The foreign language: describing the indivisible

In this section, I present a first dissection of the whole that is ‘language’ into the parts that comprise the content of teaching. In applied linguistics over the last decades, it has been common to divide language into ‘the Four Skills’: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, and then to add Grammar, Vocabulary and Phonology to them. This division is not as logical as it may seem and has been challenged (Widdowson 1998). Some syllabuses also deal in Topics, Functions and Notions, describing language in terms of how it is used in communication rather than seeing it as a linguistic system or a set of skills.Because children who start learning a foreign language very young may encounter nothing but the spoken language for several years, the customary division into the four skills seems somewhat inappropriate, and an alternative division of language has been attempted.

The first cut into the holism of language learning separates literacy skills from the rest, on the basis that learning to read and write in a foreign language presents distinct learning tasks that require teaching. I will argue that teachers need to plan and support literacy skills development informed by specific knowledge and understanding of literacy issues, although of course the learner will, and should, experience literacy development as integrated within spoken language development.

Having separated out literacy skills development from of the totality of the foreign language, what then remains is much wider than Speaking and Listening as perceived in secondary or adult language teaching. For young learners, spoken language is the medium through which the new language is encountered, understood, practiced and learnt. Rather than oral skills being simply one aspect of learning language, the spoken form in the young learner classroom acts as the prime source and site of language learning. New language is largely introduced orally, under­stood orally and aurally, practiced and automatized orally. My solution to the problem of how to divide up oral language learning comes from thinking about how children seek out meanings for themselves in language, and to focus on words and on interaction. For Vygotsky, words label concepts and are an entry point into thinking and networks of meaning. In language teaching terms, the development of words, their meanings and the links between them will be covered under the term Vocabulary.

Interaction will be labeled as Discourse skills, and in Chapter 3, will be further divided to reflect the distinction between conversational exchanges and longer stretches of talk that Snow’s work in first language development has identified. Instead of thinking about children as 'doing Listening and Speaking', we will think about how they learn to interact in the foreign language. Classroom activities can also be seen and analysed as discourse in their own right.

Grammar will be seen as emerging from the space between words and discourse in children’s language learning, and as being important in constructing and interpreting meaning accurately. The development of phonology is not considered separately in this book, since children seem to develop native-like accents without specific training through expo­sure to good models; it will, however, link into the development of spelling and rhyme (Chapter 6)

The organisational scheme for language is summarised in Figure 1.1. The carving up of language learning in this way seems to reflect reasonably well the real experience of young learners, and the structure of some, at least, of the course books written for them.

This division is, though, and can only ever be, an artificial breaking up of what grows through an 'organic' process in a child’s mind. This is one reason why it is not always possible to predict what will be learnt from what is taught, and why attending to the opportunities offered by activities will be important.

Source:Lynne Cameron Teaching Language to Young Learners,©Cambridge University Press2001. Pages from 15 to 19.

Assessment

Resources

1. http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/90975/oral-communication-skills-in-the-primary-english-classroom

2. http://www.tis.edu.mo/vision/reading-writing-speaking-and-listening-which-is-most-important-and-why/

3. http://www.tpdl.ac.nz/site/tpdl/files/Resources%20-%20documents/General/Reading/Cameron%20Teaching%20lgs%20to%20children%20chap%201.pdf

4. http://www.etsp.uki.ac.id/2011/03/teaching-the-four-language-skills-in-the-primary-efl-classroom-sum.considerations.pdf

5. http://www.ncca.ie/en/Publications/Syllabuses_and_Guidelines/Modern_Languages_in_Primary_Schools_Teacher_Guidelines.pdf

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1575