Language Acquisition

11 Nov 2011

As I've written before, one of the best parts of teaching is when your students use something that you've taught them. However, one of the most amazing parts of teaching is when your students use phrases and grammar that you haven't explicitly taught them.

Elementary school children have minds like sponges. They pick up phrases and grammar so much more easily than we do as adults. I'm currently trying to learn valenciano, and it's hard enough for me to remember the rules that I'm explicitly taught. However, next thing you know, kids are using the phrase or grammatical structure in real conversation without (or with little) explicit instruction.

This difference largely stems from a second language acquisition hypothesis called "critical language period." According to this hypothesis, there is a period in which people are predisposed to learn language. During this period, people rely on innate structures for language acquisition. Depending on the theorist, linguists argue that this period ends some time between the ages of 10 and 14. Once that period ends, people use regular learning structures (like what you use to memorize facts) to acquire language--which is much more difficult than using innate biological structures.
 
As children, they receive input from their parents and the other people around them and make mental hypotheses about how the language works. Then, they try to actually use these structures in communication, and they receive feedback from others. As they get feedback, they go about tweaking their mental theory for how language works.

Take for example how a child learns the word "dog." First, someone probably points to a picture of a four-legged animal with fur that we know as "dog" and says the word "dog." A child has to decide exactly what that means. He or she may postulate that "dog" refers to all furry things and may try to refer to a cat as a "dog." When the child receive more evidence (maybe someone corrects him or her, or someone points to a dog that looks different than the original dog), the child will change his or her definition of "dog." Children do this little by little--acquiring both vocabulary and grammatical structures.

This may sound complicated, but the brain does it without our even being aware of it.

According to one theorist, Krashen, language is acquired* when there is comprehensible input + 1 (i + 1). That is to say, a learner needs input that they can understand plus a bit that is beyond their level.

This is what I'm supposed to provide for my students in the classroom. While I haven't heard anything earth-shattering, today I noticed some of my students using phrases that I haven't taught them but that I commonly use in speaking to them.

One student surprised me by saying, "See ya later!" Another used a phrase I say quite a lot, "Careful, careful, careful..."

I was playing "Go Fish" with a student today. I've been trying to use phrases like "My turn?" or "Your turn?" and other game vocabulary with appropriate gestures. I didn't want to explicitly teach the vocabulary because we are currently focusing on just the numbers and the phrase "Have you got any...?" While I was pondering what card to ask for, I was pleased to hear her tell me, "Your turn"--even though I had never told her what that meant 

It was heart-warming to hear evidence that they are picking up on more than the things I'm explicitly teaching them.



*It is argued that children acquire a language because there is no conscious effort made. Learning a language occurs when someone consciously pays attention to words and rules for grammar.

**For anyone interested in this topic, there is a really good book called How Languages are Learned by Pasty Lightbown and Nina Spada. It's really accessible and goes into some more detail about current theories about second language acquisition.