Bae ESSENTIAL LINGUISTICS Written language, on the other hand, is considered a secondary system that in some ways represents oral language. Written languages were created by people and cannot be said to reflect an innate capacity. Not all humans develop literacy. So whether or not writen language can be acquired is debatable, In this chapter we address these questions about second language and written Janguaye acquisition. Insights from linguistics suggest that both second languages and written language may be acquired rather than learned. ‘This has important {plications for teaching since the role ofthe teacher is quite different depending on whether the teacher believes that students must learn language oF whether stu- dents can acquire language.” | ‘Two Views of Second or Foreign Language Acquisition | ‘There are two views of how people develop a second or foreign language, One view is that ist languages ae acquired, but additional languages must be earned. Traditional methods of second and foreign language teaching follow from the belief that second languages are learned. The second view is that a second language can be acquired in the same way that a fist language is acquired. Even though traditional language teaching practices prevail in many classrooms, current linguistic theories support methods based on an acquisition view. Figure 3. lists some ofthe differences between, classrooms in which the teacher takes the view that second languages are eamed and classrooms where the teacher believes that second languages may be acquired.Second and Written Language Acquisition Goals and methods: Learning view The goal of instruction is to produce students who speak and understand the lan- guage. This is best accomplished by teaching each part of the language—the pro- nunciation, grammar, and vocabulary—directly and systematically. Teachers break each language area into parts to make learning easier. For example, early lessons might all be in present tense to teach that part of language. Later lessons might introduce past and future tenses. Students must learn the new language before they can study content subjects in the new language. Goals and methods: Acquisition view The goal of instruction is to enable students to use language for a variety of aca- demic purposes, Students should be able to understand, speak, read, and write the anguage in different subject areas, For example, they should be able to read a math word problem and write a history report. To accomplish this goal, teachers provide students with a great deal of language input and use various techniques to make the new language comprehensible, These might include using gestures, pictures, and realia, or reading a book with a predictable pattern and clear pictures of key words, Students learn language as they engage in activities that involve them in the content. Classroom activitie : Learning view Students practice language by engaging in oral drills and writen exercises. They translate passages from the target language to their native language and vice versa, They might also learn dialogues and practice them in pairs or small groups. Each aril, exercise, or dialogue would reinforce grammar and vocabulary the students are learning. Classroom activities: Acquisition view Students often work in pairs or small groups. Their instruction is scaffolded in var- ious ways to make the language of the content comprehensible. For example, they may work in pairs using different resources to compare and contrast herbivores and carnivores. They learn academic content as they develop their second language. At first they rely heavily on context clues to make sense of instruction. Gradually, they build up their ability to participate in lessons in the different subject areas. They also learn the language of the classroom for social purposes, so when the teacher says, “Open your book” or "Take your seat” the students know how to respond.ESSENTIAL LINGUISTICS Attitude toward error: Learning view Since the emphasis is on developing correct language forms, teachers correct errors immediately. They often do this directly. This helps students to avoid developing bad habits of grammar or pronunciation. Much of the class focus is op producing correct language forms. Attitude toward error: Acquisition view All students make errors. However, if their intent is to expres thelr ideas, they will modify thelr language to make it more understandable to thei stenes oF readers. ‘Teachers help students say what they want to say and also give them'strategies so they can continue to communicate when they don’t have the linguistic resources yet. For example, teachers may provide sentence frames to help students express complex ideas. For beginning students, the teacher might write up on the board, "The color is. "eThe shape is___," "The texture is_” forthe students to-use asa scaffold in their speaking or writing. Orientations Toward Language Teaching { ‘The two views of language development that we have described, the earning view and the acquisition view, reflect two different orientations toward language teach- ing. An orientation isa set of assumptions about language andi leaning that guide teacher practice. In the following sections we review different orientations toward language teaching and the methods associated with each orientation, ‘We begin with two older orientations, gramamar-based and communicative, and then move to two orientations, empiricist and rationalist, that are the basis of more current methods. Grammar-based orientation { ‘The grammar-based orientation, an early approach, was founded on faculty psy- chology and traditional grammar. Faculty psychology held that different kinds of knowledge were located in different parts of the brain. For instance, math would be in one area and science in another. The belief was that it was important to exercise these different parts of the brain. According to Diller (1978) this orientation was ‘based on the following assumptions about learning a language: «Learning a language means learning the grammar and the vocabulary. «Learning a language expands one's intellect. | + Leaming.a foreign language enables one to translate great works of literatureSecond and Written Language Acquisition 87 * Learning the grammar of a foreign language helps one learn the grammar of one’s own language. (10) The method