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- Should we try to speak more English at home?
- How does the mother tongue help the learning of English?
- What makes a good language learner?
- How important is reading?
- What are the stages of language learning?
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Should we try to speak more English at home?
ESL students learn English more quickly and effectively if they
maintain and develop their proficiency in the mother tongue or their
native language. Your child will learn English much more effectively
if he or she continues to develop her first language at the same time.
Research has shown that many skills acquired in the first language can
be transferred to the second language. So, for example, if your child
has developed good reading skills in Korean, she is likely to be able
to apply these skills when reading English. (One useful reading skill
is the ability to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from context.
For this reason it helps if you can encourage your child to speak and
read good fiction and non-fiction in his or her own language.
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How does the mother tongue help the learning of English?
Research has shown that many skills acquired in the first language can be
transferred to the second language. So, for example, if your child has
developed good reading skills in Korean, she is likely to be able to apply
these skills when reading English. (One useful reading skill is the ability to
guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from context. Another one is the ability
to decide which new words in a text are important to look up in the dictionary
and which words can safely be ignored.) For this reason it helps if you can
encourage your child to read good fiction and non-fiction in her own language.
Similarly, the skills of being able to plan out a piece of writing or develop
an argument in a persuasive essay can be applied in the second language once
they have been learned in the first.
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What makes a good language learner?
There has been a lot of research in recent years into what makes a good
language learner. Here is a brief summary of the latest theories:
* The good language learner thinks about how she is learning. She tries to
find out what works for her and what doesn't. If she doesn't understand the
purpose of a particular exercise, she asks the teacher.
* The good language learner is willing to experiment and take risks. For
example, she will try out different ways of learning vocabulary until she
finds the way that suits her best. She is also not afraid of making mistakes,
because she knows that these will help her.
* The good language learner is realistic. She knows that it will take time
and effort to become proficient in English, and that there will periods where
she does not seem to be making much progress.
* The good language learner is independent. She does not expect to learn
English just by sitting in the classroom, and does not rely on the teacher to
totally direct her learning.
* The good language learner is organised and active. She uses her time to
learn English sensibly, and is always looking for opportunities to develop her
language both inside and outside of the classroom.
* The good language learner has a balanced concern for communication and
accuracy. Some students are experts at communicating their thoughts but do not
care that they make many mistakes in doing so. The good language learner, on
the other hand, is concerned with both communicating and doing so as
accurately as possible.
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How important is reading?
There has been a lot of research in recent years into what makes a good
language learner. Here is a brief summary of the latest theories:
* The good language learner thinks about how she is learning. She tries to
find out what works for her and what doesn't. If she doesn't understand the
purpose of a particular exercise, she asks the teacher.
* The good language learner is willing to experiment and take risks. For
example, she will try out different ways of learning vocabulary until she
finds the way that suits her best. She is also not afraid of making mistakes,
because she knows that these will help her.
* The good language learner is realistic. She knows that it will take time
and effort to become proficient in English, and that there will periods where
she does not seem to be making much progress.
* The good language learner is independent. She does not expect to learn
English just by sitting in the classroom, and does not rely on the teacher to
totally direct her learning.
* The good language learner is organised and active. She uses her time to
learn English sensibly, and is always looking for opportunities to develop her
language both inside and outside of the classroom.
* The good language learner has a balanced concern for communication and
accuracy. Some students are experts at communicating their thoughts but do not
care that they make many mistakes in doing so. The good language learner, on
the other hand, is concerned with both communicating and doing so as
accurately as possible.
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What are the stages of language learning?
In this article I would like to discuss some of the typical stages that ESL
students go through when they start to learn English in school.
*
The first stage for many children starting to learn English in the
classroom is called the silent stage. In this time they are listening
carefully to the language they hear but are not yet ready to start speaking.
