Learning a new language

We know from our own experience that human beings differ widely in their capacity to learn a language other than their mother tongue  – some seem to learn quickly and achieve near-native mastery, others struggle to get by with basic communication and appear to go no further.  It does not matter where you are placed on that scale.  This chapter is intended to give you heart and some helpful hints to improve your language learning skills.

 All normal children appear to learn their mother tongue with what seems to be natural ease.  Could it be that they only ‘learn’ their mother tongue because they in fact already know a language?  There is some evidence to suggest that human beings are not just ‘wired’ for language from birth, i.e. they have a language capacity, but they actually possess certain language basics which then are expressed through the particulars of their mother tongue.  For example, it may be that human beings of any culture, almost from birth already have a notion of the difference between things that are specific, and things that are not specific.  It does not take long for them to learn, then, how their mother tongue expresses that, even if it is complicated.  I mean, for instance, the difference between ‘book’ (non-specific) and ‘a book’ (specific).  It looks as if English expresses this difference simply, by means of the presence or absence of ‘a’, but be careful.  Consider the sentences below:

Dogs are mammals (non-specific)

The dog is a mammal (specific)

A dog is a mammal (non-specific)

A dog just bit me (specific).

If you’re sick you should see the doctor (non-specific).

 You can see that it is not a matter of saying that English  expresses the difference through the presence or absence of ‘a’, nor through the presence or absence of ‘the’, nor through the opposition between ‘a’ and ‘the’.  But behind all those sentences lies a very real difference between specific/non-specific. All languages have this distinction.   English then adds to that a difference between definite (‘the’) and indefinite (‘a’).  Not all languages will do this, nor will they do it in the same way. [return to top]

Noticing

 Some few years ago, I carried out some research of my own with a small group of adult learners of English from a Pacific nation.  I wanted to know what they thought were the best ways to learn a language.  Almost without exception, they believed that the most important factor of all was to be immersed amongst native speakers of English.  This, they believed, would bring about successful learning for them. 

 It will help, there is no doubt about that, and most of us who have learnt another language and have had the opportunity to live in parts of the world where that language is spoken have appreciated the fact.  But let me tell you that it is not the most important factor in your learning, and could even slow your learning down, depending on what sort of mastery of language the native speakers around you have.  Research has demonstrated that certain features of Samoan grammar are acquired late (about 4 years of age) because they are not exposed to these features earlier on while surrounded by older siblings.  They are features usually typical of adult male speech of the kind that is not heard much within the family at home. 

 The most important factor in your language learning is what you notice about language; what you notice about your own language, about the language around you, about anything to do with the learning of your new language. [return to top]

A model of languagelearning

We have no way of seeing into the human mind in all its marvellous workings, but we can attempt to draw a model of how language learning takes place: 

                                                                  -explicit

       input  à  noticed  à  understood à  intake–implicit  à output 

Input is whatever brings you to the new language or the new language to you.  It could be something you do (pick up a newspaper in that language, for instance) or something you hear around you, or a classroom exercise you are doing.

Noticed  is the next step.  You cannot claim to have ‘noticed’ something about language unless you are able to comment on it – in other words, noticing is not an unconscious event.

Understood implies that you can analyze what you have been able to comment on; it means you can make comparisons or contrasts with other information.

Intake is the stage where you actually store what you have noticed and understood in memory, at least temporarily.  This may happen without you being fully aware of it (implicit), but if you are aware (explicit) – say, if you learn a rule – then it will improve your chances of finally achieving correct output.  You can monitor your progress through explicit knowledge.

Output is the final product; what you say or write.

 Noticing might seem to be of little importance because it is way back in the entire process, but it is crucial.  It opens the door to all the other possibilities.  Without noticing, little else is likely to happen.  That’s why immersion amongst native speakers will not, in itself, be of much advantage to you.  It remains simply ‘input’ and may go no further.

 The trick is to find ways and means to make many of your ordinary language-learning tasks ‘noticing’ tasks.  Here is a list of activities all of which enable and encourage you to notice things: 

Good learning practice

 Good language learners are those who, in my experience,:

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Learning approach

What do you know about your individual learning approach?  There are factors operating on you from outside over which you appear to have no control.  Be clear about what degree of influence these may have.  For instance, there is age, sex, social class.  I use the term ‘sex’ rather than ‘gender’.  Gender is partly a social thing – the society you were born in had a lot to do with how you now see yourself as a male or a female.  I do not believe this should influence your language learning too much.  But is the mere fact that you are male or female important?  It has a small influence, research shows, but not a determining one.  Females tend to use more standard forms than males – but they are also ahead of males in trying out new forms (which can mean non-standard ones), so I suppose that balances out.  There is nothing to suggest that females have any distinct advantage over males.

 Age has an influence.  There is an optimum age range for language learning – it seems to be in early adolescence.  To achieve perfect native pronunciation in a new language it helps to start before adolescence.  Tackling a new grammar system after age 15 is likely to be a slower process.  But none of these determines absolutely your ability to learn.