associated with this orientation is the grammar translation method. Students study the grammar and vocabulary of a language, such as Latin or Greek, with the goal of translating literature from the language to their home language, Communicative orientation A second early orientation was the communicative orientation. Here the goal was to communicate with speakers of a language rather than to translate great works of it erature. Tis orientation was based on the idea that since children can acquire a frst language naturally, the classroom should focus on providing intense interaction in the second language, This orientation was based on the following assumptions: * The native language should not be used in the classroom. * Students should make direct associations between the target language and the meaning, + Language is primarily speech, but reading and writing should be taught from the beginning. * The purpose of language learning is communication, * Learning a language involves learning about the culture, (Diller 1978, 14) ‘The communicative orientation gave tise to the direct method of teaching. In a direct method class, no translation is allowed. The goal is for students to make associa- tions between language and meaning, usually while studying about the culture and history of the target language. Berlitz classes are based on the direct method. Cummins (2007) has pointed out that the “no translation” tenet of the direct method has been widely applied to dual language bilingual classes, He and other researchers, such as Garcia (2010) argue that language acquisition and bilingualism are promoted by the use of both the first language and the second language in class- rooms. Nevertheless, the direct method continues to be used in many second and foreign language classes, Empiricist orientation ‘Two current orientations to language teaching and learning are the empiricist orien- tation and the rationalist orientation. The empiricist orientation is based on behav- iorist psychology and structural linguistics. The assumptions that underlie the empiricist orientation include the following:ESSENTIAL LINGUISTICS + Language is speech, not writing. + Alanguage isa set of habits. + Teach the language, not about the language. + A language is what its native speakers say, not what someone thinks they ought to say. 4 «Languages are different. (Diller 1978, 19) H ‘The emphasis on oral language comes from the work of structural linguists, ‘who viewed written language as a secondary form of language. The idea that a lan- guage is what native speakers say is a reaction to an emphasis on grammar in earlier methods. This reaction against teaching grammar also accounts for the idea that teachers should teach the language rather than teach about the language. ‘The assumption that languages are different comes from the work of structural linguists, who developed descriptions of different languages. They believed that one effective way to learn a new language was by contrasting languages. Contrastive analysis (Lado 1957) isa process of systematically showing differences between the phonology, morphology, and syntax of two languages. ‘The Audio-lingual Method (ALM) was based on the empiricist orientation, Ia this method, students practice dialogues from which drills are developed to help them form habits, Students, for example, do substitution drills with a sentence like "like ice cream.” The teacher says, “Oranges.” Students in chorus then say, “7 like oranges.” The idea behind this is that students learn the syntactic structure, "Hike. .." and can then apply it to other situations. These substitution drills use everyday vocabulary that students were learning, but the vocabulary is not con- nected to specific academic content. In contrast, sentence frames described previ- ously ate used to scaffold language for students as they learn academic content. Other drill are designed to have students practice areas where languages contrast. Tor example, English can start words with consonant clusters beginning with s, such as school or special, but Spanish does not start words with s followed by a consonant, so in an ALM cass, Spanish speakers would practice saying English words that start with 5 followed by a consonant, The emphasis is on oral language development. ‘Another method based on the empiricist orientation is the Notional Functional approach (Wilkins 1976), which is based on teaching notions such as time and space and functions of language, such as apologies or introductions. Lessons are introduced with dialogues designed to help students develop these notions and functions rather than to practice grammar. So a Jesson might be on time expres- sions o on making apologies rather than on present tense or forming the plural of nouns, |Second and Written Language Acquisition Suggestopedia was developed by the Bulgarian psychiatrist Lozanov (1982) and 's also based on an empiricist orientation, Lozanov emphasized the importance of Creating a relaxed setting and used techniques, often including riaythmic music, to help students relax and believe that they could leamn a new language effortless. ‘While several of the techniques, especialy creating a positive and supportive class. oom environment, are important, this method has never been widely used. These methods, based on an empiricist orientation, reflect a learning view of Second language acquisition, Over time, methods based on an empi tion have been superseded by methods with a rationalist orientation, Rationalist orientation Most current methods of second and foreign language teaching are based on a ratio- nalist orientation. This orientation comes from Chomsky's work in generative gram- mat and the research in cognitive Psychology. The assumptions of the rationalist orientation include: * A living language is characterized by rule-governed creativity, * The rules of a grammar are psychologically real, * People are especially equipped to learn language * Aliving language isa anguage in which we can think. (Diller 1978, 21) The theory discussed earlier, Active Construction of a Grammar, is the basis for the idea that language is characterized by ule-govemned creativity. Chomsky attempted to develop rules that were psychologically real. These rules would be the best Aescription of the subconscious rules speakers develop and use to produce and com- rehend