Depending on the personality and nationality of the child, this stage may last
1 day or 6 months or more. It is important not to be concerned if this stage
seems to be taking a long time. The child can learn a great deal without
saying a word. In fact, the power of listening is so strong (provided that the
language you hear is at the right level of difficulty for you) that one
influential researcher* into second language learning says that this is all
you need to learn a new language! I had evidence of the truth of this theory a
few years ago when I taught an Italian boy in grade 6. He refused to say a
word of English for more than half the school year, then he suddenly he lost
his inhibitions and started to talk. Before the end of the same year, he was
almost fluent in English and made few serious grammatical errors.
Implications for parents. Obviously, ESL parents want to do everything
they can to help their children learn English, but it is probably not a good
idea, early on, to put too much pressure on them to speak English at home,
unless they themselves are happy to do so. Far better is to support them in
their own language! (More on this)
*
The next stage of language learning comes as students try to acquire
control of the English grammar system. Some researchers* have found that there
seems to be a fixed order in which certain aspects of the system are learned,
and this cannot be influenced very much by direct teaching. I see evidence of
this every year with my beginners classes. Early on they learn that you cannot
say he go, she like etc., it has to be she goes, he likes. This rule is not
very difficult to remember, and if students are tested on it directly in a
grammar quiz, they usually get all the answers right. However as soon as they
are writing or speaking naturally, without thinking about grammar rules, they
forget to use the -s ending. They are just not ready to produce it automatically.
Another typical phase in second language learning is the backslide. By
this I mean that students have periods when they get wrong what they seem to
have already learned. And they do this in exactly the same way as a child
learning English as her first language. Taking English verbs as an example, it
very often happens that children seem to have learned some irregular past
tense forms. They hear their parents saying sentences like I went to the
shops, or I saw a big cow, and they use these correct forms themselves. A
little later, however, they start to say sentences like He goed to the shops
or I seed a big cow. What has happened is that they have started to
unconsciously work out the rules of English grammar. They realize that the
past tense in English is formed by adding -ed to the verb, but they
overgeneralize this rule out to include all verbs. It takes a little more time
before they further refine the rule to include both regular and irregular
endings. So this apparent backward step is in fact a sign of progress in
learning the language!
Implications for parents. It is helpful if parents are aware of these
two typical aspects of learning English as a second language. Many parents
strongly encourage their children to learn English at home and supervise their
efforts. It can be frustrating both for them and their children if they become
despondent at the child's apparent lack of progress or backsliding. Mistakes
are an inevitable and important aspect of learning a new language. A brief
discussion of these points with the child can take a lot of unnecessary
pressure off him or her.
*
Another aspect of learning English is the distinction between the kind
of language needed in everyday conversation, and the language needed to do
well in school work. Most students, particularly those with language
backgrounds similar to English, learn the skills of listening and speaking
very quickly on joining our school. It is not uncommon for some to be
completely fluent in English by the end of their second year. At this point
both they and their parents might feel that they have now learned English -
after all if they can understand everything they hear and say what they want
to say, what more can they have to learn? The answer is: they have a great
deal more to learn to catch up with the native speakers in their classes. In
the areas of vocabulary and understanding of academic language they are still
a long way behind. It is one thing to talk with your friends and make
arrangements for your weekend; it is quite another thing to read a text about
the French Revolution and write an analysis of it.
Implications for parents. It is essential that parents and their
children realize that speaking English fluently does not mean that the child
has finished learning English. This will explain why students who seem to be
very good in English in fact can struggle very badly in their school work. It
doesn't mean they are stupid or lazy; it means they simply have not had enough
time to learn the academic language they need to help them do well in their
school subjects. In fact, some researchers** say it takes up to 7/8 years for
a non-native speaker of English to reach the same level as the native speakers
in his or her class.
*
Finally, it is worth remembering that language learning does not follow
a straight line getting higher and higher. For all learners there will be
times when progress is slow and everything seems a struggle. At other times,
however, lots of progress seems to be made in a short period.
Implications for parents. Just being aware of the fact that progress is
rarely constant will help take the pressure off children. Encouraging them
through the difficult times will probably be more productive than showing
disappointment or anger.
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