An enduring insight
I think it’s the early career epiphanies that make the greatest impact. Here, I share mine. This post is my contribution to Dave Ferguson’s Work/Learn Carnival.
1989
I’m a fledgling ESL teacher who learned a few languages through immersion and a self-directed approach. But language teaching is dominated by grammar in Europe and behaviorism in the US (the audio-lingual approach). There’s an awful lot of lectures and grammar drills going on. It’s neither fun nor effective.
I read Stephen Krashen and a new world opens up. One idea above all starts to sink in: He notes that most teachers are too concerned with structures and the what of language teaching: What are the structures of the English language? He suggests that the real question is psychological and concerns the how: How can we help induce the process of language acquisition? Suddenly, the world of cognitive psychology becomes relevant to the classroom. We can stop obsessing grammar, and look to a million other sources for creative ideas.
For me, language teaching was liberated from its structural shackles in one act. I was then able to look at it in entirely new ways and from the perspective of different disciplines. In a sense it was a double-whammy epiphany: 1. Grammar isn’t the key to language teaching; 2. Get eclectic, and seek ideas from any discipline that fires up the creativity. It’s hard to capture how invigorating this was at the time, but this set my teaching practices and career on a new course.
2009
It was the insight that keeps on giving and it still affects my work. True, these days things are more complicated. There’s way more research and diversity in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). In fact, the only thing the theories seem to have in common these days is the fact that no-one really agrees on much. Muriel Saville-Troike describes (2005) how SLA theory struggles to integrate linguistics, psychology, and sociology, like so many blind men touching the elephant. Some touch SLA at the tail, others grab its trunk. Each views SLA through his own framework, methods, and procedures. Linguists see grammar, competence, lexis, etc, while the psychologists look to cognitive, affective, and other processes, and so on. Meanwhile, the web has forced me personally to look at social theory to understand the online relationships that are emerging.
All of these things can feed into how language teachers go about our work. If we’re looking for grand-unification, the cross-discipline approach frustrates, but if we’re looking for inspiration, it invigorates. My advice to any learning professional is to make sure you get ideas that, on the face of it, are from outside your own discipline. They could be the source of enduring insight.
Ken Carroll
March 16th, 2009 at 6:40 am
[…] Carroll considers early-career epiphanies leading to An Enduring Insight. Not “what are the structures of the English language,” for example, but how can we […]
March 17th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
As you well know, there are as many definitions of “learning a language” as there are learners. Some people want to read Cicero or Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair in the original. Some want to do business, or travel, or flirt, or read.
So the grammar/conjugation/vocabulary approach isn’t always the best starting place… especially when you’re learning your first foreign language, and the very concepts seem so different from what you’re used to.
There’s always a need for grammar, conjugation, vocabulary, and the rest–but I think learning happens faster when that need’s situated. If I can recognize specific setting where I’ll want to say (or read or write) something about the price of objects, then I’m all the better primed to pay attention to price-related concepts in action.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:38 am
This reminds me of the concept of the learners’ automomy in language learning (see http://ec.hku.hk/autonomy/ ). A lot of it appears to be about telling learners about all the possible ways of learning a language and encouraging them to experiment with and explore new possibilities of language learning. In the end, every learner has to find out what works best for him/her at a particular point in time.
The role of language learning professionals would then be 1) to connect learners with these resources and 2) to provide small modules that require as few prerequisites as possible. 1) is certainly tricky for a company but with respect to 2) Praxis Language is doing a pretty good job.
March 28th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Thanks for this post. Reminds me of a similar epiphany I had as a new ESL teacher in 1989 in Taiwan. More recently, I’ve become interested in the cross-discipline approach of teaching to multiple-intelligences:
http://tesl-ej.org/ej37/r5.html
The idea that each learner is different and the teacher should tap into a variety of resources to help the group as a whole. More about the multiple intelligences theory:
http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm
April 10th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Hi Ken,
I recently discovered chinesepod, as with many others for personal reasons, and tracked back to your blog. Your focus on mobile is right on! We have been working on mobile learning at the MIT Media Lab where I am a visiting fellow for some time on all types of phones, and the future is bright.
I also wanted to get you views on on CAEL.CA as a test for english language. I recently jointed Carleton university (carleton.ca) as international director and am engaged in a variety of discussions in China about its extended use. Appreciate any thoughts….congratualations on such a success with Praxis and your language schools!!
