Language Aquisition

موضوع: Language Aquisition الثلاثاء ديسمبر 28, 2010 7:44 pm

It is no wonder why students stumble and stammer

It is not long time since we in Syria crossed the borders of our isolation, and allowed new trends especially in economics, literature, and pedagogy to pass through our staked territory. That is not to be understood as a campaign for globalization, but it is rather a campaign against the division of our views into ( with / against ). The matter is that our cherished world is based on what is proportional and experimental rather than on theses and tendencies.
Staking out to the realm of pedagogy, the new methods in teaching foreign languages are being hampered by old methods of teaching and misuse of the new ones on the part of teachers and ossified ways of thinking on the part of students.

Striking up with the problems engendering and circulating around the teaching system, we can mention listing, a way of linking words with their equivalents in the other language. There is no doubt that we learn something ( or many things ) by this way, but the problems resulting from it are also considerable. In fact, a word is a conventional sign which stands for an object or a conception of something discernable in our minds; so, the link should be between a symbol and an object or the conception in our mind, not between symbols or signs themselves. So, when we associate the words of a foreign language with their equivalents in our mother tongue we do hinder our productive ability; that is because the mediator with which we learn a foreign language will be recalled first to make fluency something impossible and creation of simple sentences a hard task. Furthermore, our receptive ability will be also restrained to the largest extent because: on hearing a sequence of foreign words, some other words will be imagined in minds instead of objects and situations. In addition to that, English-Arabic equivalents when relied to each others as a method of learning English can engender much confusion and misplacement of vocabulary. For example, the word " rule " when associated with its Arabic equivalent " قاعدة " could be used by students where they have to use " base " or " basis " which can be linked with the same Arabic word, but they have, of course, distinctively different meanings. Another example is the verb " compose " linked with the Arabic equivalent "ينشئ ". It could be used by students instead of the verb " build " just because both words share the same Arabic equivalent when listing is the method followed.

In addition to the problematic old methods of teaching, new ones are being upholded but misused at the same time. Here we mean the new techniques such as the use of songs, movies, and theatre ( having students act certain stories or plays ). These techniques are misused when teachers fail to select the most appropriate movie or story that matches students' proficiency, age, and interest. Sometimes a proper introduction to the matter being dealt with is fundamentaly important. Morever, songs should be divided into short stanzas and not given as a whole when having students to fill in spaces or retell some already heard utterances.

When teachers fail to choose an appropriate material, students will be bored, disappointed, or even frustrated. The most dangerous point is that when students feel frustrated and lose their confidence because they become unable to produce the simplest sentences which are very easy when they are cool.So, technology is not adequate alone and misusing it can lead to some results which are not ,by any way, on target.

Apart from the teacher' role in making the acquisition of a second language problematic, students also contribute to making that more difficult. To explain this idea, students' passive response to certain techniques like story theatre and their limited scope of interest come to the fore. Story theatre means acting and acting means art, emotions, imagimation, sympathy with the other who is different, and loud inner voices. How can we expect that from childern or adults who are taught to hide nearly everything?_ they are used to hide every thing which has bearing on sex, love, religion, sects, politics and even sweet emotions are hardly released because they are viewed in strict societies as a sign of weakness or cowardice. How can we expect imagination, sympathy and individuality from people who live in a typical society that provides just molds to adapt with and rules to adopt?. On what can individuality thrive when it is deemed as perversion and rejection of rules?. How can we ask a girl who is the shiest when standing in front of the class to act a whore, a lover or even a salesclerk?. Furthermore, students' limited scope of interests due to their simple backgrounds make them preoccupied about certain subjects and indifferent about most of the others. If one of them for instanse is interested in sports, he will be keen on acquiring even the most difficult words like "gymnastics, gymnasium, aerobics, and squash"

But on the other side he would be indifferent about subjects relating to the weather, directions, or comparing cultures.If another one is interested in business, he will hardly ever make a mistake concerning business transaction; but on the other side, he/she would be indifferent about subjects relating to sports for example.

To conclude, we come up with many problems to cope with. Some of these are caused by following old methods, others result from the misuse of the new techniques and modern technology, and others are related to learners themselves. All what has been mentioned lies a great responsibility on both teachers and students, but never makes it impossible that some very good speakers of languages are wandering now in Syria's streets. Some of them have never been abroad, but they are simply_ dedicated.