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Adults enter the ESOL classroom with a life-centered or
task-centered orientation to learning. They perform many
different roles in their daily lives: worker, spouse, parent,
friend, citizen and more. These roles often become sources
of their self-identity. Their role as adult student may
be new to them. They do not necessarily want to learn about
the English language; they want to use English
in performing their adult roles. For them, English is not
an end in itself; it is a tool with which to do something
else. That something else may be to go to the doctor or
shop for food and clothing; it may be to work in a factory
or a restaurant; it may be to talk with the school personnel
or read a note from the teacher; it may be to get the General
Education Development (GED) or go to college. Whatever the
purpose, the adult comes with background knowledge and schema
that a child is still building, and should be treated as
an adult who knows things that the teacher does not. The
teacher's job is to build bridges between what learners
know and what they will need in their new environment, and
to make the sounds, grammar and vocabulary of English understandable
and usable.
The acquisition of a second language is a complex balance
between the learner and the learning situation. There is
no single way in which all learners acquire another language.
Many factors pertaining to each learner come into play,
including age, previous education, first language and its
similarity to English, preferred learning style, motivation,
etc. Teachers may have a sixty-year-old grandfather and
a twenty-five-year-old mother in the same class. The grandfather
was a businessman and the mother is barely literate; the
grandfather's native language is Vietnamese and the mother's
is Spanish; the grandfather wants to learn grammar, and
the mother has no concept of language learning; the grandfather
has been pushed into the class, and the mother is desperate
to learn English to work and communicate with her children.
The teacher has little control over these factors. What
the teacher can do, however, is shape and reshape the language
learning environment so that all learners have the greatest
opportunity to acquire the English language skills they
need to function as adults. It should be noted that the
terms acquisition and learning are used here interchangeably.
Some researchers contrast these two terms, assuming that
they represent two different psychological processes. They
apply acquisition to picking up a language through
exposure, using subconscious processes, and learning
to the conscious study of language. Other researchers argue
that a sharp distinction between acquisition and learning
is theoretical, not real. This argument among linguists
will be on-going, but in the real world, basic principles
underlie what is done in the classroom. Some of these principles
are:
The goal of language learning is communication.
Learners should emerge from the language classroom better
able to understand and make themselves understood, as well
as having greater facility in reading and writing.
Communication is a process. Here, function
is more important than form. That is, what learners do
with language, is more important than what they know
about language. Errors are a necessary step in language
acquisition. What is being communicated should be the focus,
not accuracy in what is being said, nor correctness in the
form of language. This is not to say that form —
grammar, punctuation, and pronunciation, for example—is of no concern. Though teachers need to focus on function,
at the right time and in the process of furthering meaning,
form should become the focus. Too much form, too early,
will inhibit rather than encourage communication.
Comprehension precedes production. Learners
need time to listen to language and to absorb what is happening
in a variety of communicative situations. Adults need many
and varied opportunities in which to be exposed to spoken
English, including visual clues which tap into their background
schema.
Production of language will most likely emerge
in stages. Beginners will respond first non-verbally
(pointing, responding to commands), then with single words,
then with two- or three word combinations, later with phrases
and sentences, and finally by linking sentences together
to form discourse. Although students should be encouraged
to progress in their language learning, they should not
be forced to produce language beyond their ability. Click
here for Stages of Second Language Acquisition.
Language is most effectively learned in authentic
contexts. The real world in which learners are
expected to communicate should be a classroom focus, and
as much as possible should come from the learners themselves.
A corollary of this principle is that grammar should also
emerge from authentic contexts, and not be taught as an
isolated subject. Command forms are learned when students
give each other directions to their home, as they role play
calling for someone to come repair the broken refrigerator.
Low anxiety level is key to student participation.
For adults, language learning is an anxiety- laden pursuit.
The more the teacher and the textbook focus on doing
something with language the more likely students will
become engaged in the process. That something could
be finding new information, solving a problem, describing
a thing or situation, buying a product, or anything that
helps students forget that they are learning a
new language.
Linguistic skills should be as integrated as possible.
Adults interact with others and with their environment by
using all their senses. The term whole language has been
used to signify the integration of listening, speaking,
reading and writing. Although oral communication is the
goal, reading and writing should come into play where it
authentically fits the situation. The mother that now understands
the note sent to her by her child's teacher, will now call
to make an appointment to visit with the teacher.
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