Solutions for Lanuage Learners

John R.H. Thompson, Turkey

John Thompson is a teacher of English at Izmir University of Economics school of Foreign Languages in Izmir, Turkey. He is interested in the process of language acquisition and the psychology of language learning. He has been teaching in Turkey for the past 8 years and is also interested in Ottoman history and culture. E-mail: johnthompson21@hotmail.com

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Introduction
Learning styles
The time factor
The facilitator
Conclusions
References

Introduction

Language learning is a natural process which all human beings are predisposed and pre- programmed to acquiring. My aim is to look at ways to overcome the apparent obstacles, difficulties or barriers that we encounter by students learning a second language.

Psychologists appear to be in agreement that learning language is a natural process – unless people are born physically or mentally disabled, language is a natural process and even for disabled people they may develop their own means of communication. This is part of human biology but of course the particular language that you speak and accent are determined through experience. We may have to go to school to learn to read and write but not to listen and speak. Once we have learned our first language, the way we learned it influences how we may learn a second language particularly beyond the teenage years. The later and second time of learning particularly later in life seems much harder.

Children spend the first part of their life listening and absorbing sounds that will later equip them to begin speech at around two years of age and probably don't begin to have full conversational ability until about 6 or 7 years of age, which continues to develop into adulthood although parents of teenagers may notice that between the ages of 14 and 16 they stop talking - in prefernce to monosyllables and grunts! Children are open to all experience in their early years with little or no inhibitions, as we grow we acquire inhibitions, and learn through experience the basic emotions of fear, the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, and moral instincts and values which make us the people we become.

As teachers we are faced with the task of transmitting language learning knowledge. So far the world has yet to devise many alternative methods other than the one which we usually find ourselves in – that of the English teaching classroom. This in itself is an unnatural learning environment but so far has been the longest lasting and keeps teachers in employment! The classroom situation developed historically from religious teaching through to the foundation of schools of philosophy and universities where the teacher was the leader with knowledge who would share it with a select group of pupils. Teaching followed the pattern of attentive pupils listening to the master repeating ideas and sometimes question and answer sessions. This pattern has not changed much but while this may be functional for the acqusition of technical or philosophical knowledge language learning is different.

Learning styles

Language learning involves the whole person and their emotions. Language learning is an emotional experience and as our means of communication touches the core of our being. There are many ways and methods of identifying learning styles but there are two basic factors that are involved – extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic factors are the external forces that require us to learn another language – needs of education, career advancement. Intrinsic factors are the internal motivation that moves us to learn a second language, this is the fun and excitement element and intrinsic motivation is the one that can push language learning forward.

In the process of assessing and understanding our students needs there are four basic steps :

1. Observation : observe and gather data
2. Hypothesis or theory formation : Make hypotheses/theories to guess what you think is going on.
3. Theory testing : decide what to do based on your theory and try it out.
4. Evaluation : evaluate the success of your intervention.
   • If it works keep doing it.
   • If it doesn't work, revise your action plan or even your whole working theory.

Following these steps enables us to assess the needs of our students and promote an active learning environment and identify the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that exist.

I remember when I was attempting to learn Turkish without any structure or classroom – I spent hours learning Turkish pop songs – just for fun! And I can still remember most of them after 8 or 10 years now because my needs for language have changed it is more difficult for me to learn songs, because as my learning has developed I need to concentrate on needs which are more influenced by extrinsic needs.

So one of the first difficulties we need to solve as language teachers is identifying the main direction of our students motivation. I am sure that we are often faced with classes whose reason for being there is more extrinsic than intrinsic. At the start of our new term one colleague told me that he had a group of students who told him (in English) that they hated learning English. These students had already been exposed to English language teaching for eight years through their school years but had developed a resistance and resentment, which is a challenge to redirect especially when they are about to start a programme of 30 hours solid English language instruction!

Most students understand and appreciate that a teacher and a programme have to meet the needs of many students who are different from them. They are usually willing to accept partial solutions. The main thing is that they feel that their needs are validated and taken seriously. Students will respond well if they believe that serious efforts are being made to meet their needs and if those needs are correctly assessed.

