Putting Language Teaching Pieces Together

Putting Language Teaching Pieces Together

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Monday, April 27, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 155

The classroom seems to be a great place to start one’s language learning, but the fact is that it is never enough. Learning a second language is a complex process that involves an infinite number of variables that cannot be accounted for or even covered within the boundaries of a classroom. To succeed in his/her field, a language instructor needs to fully comprehend what learning entails: Understanding differences between the L1 and L2, the purpose behind a student’s desire to learn a second language, and comprehending what the teaching of a language encases.

Since SLA implies multiple variables that directly affect the student as well as the teacher, the language instructor needs to know and understand the most relevant differences between the student’s L1 and the target language. Within a monolingual context in which students in class speak the same language, the teacher should know what some of the predictable linguistic situations are bound to happen in class are. Based on what is meant to be covered –according to a course outline or curriculum-, they system in which the target language operates needs to be somehow explained to learners: its phonemic structure, the way discourse is built to convey meaning, the semantic differences that students can face if language interference comes along the way, etc. Knowing some of the variables behind language learning can make one’s teaching smoother and more profitable for one’s students.

If variables are important when teaching and learning a foreign language, visualizing student motivation to acquire the target language is also a must. If dealing with adult learners, one gets to understand that they may have extrinsic motivation related to work readiness and/or performance. Helping students materialize those motifs can be a way to satisfy their learning expectations while they are sitting on one’s class. On the other hand, learners can also walk into one’s classrooms with a high intrinsic motivation to learn the target language. Potentiating their inner desire to master the language can also lead to profitable language learning that students can later on experience in their day-to-day life. Discovering those motivational pieces is also part of being a language teacher.

Once the motivational puzzle has been put together, comprehending what language teaching encases is transcendental, too. The first important differentiation a language teacher must make is that language and communication are not the same thing. Regular dictionary definitions tend to confuse both terms since language incases communication, but also phonology, proxemics, phonetics, semantics, non-verbal communication, and so on. All of these elements cannot be put aside when a language class is planned; they must be included as part of the language learning continuum that takes place within the classroom every time one gets together with the students. Instructor’s necessity to profoundly comprehend what language and language teaching encompass is part of the multi-variable, complex process that acquiring a second language implies.

SLA studies, theories, and teaching paradigms contribute to the understanding of what teaching and learning a language is. One’s “understanding of the components of language will determine to a large extend ‘how one teaches’ a language” (Williams & Burden, 1997). By this time, one does not need to understand that one needs to become a “master linguist” (Williams & Burden, 1997); this simply makes one reflect upon the necessity of going beyond our pedagogical and/or andragogic training to explore what is involved in the learning of a foreign language, how linguistics fits into one’s teaching beliefs and practices to benefit language learning in class.

As outlined here, language instruction and learning also need to be backed up by some sort of methodology or theory of instruction. As pointed by Bruner (1966b 40-41, quoted by Williams & Burden, 1997), the “theory instruction” should include: 1) the necessary experiences to foster learning, 2) the ways in which knowledge is going to be conveyed for learners to grasp, and 3) the most “effective sequence” in which the subject-matter needs to be introduced. With all these elements in mind, one can become a great teaching practitioner with lots of fulfilled, satisfied, motivated learners.