system with a national curriculum, there is almost no room for the idea that all children learn language differently. It is one of the great challenges of the "school" model of education. And it is often one of the great challenges for adult second language learners. But this challenge comes from both sides. WE have outside voices telling us the newest greatest methods, the one stop, catch all systems that if not used, will doom the learner to the language learning abyss, and we have our own internal voices that want a one stop, catch all system. We want to be able to just sign up for language school and wah-laa - we are experts in the language. Unfortunately it doesn't usually work that way. As learners we need to take charge of our language learning, figure out what is working best for us, make changes when necessary and push through other times of learning.
I guess this can be a bit more food for thought. I encourage all of you, especially if you have come to a place of saying that perhaps you just can't learn a second language to think about these myths and to think about what you need to get back on track to becoming a better speaker of the second language your learning. Best of luck to all of you.
1. Children learn second languages quickly and easily. But, according to the research, "it has been consistently demonstrated that adolescents and adults perform better than young children under controlled conditions."
2. The younger the child, the more skilled in acquiring a second language. Again, in academic settings, the older children proved to be better language learners than the younger children. But in both of these first two myths, the one big exception is the acquisition of native like pronunciation and accent - in this case, younger is proven to be better.
3. The more time students spend in a second language context, the quicker they learn the language. Here the myth argues for complete immersion as the best way to go about learning a language. But research shows again, that competence in the first language can be a huge benefit and indeed a great tool for accessing and learning the second language. And while this article is focused on young children in US school settings, it seems valuable to consider the point that author and linguist Greg Thompson makes for slowly moving into more and more immersion, but not beginning with complete and total immersion.
4. Children have acquired a second language once they can speak it. Many a mainstream teacher has been fooled by the smooth talking ESL student only to find they cannot comprehend their history text book or write a simple report. Communicative competence is great, but to truly know the language, we must delve into and work on all areas of language including reading, writing, listening and sociolinguistic competence. Going through my ESL training, there was an axiom that students could become communicatively competent in 1-2 years, but that it took 4-6 years to become academically competent.
5. All children learn a second language the same way. This one seems a no brainer, and yet the majority of ESL program in the states treat all of their children the same way. Looking at the Turkish system with a national curriculum, there is almost no room for the idea that all children learn language differently. It is one of the great challenges of the "school" model of education. And it is often one of the great challenges for adult second language learners. But this challenge comes from both sides. WE have outside voices telling us the newest greatest methods, the one stop, catch all systems that if not used, will doom the learner to the language learning abyss, and we have our own internal voices that want a one stop, catch all system. We want to be able to just sign up for language school and wah-laa - we are experts in the language. Unfortunately it doesn't usually work that way. As learners we need to take charge of our language learning, figure out what is working best for us, make changes when necessary and push through other times of learning.
I guess this can be a bit more food for thought. I encourage all of you, especially if you have come to a place of saying that perhaps you just can't learn a second language to think about these myths and to think about what you need to get back on track to becoming a better speaker of the second language your learning. Best of luck to all of you.