Language teaching and learning also requires a tolerance of ambiguity or 'grey areas', language is not a science like mathematics – the same absolutes of values do not exist. Madeline Ehrman in her book , 'Understanding Second Language Learning Difficulties', (Sage Publications 1996) states that –

'Language learning for real communicative use, especially in situations that demand structural and lexical precision, is an extremely demanding whole-person engagement. It requires the learner to cope with information gaps, unexpected language and situations, new cultural norms and substantial uncertainty. It is highly interpersonal, which is in itself fraught with ambiguities and unpredictabilities. Language is composed of symbols that are abstract and often hard to pin down. Concepts and expressions in any two languages do not relate one-to-one. It should not be surprising that a key to doing well in language learning aimed at real communicative use is a tolerance of ambiguity.' That is not expecting that the learners second language learning should not necessarily co-relate with their second language experience.

The time factor

Following my own research and experience there is also a time factor. Students enthusiasm can diminish as the weeks of a teaching programme progress. There seems to be an 8 week wall when there has to be a change of motivation or direction. It is also interesting that medical patients or people engaging in forms of therapy also reach a crossroads at week 8 and decide whether to continue or abandon their treatment. So human beings seem to have an inbuilt clock and limits to their attention span.

As teachers we are faced with an impossible task in attempting to meet all the students needs. We are primarily language teachers and cannot engage in individual therapy with all our students. Even those of us who have a relatively light workload. For example, I have two classes of 20 students that I see for two hours each day, still cannot possibly meet the individual learning needs of each individual student. So let me take some of that pressure away from you! – the difficulty here is more in the teacher's expectation of themselves than the demands of the students. We can use different styles and techniques and allow the students to choose and adapt which is most suitable for them this allows students to take responsibility for their own learning and also develop – this elusive technique – learner autonomy. Madeline Ehrman states that ..... teaching and other interventions (in learning) should be student driven and not methodology driven.'

A word on methodology – by all means be aware of them all and choose the best from each NLP, Multiple Intelleigence, Transactional Analysis ( one of my personal favourites ), TPR etc etc but don't get fixed on the jargon and be open to continuous learning development. There is a danger that the method becomes the message in fact there is a 'law' which states that sometimes the less relevant the method the greater the audience response! Also remember that the objections or difficulties in learning which a student may present may not be the real source of the learner's difficulty, the source may not be related to the classroom and therefore outwith the remit of the teacher.

The facilitator

Successful learning takes place when there is a match or meeting of teaching and learning styles. Therefore the teacher's role as facilitator comes into play. I love this word facilitator – what does it mean but to make life easy! The teacher is the problem solver, the obstacle remover to create an effective learning environment and encourage learning acquisition. It has been said that there are no bad students only a mismatch of teaching and learning styles!

I am sure that if we reflect on our own learning experience we can remember the good times and the bad times – I went to a Turkish language course in the United Kingdom where the teacher was a Professor of Law who gave a course in Turkish language. I can't remember her name but I can remember her manner and appearance. I joined the class who had been together for two years ( they were using Hugo's Turkish in 3 months!) when I joined the class she asked all the students to ask me a question in Turkish to assess my level – this was a trial by fire – unfortunately I knew from my own acquisition some vocabulary and expressions that they didn't know which upset them and upset her – so for the first time in my life I became a 'problem student!'

Another technique she had was to ask a student at random and unexpectedly 'what time is it?' – none of us ever learned to tell the time – I still stick with full, half and quarter hours! So the classroom experience has a far reaching effect on our learning.

One vital point is finding out as much as we can about our students learning styles, preferences and abilities.

I would like to introduce you to a learning model by Madeline Ehrman which you can spend a long time on. Many psychological models start with four basic types and then sub-divide and crossover and if you have time you can gain some insight into the learning styles of students.
This model begins with two basic boundaries that of 'thick' and 'thin' ego boundaries. Basically people with thick ego boundaries use their judging and thinking skills and disciplined strategies in their learning. Students with thin ego boundaries are using their feeling, intuitive and perceptual personality and prefer to learn by interaction with others and devise their own methods of learning. Without dwelling on this model for too long the main point is that the result is the same namely language proficiency. Language proficiency in itself can mean different things to different students depending on whether they are seeking to meet a job requirement or pass a specific exam or take up residency or employment in a foreign country.

Conclusions

In conclusion we need to get to know our students as best we can at the points neceesary to encourage their learning and indepent thinking. In addition be flexible in our approaches and be prepared to try different methods the classroom is a place of experiment! Finally enjoy our teaching – we all come into this profession by various routes but have a similar motivation because we feel that we have somehting to give.

References

Ehrman, M. 1996. Understanding Second Language Learning Difficulties, Sage Publications

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