Language-focused Learning
7. The learners practise using techniques like 4/3/2 and the best record- record-ing which require learners to repeat the same talk several times
Research on this technique (Nation, 1989a) indicates that errors in repeated contexts decrease as a result of repetition. Presumably the repetition reduces the cognitive load and thus allows greater attention to areas of difficulty.
8. The learners do group work that requires accurate performance. This encourages peer correction.
Some researchers and writers on language teaching suggest that teachers should not correct their learners’ spoken language. They argue that this Language-focused Learning
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145affects their creative use of language in that it discourages them from trying new constructions and taking risks. Correction may also make them less receptive to language input because of the embarrassment and other feelings that it may cause. There is, however, a role for correction, particularly if it is directed towards errors that will benefit from attention and if it is done in a way that the learners find acceptable. Teachers need to think through their policy and procedures on correction and should dis-cuss these with their learners. At certain stages in their learning, learners may want correction and may feel that they are missing out if they do not get it.
Holmes and Brown (1976) describe the useful discourse feature that can be turned into a communications strategy (Nation, 1980). Learners can deliberately remember it at as Q-> SA + EI, which means a question (Q) should be followed by a short answer (SA) plus extra information (+EI).
This is a strategy that can be used to keep the conversation going.
How long have you been here? (Q)
Three months (SA), and I found it quite difficult at first (+EI) Alternatively, using Q->SA it is possible to kill a conversation.
Have you been here long? (Q) Yes. (SA)
Learners can be given training in providing extra information. The extra information can be a feeling, a factual piece of information, or a question. The Q-> SA + EI strategy is a particularly powerful one if used well because it can be used to continue or stop a conversation, to steer a conversation away from an unwanted topic to a wanted or familiar topic, and to take control of a conversation by turning the extra information into a long turn. The strategy is particularly useful in interviews where the person being interviewed can direct the interview by the kind of extra information they provide.
Other useful discourse features that could be given deliberate attention include appeals for help with language, how to take a long turn (see Chap-ter 7), how to bid for a turn in a conversation, how to be vague and imprecise (Brown, 1979), how to encourage others to continue speaking, and how to turn to different topics.
Stenstrom (1990: 144) has a useful and suggestive list of items which are used in spoken language from the London-Lund corpus.
Apologies: pardon, sorry, excuse me, I’m sorry, I beg your pardon
Smooth-overs: don’t worry, never mind Hedges: kind of, sort of, sort of thing 146
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Language-focused LearningExpletives: damn, gosh, hell, fuck off, good heavens, the hell, for goodness sake, good heavens above, bloody hell Greetings: hi, hello, good evening, good morning, Happy
New Year, how are you, how do you do Initiators: anyway, however, now
Negative: no
Orders: give over, go on, shut up Politeness markers: please
Question tags: is it, isn’t it
Responses: ah, fine, good, uhuh, OK, quite, really, right, sure, all right, fair enough, I’m sure, I see, that’s good, that’s it, that’s right, that’s true, very good
Softeners: I mean, mind you, you know, you see, as you know, do you see
Thanks: thanks, thank you
Well: well
Exemplifiers: say
Positive: mhm, yeah, yes, yup
Fitting Language-focused Learning into a Course
Typically too much time has been given to language-focused learning in courses and it has dominated rather than served the learning goals. There are several reasons for this, but the main one probably is that teachers and course designers consider that a language course should systematically cover the important grammatical features of the language. This is a reason-able and praiseworthy principle, as long as it is put into practice in a way that takes into account what we know about second language acquisition and what we learn from corpus linguistics.
1. The limitations placed on language-focused learning by develop-mental structures need to be considered, so that time is not wasted on items that the learners are not ready to learn.
2. Where teaching is directed to structures that the learners are ready to learn, the information must be accurate, simple, and accessible.
3. Teachers and course designers need to be aware that the effect of much language-focused grammar learning will be to add to explicit knowledge, often simply by raising consciousness about items. If this is to contribute to implicit knowledge, further substantial meaning-focused activity is needed.
4. Unfamiliar items tend to be introduced at a rate that is much faster than most learners can manage. This is partly a result of not mak-ing sure that items introduced in language-focused learnmak-ing also Language-focused Learning
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147appear in meaning-focused use and in fluency development activities.
5. Many language items that appear in beginners’ courses are not important enough to spend time on. They could be more usefully replaced with items that have a wider range and higher frequency of use (George, 1963; George, 1972; Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad and Finegan, 1999).
6. Putting grammatical constructions in contrast when teaching them can make learning more difficult by encouraging interference between the constructions. It is better to focus on one construction and leave contrast for later when the contrasted constructions are being established. For example, contrasting active and passive—
“three follows two, two is followed by three”—can result in great confusion.
As a rough rule, language-focused learning should not make up more than about 25 percent of the whole range of contact that learners have with the language. If there is a lot of opportunity for meaning-focused use outside the classroom, then much of the classroom time could be on language-focused learning. If learners’ only contact with the language is within the classroom, then less than a quarter of this time should be given to language-focused learning.
The range of language-focused activities could include the following.
1. The study of new items, including sounds, vocabulary, grammatical constructions, pragmatics, discourse. This could involve formal pre-sentation by the teacher, individualised exercises, or group activities.
For explicit knowledge, this would have both consciousness-raising and monitored production goals. Some of this study would also add directly to implicit knowledge.
2. Familiarisation and practice of previously met items. This may involve activities such as substitution table practice, and completion, transformation, identification or distinguishing activities. These would have the learning goals of adding to implicit knowledge or monitored production.
3. Formal feedback on performance. This could involve the regular use of feedback activities like dictation, and monitored exercises and talks.
Here are some examples of the language-focused learning in existing programmes.
148
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Language-focused LearningIn a beginners’ programme in a country where there was no substantial opportunity to use the language, the class involved regular teaching of vocabulary, set phrases (greetings, politeness formulas) and the explan-ation of useful patterns. These items were also practised in repetition, pattern practice, and dialogue activities. The course lacked opportunities for feedback and correction. This language-focused learning occupied about 25 percent of the class time.
In a pre-university course in a country where English was the main language outside the classroom, learners were encouraged to use small cards to learn academic vocabulary. There was a regular class time to be tested on these each week, mainly as an encouragement to learning. There was also systematic study of word parts as a means of vocabulary expan-sion. Learners would do two dictations each week and gave talks on which there was written feedback. These activities occupied about 10 percent of class time.
Language-focused Learning
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149CHAPTER