language. Chomsky's innatist view that people are born with Universal Grammar forms the bass forthe claim that people are especially equipped to learn Tanguage. The idea that a living language is one in which we can think is a reaction against a behaviorist claim that languages are habits developed through stimulus and response, In the development of ALM drills, for example, it didn’t matter so much that students could understand the sentences they were producing, The pur- pose, instead, was on forming correct habits with language patterns. Three methods with a rationalist orientation that have been used primar- ily with adults are the Silent Way, Community Language Learning, and Problem Posing. Gattegno (1972) developed the Silent Way. In this method, students are held responsible for their own learning, and the teacher is, for the most part, silent, The teacher models an expression only once, and then students must work to repro- duce the expression, One feature of this method is the use of Cuisenaire rods that260 ESSENTIAL LINGUISTICS represent words, morphemes, sounds, and so on- Color associations are also used in the Silent Way. Colored charts are used to teach sounds, words, and sentences. Gattegno's idea is that students can develop language by taking responsibility for their learning rather than by being taught rules. | “Another method used primarily with adults is Community Language Learning, developed by Curran (1976). In this method the teacher facilitates interaction among the students in the same way that a counselor would work with a coun- seling group. The teacher helps translate what the students want to say from the student’s native language into the language students are learning. Conversations among students are taped and then used asa text for earning. ‘A third method, developed by Freie, is Problem Posing (Wallerstein 1987). Freire developed this method to teach literacy to adults, and the method has been adapted for teaching a second language. In tis method the teacher listens to the students to find out their concems and problems. Then the teacher poses the problem by present- ing it in what Freire termed a coe. The code could bea song, a poem, or appicture. This code is designed to enable students to look objectively at the problem. As applied in a second language clas, a problem might be inadequate housing and the code could be the picture ofa run-down apartment complex. ‘students use the second language to discus the problem and find ways to solve it.The goal of the lessons, then, is to equip students with the language needed to discuss their problem. and find solutions. Other methods based on a rationalist orientation have been used in K-12 set- tings to teach emergent bilinguals. These include Total Physical Response, the ‘Natural Approach, the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA), and the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). These last two methods involve content-based language instruction, and they are ‘used in contexts where the goal is to team language and academic content. { ‘Total Physical Response (TPR) was developed by Asher (1977), whose research observing young children helped him form hypotheses that included the importance oflistening, the importance of a physical response in learning, and the importance of lack of stress in learning, He suggested that people learn better when they respond ‘with their bodies. In TPR, the teacher gives commands, such 28 “Raise your left hand,” and students respond by acting out the command, ‘TPR has been expanded, and lessons include a series of related commands as well as dialogues, role-play, and storytelling, In most cases, TPR has been. used with beginning level students as a technique as a part of another method rather than as @ complete method. ‘The Natural Approach, developed by Krashen and Terrell (1983), focuses on techniques to make the input comprehensible. For ‘example, teachers might use ges- tures, pictures, or real objects to convey meaning ina second language. StudentsSecond and Written Language Acquistion move through a series of stages from preproduction to intermediate fluency. At each stage, the teacher uses different techniques, For instance, at an early stage, the teacher might ask yes/no questions and at a later stage wh- questions, such as those beginning with when or where, This approach has been widely implemented and has been modified to include more of a focus on teaching academic content rather than teaching basic everyday language, ‘The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, developed by Chamot and O'Malley (1989), was designed specifically to teach academic content to older stu- dents who had developed social communicative skills in English or had developed academic content knowledge and literacy in their first language and some profi- ciency in English. Three components comprise CALLA: grade-appropriate content, academic language development, and instruction in learning strategies. CALLA emphasizes students’ cognitive academic language development. CALLA is still used and has been the basis for much current teaching in which the focus is on acquiring language in thie process of studying academic content. The Structured Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) is the most widely used method in K-12 schools in the US. for teaching emergent bilinguals both language and academic subject matter content. SIOP is based on extensive research. The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) lists the following eight components of effec- tive lessons for emergent bilinguals: * lesson preparation building background comprehensible input strategies interaction practice/application lesson delivery review and assessment (Reprinted with permission from the website of the Center for Applied Linguistics: www.cal.org/siop/about) ‘Teachers using SIOP integrate these components into their lesson plans, SIOP les- sons have been developed for different age groups and different subjects. As this brief review of orientations and methods indicates, most current sec- ond language teaching is based on a rationalist orientation and a view that stu- dents can acquire a second language. In the following sections, we summarize the theories of second language acquisition that underlie the acquisition view of lan- ‘guage development.