We all know that the human brain can learn languages. We learn our first language. And if we live immersed in another language we can learn that language. There are arguments about whether learning a language as a child and learning a language as an adult are different. People even talk about a childhood age limit for acquiring fluency in a language. Even though most people who studied languages at university owe their fluency to a year abroad in their early 20s. There's the arguments around whether classroom learning gives enough time and real immersion for an acquisition model to work. And arguments around whether adults have an advantage in deliberately learning (rather than acquiring) a language. Unlike an infant*, adults and adolescents already have knowledge of the world, knowledge of a first language, perhaps knowledge of a second language, ability to read, self awareness as a learner...
*I love that this word literally means unable to talk
As there are no clear cut answers to any of these issues, the pragmatic view is that there are aspects of language learning which resemble acquisition and there are aspects which are more conscious learning.
On the acquisition side, we learn through comprehensible input, real communication, the music and rhythm and earworms of language. Meaning is paramount, error is natural, and patterns emerge as our grasp of the language expands.
On the learning side, we deliberately learn vocabulary and grammar and then practise using it in ways which increasingly approximate to real communication and expression.
Pragmatic teaching uses both approaches in a balance between input/communication and instruction/practice.
We are aware of the potential and the pitfalls of both. There are plenty of things that we explicitly teach, without it guaranteeing success. Let's say the perfect tense in French. We know you can explain it and practise it as much as you like. But it doesn't mean it will be learned*. Likewise you can expose pupils to it as much as you like. But how much exposure to j'ai mangé would it take for a pupil to acquire the rule that they could say j'ai joué or ils ont joué without thinking about it? So we are prepared for a process of plenty of both approaches, lasting as long as it takes, trying to incentivise learning (through testing) and acquisition (through invitation to self expression) until something starts to stick.
*I am teaching my dog to whistle. Really? What tunes can he do? I said I am teaching him. I didn't say he was learning.
What if there were an area we could put our finger on that we don't explicitly teach, but which learners successfully learn?
I think I have found one.
Stress patterns in spoken Spanish. I nearly wrote "stress rules". But I put patterns. Because I don't teach the rules. But pupils do learn the patterns.
In fact it is generally successful and pain free. The stress patterns on Spanish words is an important aspect, and pupils master it without me teaching it. At A Level, I do teach the rules, but I teach the rules so they can understand when and why a written accent is required. Usually on words they are already spelling correctly with/without accents, but would like to know why. And when I explain, it's drawing on knowledge of language they already have, in order to arrive at the rule. Rather than giving a rule in order to say or write correctly.
I was never taught the rules. I worked them out for myself from my fluent knowledge of the language. In fact there are rules around diphthongs that I still don't know properly. For example when students ask about continúa and continua or the accent on leído, I just tell them there are rules around when a diphthong counts as one syllable or two and leave it at that.
It's an interesting one for the new GCSE. Because the premise of the new GCSE is that we don't test pupils on things that they are not taught. So in the reading aloud, are we just testing the sound-spelling correspondences in the syllabus? Or are pupils also marked for correct word stress?
Well, imagine my surprise when I checked. It IS to be taught.
The Subject Content for the new GCSE - DfE |
For a start, I won't be teaching the rule like this. It seems backwards. It starts by saying to stress the last syllable of a Spanish word (unless it ends in a vowel or an s or an n).
When I eventually talk to A Level students about the rules, I would do it the other way round. We start with words ending in vowels. And they instantly realise they have been stressing the penultimate syllable: casa, escucha. Then it makes sense that if you change the ending, it shouldn't alter the stress: casas, casan, escuchas, escuchan. Then you look at words ending in other consonants: hotel, profesor, escuchar. And it all makes sense.
But I still won't be teaching it for GCSE. Even with the read aloud and the dictation.
How important is this example? How many other things are there like this that are best not explained? It seems significant that there are aspects of the language that are easily and unconsciously acquired. With the explicit rule too unwieldy to be of any practical use, even if it helps make sense after the pattern has been acquired.
I know that I have more idea of German articles from memorised snippets such as Alle Kinder schauen auf das brennende Haus* than from the table of cases and genders.
*From an inappropriate 1980s joke trend
Can it be that all learning is actually acquisition? You can't will learning to happen. We don't memorise or understand things by just willing it to be learned. It has to be through an extended process of input, making sense, making connections, tentative use and articulation with other knowledge.
I don't think it means we should swing away from deliberate instruction based on selected and sequenced items of phonics, grammar and vocabulary to be learned. But I do think it means we should guard against swinging away from learning centred around meaning, comprehension and exposure to authentic language. We need to keep our pragmatic approach, designed to keep a balance and a richness to our teaching and pupils' learning. I have many great memories of my friend Liz the bus driver. But the first that comes to mind is always her answer to the question, "With cream or ice cream or custard?" Liz always asked for, and got, all three. So we can definitely have learning and acquisition. And plenty of both.