二语习得#

The most important question,and that is,how do we acquire language? And I’d like to begin this discussion,this presentation, with an outrageous statementt.In my oppinon,we all acquire language the same way. The reason this is an outrageous thing to say is that these days in education, we’re living in an age of individual variation. We’re very concerned about how our students are different, *not how our students are the same.

个体差异与共性#

In the field for a while remember all, about 15,20 years ago, people were very concerned about something called field-dependent learners(场依存型学习者) and field-independent learners(场独立型学习者).You give people a certain test, and one group gets this treatment, one group gets the other.

Then about 15 years ago, it was left side of the brain, right side of the brain. Some people are left hemisphere thinkers, some people are right hemisphere.

Then about 10 years ago, cognitive style.The cognitive style of the home culture differs from the cognitive style of the school culture. We have a clash, ect.

Well, each of the examples I gave you is probably correct.There is individual variation, and there is quite a bit of it. Nevertheless ,there are some things we all do the same.Let me give you some examples.

• The digestion: We all digest food the same.No significant individual variation. First you put it in your mouth, then you chew it up,then it goes down your throat, then into your stomach. That’s how it’s done everywhere. That’s how it’s done in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa.That’s how it’s done everywhere in the world.
• Visual system: The visual system is the same everywhere. It’s always the occipital love in the back of the brain. It’s never in the side of the brain. It’s never in the front of the brain. It’s never in the elbow. It’s done exactly the same everywhere you go.

Anyway, we all acquire language the same. And rather than just talk about it, I’d like to show you. I’d like to take just a couple of minutes and give you some sample language lessons. I’ll use a language that I’m sure you’ve heard before, and maybe some of you speak. And you can tell me which of these two very brief lessons you like better.

理解性输入(Comprehensible Input)#

Here’s lessons number one.

Wir werden jetzt anfangen, und ich möchte im Voraus sagen,das nach meiner Meinug.Deutsch ist eine sehr schöne Sprache, und ich hoffe, dass Sie alle sehr viel Erfolg mit Deutsch haben werden.

TIP

这是一段德语~

What do you think? Good lesson so far? Do you think if I kept talking to you like that, you’d pick up German? Not very likely. How about if I repeated it? Would that help? Probably not. How about if I said it louder? Would that help? Probably not. How about if I said it and you repeated it back? Again, I don’t think that would help . How about if I wrote it out for you and you could see it on your television screen? That wouldn’t help either. How about if I wrote it out and you copied it down? How about if I wrote it out for you and deleted every fifth word and you tried to guess what the word is? The truth is that none of theses things help. None of these things mean anything. And I hope you can see that now.

[一段绘画的过程，在这个过程中图文并茂]

Not every word, but more or less, I did everything necessary to teach you German. And now I’m going to share with you the most important thing I have learned about language. Probably the best kept secret in the profession. We acquire language in one way and only one way. When we understand messages. We call this comprehensible input. We acquire language when we understand what people tell us.

Not how they say it, but what they say, or when we understand what we read. Comprehensible input, in my opinion, has been the last resort of the language teaching profession. We’ve tried everything else. We’ve tried grammer teaching, drills and exercises, computers, ect. But the only thing that seems to count is getting messages you understand Comprehensible input.

Now, one of the reasons lesson number two was better than lesson number one is we had Mr.Spock to help us out. So anything that helps make input comprehensible, pictures, knowledge of the world, realia, ect., helps language acquisition.

If comprehensible input is true, what we call the input hypothesis is true, other things follow from it. And very important corollary of the input hypothesis is this.It certainly came as a surprise to me.Talking is not practicing. What does it means? It means if you want to improve your Spanish, it will not help you to speak Spanish out loud in the car as you drive to work in the morning, it will not help you to go to the bathroom, close the door and speak Spanish to the mirror. Now I think they don’t.

On the other hand, if we were a German class and we could hang together for a couple of weeks, say, and now we’re a day of German, and I could keep the input light and lively as in the second example, you’d start to acquire German. It would come on its own. And eventually, you’d start to talk. Your speaking ability would emerge gradually.

TIP

这里举了一个很有名的例子，教授教搬过来的一些家庭孩子们英语，伊托米在前五个月并不会说英语，但是到了第六个月，她逐渐可以理解，并且一个词两个词再到后面进步飞快，这期间发生了什么？

She was listening. She was picking out comprehensible input. When she started to speak, it was not the beginnning of her language acquisition. It was the result of all the comprehensible input she had gotten over those five months. Now, a silent period for a child in a situation like this is not pathological. It’s normal. It’s what you expect. You’d like to have a silent period, wouldn’t you? How would it be if you had to study another language, but you went to the class where you didn’t have to say anything?

Doesn’t that sound wonderful? You can talk all you want. You can raise your hand. You can volunteer. But no one’s going to call on you. No one’s going to put you on the spot.

Also, in this perfect class,if the input isn’t comprehensible, it’s the teacher’s fault, not yours. That’s how we’re doing it now. And the results we’re getting aren’t a little better than other methods. They’re actually much, much better.

NOTE

教授认为开口很好

But what counts in speakinng is not what you say, but what the other person says to you. In other words, when you get involved in conversation, what counts is the input that you can stimulate from other people. It makes an indirect, a helpful, but indirect contribution to language acquisition.I’d like to discuss on more hypothesis before we move on to literacy.And this is a very important one, called the affective filter hypothesis. Research in language acquisition has concluded that there are several factors that relate to success in language acquisition, and I’m going to list them here on your screen.

情感过滤(Affective Filter)——习得的障碍#

Summarize#

Let me now try to summarize everything I’ve said in the last 10-15 minutes or so, and I’ll summarize it in one sentence, and we’ll wonder whyy it took me that long. We acquire language in one way, and only on way. When we get comprehensibl input in a low anxiety environment.