In our previous mini article entitled "Acquisition of language versus language learning", we mention an important distinction in ...
In our previous mini article entitled "Acquisition of language versus language learning", we mention an important distinction in the way children acquire their mother tongue naturally, through meaningful interactions with their parents in which the focus of each exchange is communicative in nature.
Adults, on the other hand, when they try to learn a second language, are usually presented with a myriad of grammar rules and patterns to master from the first class. Proponents of these procedures say that their cognitive development cannot match that of a child and that statement is very true. However, the fact that there are important cognitive and developmental differences between children and adults does not imply in any way that language should be presented without any meaning as a rigid set of rules and patterns that are essential to master. Proponents of this school have the perception that each piece of the puzzle they teach (that is, a certain pattern, rule, time, etc.) will be inserted into the big picture one day and the puzzle will be perfectly complete for the student to see and use. In reality, students simply receive piece after piece after piece of something big that they can never say what it is or when they can see it, if they do.
Have you ever tried to make a really big puzzle without a general picture of what it would look like at the end? If so, you will have noticed that it can be a very frustrating and exhausting activity, without clear goals and objectives. Every effort you make seems meaningless and, in general, you feel drifting aimlessly or purposefully. Is it not part of the second language teaching profession to find thousands of adult students who can recite a grammar book of memory but who, however, cannot communicate basic ideas naturally and fluently, if they can communicate them?
This, of course, has no resemblance to the way a first language is acquired. Nor does it mean that children and adults acquire a first and a second language in exactly the same way. There are obvious differences between children and adults who learn a second language.
What was highlighted in our previous article is the need for language to be meaningful at all times, and this is common ground for both children and adults. Language without meaningful communication is as useless as Valentine's Day without lovers or Children's Day without children (I apologize for using the same analogy as in my previous article)
However, a quick look at the current language courses clearly shows that this is not the case at all. You will see from the first lesson that students have large lists of words to master and memorize, grammar, vocabulary, grammar and more vocabulary to make them feel that they can even "touch" the language, those quite "tangible" patterns that learn lesson after lesson That makes them feel so safe and secure. The truth is that, in the vast majority of cases, when they present themselves with a REAL situation in which they have to use language, most of the time they dry out and cannot utter two coherent sentences completely. Are they to blame for their "failure"? Of course, no. If what you are able to do exclusively is grammar, repetitions and exercises, you cannot expect it to produce something different, something communicative. The magic
"click" that is supposed to take place in the students & # 39; Brains after constant hammering and repetition apparently never take place, or if they do, at best, they are less than 2 percent of the students.
What does this show? It is clearly an indicator that should make us reflect on the importance of our teaching practices. The fact that we, as teachers, have learned things in a certain way, does NOT mean that it is so. The pragmatic results clearly show that a grammar-based approach to teaching a language is very inefficient since language by definition implies communication. Until we understand this simple fact, we will continue to see students dropping out of their language studies because "they are too difficult for them, they are not prepared to learn a second language" and statements like these. And they may be true … they DO NOT need to learn a second language. Then you need to acquire it in every sense of the word.
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