–Randy
(sorry about posting this in wrong place - but figured you can edit it out)
May 19th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Regarding the story of the elephant and the blind men, did you know that while this story is making claims that no-one has the real truth, the irony is that the person telling this story is simultaneous claiming that he/she does have the real truth.
In other words, no-one ever seems to notice from whose perspective the story is told from. One blind man grabs the elephant’s trunk and says the elphant is long and flexible—another blind man grab’s his foot and says ‘no the elephant is thick and round and tough’, and another grabs his ear and says its thin and leathery.
Yet this story is told from the perspective of a man who assumes that he is not blind. So in an effort to state that no-one has the truth, at the same time you are affirming that you yourself have the truth and can see clearly enough to know that others do not have the truth. Ironic is it not?
–Jared
June 30th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Dear Blogger,
you are nominated for the “Top 100 Language Blogs 2009″ competition. Congratulations! After last year’s success the bab.la language portal and Lexiophiles language blog are hosting this year’s worldwide language blog competition once again. We are confident to surpass more than the 350 blogs which entered the competition in 2008.
We have made two major changes to last year:
1. Due to the amount of blogs we have created categories.
(Language Learning/Language Teaching/Language Technology/
Language Professionals)
You are in category Language Technology
2. User voting will count 50% towards final score
Voting will start on July 8, leaving you enough time to prepare your readers for the upcoming voting. Voting will close on July 27 and the winners will be announced on July 30.
For more information on the 2009 competition and what it is all about visit [http://www.lexiophiles.com/english/top-100-language-blogs-2009-nomination-started]
So now you may ask yourself what you can do. Here are some suggestions
-Nominations are open until July 6, so feel free to share any blog you like with us
-Each blog will have a one-sentence-description for the voting. If you would like a special description to go along with your blog, just send me an email [marc@bab.la]
Kind regards,
Marc
On behalf of the bab.la and Lexiophiles team
[http://bab.la]
[www.lexiophiles.com]
Marc Lütten
bab.la GmbH | Baumwall 7 | 20459 Hamburg | Germany
Phone: +49(0)40-707080950 http://bab.la/
Handelsregister AG Hamburg | HRB 101207
Geschaftsführer: Dr. Andreas Schroeter, Dr. Thomas Schroeter, Patrick Uecker
July 14th, 2009 at 5:12 am
Dear Blogger,
We have received 473 nominations for the top 100 language blog 2009 competition. For each category, we have admitted 100 blogs into the voting phase. You are amongst the 100 blogs in the ‘Language Technology’ category, congratulations!
As stated before, 50% of the final score will be based on user voting. You can promote your blog with the following voting button on your page. Simply add the code to a blog post (similar to embedding a YouTube video) so that your readers can vote for you directly.
[Find the HTML code on our website]
The voting phase starts today and ends July 28. Winners will be announced July 30.
Good luck for the competition!
Kind regards,
Marc
on behalf of the bab.la and Lexiophiles team
[http://bab.la]
[www.lexiophiles.com]
Marc Lütten
bab.la GmbH | Baumwall 7 | 20459 Hamburg | Germany
Phone: +49(0)40-707080950 http://bab.la/
Handelsregister AG Hamburg | HRB 101207
Geschaftsführer: Dr. Andreas Schroeter, Dr. Thomas Schroeter, Patrick Uecker
June 9th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
I am from the USA and did not have an opportunity to learn another language until I was 14. By then I was extremely self-conscious about making mistakes in front of my peers and chose Latin since I didn’t have to speak it and embarrass myself in front of the class.
In my fifties I decided I wanted to learn French and made up my mind that I would speak it no matter how ignorant I appeared (and actually was). I would say that for learners older than 10 or 12 a sense of humor and the ability to laugh at oneself is critical to learning to speak another language. After a year of college French, 2 Elderhostel French programs in Quebec and France and Rosetta Stone software, I managed on my own in France for a month - rarely having to resort to English. The French were very patient with me, and I grinned and gestured a lot. I also learned a lot of French. The key to success for me was getting over my fear of making a fool of myself. So what if I sounded like a retarded preschooler with a deformed mouth; the French could almost understand me even if I couldn’t always understand them. “Lentimente, sil vous plait!” [”Slowly, please!”]usually worked.
So, for teen and adult learners, I’d say the psychological element is critical.