English Language Teaching (ELT)

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Current Issues:

Currently, there are many questions involving how it is we can produce language, so speedily, and seemingly effortlessly (especially compared to our students); and how we can receive it. The current hot topic is listening, and how we can decode sound signals. Thought, first, how do we acquire our mother tongues?

Language Acquisition Device (LAD): Is the 'device' that babies have to tune in and 'effortlessly' acquire language. I disagree with the term 'effortlessly', as used by many-a-researcher, and I have my suspicions as to the nature of the acquisition part, being analogous to a 'device'. However, we need a theory on how we can acquire a language (or languages) as children, and this is it. Coming under the LAD's umbrella is UG.

Universal Grammar (UG): Is an attempt to explain how we are able to pick up our first language, and then reliably produce it accurately (unless inebriated). It also explains the similarity that there is among all human languages (especially compared to dolphins). However, Skehan (1998) warns that there are some problems with it. There are better ideas, but these are yet to catch on.

Critical Period: Is the time when we are able to soak up any language that we experience in our daily lives... as children. This period is from 0 to about 15 years of age, after which the uptake of grammar becomes nearly impossible. The upper age is in contention, but to me it's not, as studies from people who've had a hemisphere of their brain removed (due to severe epilepsy) has shown that before 13 these children can make a near complete recovery, but those in teenage years suffer. Aitchison (2008) and Scovel (2004) have differing views, but I feel Aitchison is perhaps more in tune.

The development of language seems to flow in this order approximately:

Features of speech production: The concept is formed somewhere, perhaps the Wernicke's Area of the brain (left hemisphere) or in the the frontal lobes, and is organised into a proper sentence in the Wernicke's Area, though on the run. The message is passed down to the Broca's Area, where it does the mechanical aspect of this; working the lungs, larynx, tongue, lips, and jaw. This process is so fast that we can begin speaking a sentence before our brains have finished producing it; which explains occasional slips of tongues (See Spoonerisms: 'the breast in bed' instead of 'the best in bread').

Features of speech reception (listening): Sounds are received by the ear, and some initial identification of quality, tone, pitch and so forth is done here. The message is passed on into the brain, where individual words are segmented (lexical segmentation) from the stream of sounds. These words are compared, syllable by syllable to a 'lexical-dictionary' until the syllables match a known word. Words not instantly recognised are held in a 'phonological loop', until they are matched to something or forgotten. These words are reformed into sentences, contextual information is added, and knowledge of intonational meanings and the concept is formed within our minds. Much of this is done by the working memory (formerly known as 'the short term memory'). The amazing thing is, there's automaticity to it, and it's done almost instantly. Furthermore, how each language does this segmentation process, seems to be different, which might explain why listening to a foreign language (even if you've studied it for a long time), can be difficult.

Also see Training in ELT >

References

Aitchison, J. (2008). The Articulate Mammal, An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. (5^th Ed.). Oxon, UK: Routledge

Scovel, T. (2004). Psycholinguistics. Oxford University Press.

Skehan, P. (1998). A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.