 There is a ‘distance factor at work in languages.  Distance here is not geographical but to do with which ‘family’ one’s language belongs to.  I have found it much easier to learn Italian and Spanish than I have Fijian.  English, Italian and Spanish are cousins in the same language family.  Italian and Spanish are very close indeed.  Fijian belongs to a different language family.  Somebody in the Pacific region who speaks French is more likely to come to terms with English sooner than someone who speaks Marshallese, since the latter is not part of the same language family as English.  Samoan and Tongan are close cousins.  Fijian and Tongan are a little closer than Samoan and Tongan, and so on.  It just means that we need to think ‘system’ especially when we are attempting a very different language system.

 I find this all the time as a learner of Fijian.  I have to think differently.  Here is an example:

English :  I waited patiently for him to come.

Fijian:     Sa levu na noqu vosoti koya e na nona lako mai.

Literal:    It is/was much, my patience towards him in his coming.

Fijian prefers the noun-like forms of ‘my patience’ and ‘his coming’ to the verb forms of the English.

 Your attitude to the new language is an important factor in your learning.  And here, you may need to distinguish for yourself a difference between your personal attitude and the attitude in society around you.  What do people think of English?  What do you think of English?  I do not believe it is helpful to adopt the attitude of those who think that English is a superior language.  All natural languages are equal!  What is true is that so much is now written in English, so many people speak English, that it is of more value if you are travelling than is Fijian, or of more value to you in your studies than is Cook Island Maori. 

What variety of the language are you targetting?  It is a legitimate goal, surely, to target Pacific English for most purposes in the region.  But if you are a student required to write academic essays, then you should also target Standard Written English.  If you are preparing to teach in schools, then you should consider becoming fully competent in one of the metropolitan standard Englishes (British, Australian, New Zealand, American, Indian…).

 The language input around you is a factor too.  The very best way to progress in English, for example, is to encourage those around you who can, to use English which is slightly ahead of where you are at the moment.  In practical terms this is rarely possible, except perhaps in the classroom where a good teacher with an eye (and ear) to language can constantly challenge you in this regard.  This takes a little knowledge of something else, though, that I want to present to you now.    [return to top]

Developmental sequences

It helps to know some of the main developmental patterns in language – are there certain features which are learned before others?  What happens if I learn something way ahead and out of sequence?  We do have some answers to these questions.

 There will be some differences for each language, but if Derek Bickerton is correct (someone who believes that all human beings actually have a ‘bioprogram’ language inbuilt from birth), then certain features will be shared across all languages.  I suggested earlier that the specific/non-specific distinction might be one of these.

 I will limit myself to English, since it is this language we are regarding as the other tongue for now.  You are at a certain interlanguage stage on your way to full target competence in English.  We know something about stages based on ability to use certain language features.  Let me explain.

 English employs quite a number of regular endings: -s, -es, -‘s, -ed, -ing are some of these.  Now, we have been able to discover in what order these are likely to be learned by children with English as their mother tongue:

1. Present progressive –ing (as in ‘Mummy running’).
2. Plural –s  (as in ‘Those books’).
3. Irregular past (as in ‘baby went’).
4. Possessive ‘s (as in ‘daddy’s hat’).
5. Link verb  – copula ‘is’ (as in ‘Mere is a nice girl).
6. Articles ‘the’ and ‘a’.
7. Regular past –ed (as in ‘I walked home’).
8. Third person singular simple present –s  (as in ‘She runs’).
9. Auxiliary ‘be’ (as in ‘He is coming’).

 We know that other tongue learners have much the same order of acquisition.  There may be some differences, and the first language may cause some changes, but it would be generally true that if you are at the stage where you can easily produce the ‘He is coming’ type sentence, it is probably true that you can manage everything below that.  On the other hand, just because you can use possessive ‘s correctly does not imply that you can manage 5-9 above.

 We can predict quite accurately how you will deal with the negative in English  (the use of ‘not’ or ‘no’).  If you are at a very early stage of learning English, you may simply put ‘No’ or ‘Not’ at the beginning of a sentence and hope for the best!  Thus, ‘No have a pen’, or ‘I not like it’.  You may have progressed to a stage where you have noticed that English uses ‘don’t’ in many cases.  This produces sentences like ‘He don’t want it’.  Or perhaps ‘I don’t can sing’.  The first sentence sounds less a problem than the second one to a native speaker, but you have a system in place; it’s just that you haven’t realized yet that ‘do’ + ‘not’ also has to include ‘does’ + ‘not’= ‘doesn’t’.  Also we don’t  put ‘don’t’  before ‘can’!  Your next stage is to realize that so long as you place the negative after the auxiliary  verb  it will be ok, thus producing ‘You cannot – or can’t – go there’.  Unfortunately, you still produce ‘He don’t keep quiet’.  Finally you work out that ‘do’ alters according to need, as in ‘It doesn’t work’, and ‘We didn’t drink kava’.   [return to top]

Learning strategies

Here is a range of questions which any language learner might profitably ask him or herself:

·         While I have been learning and using English, have I ever thought about the actual process of learning a language ? (If yes, what have I done that has helped most?)

·         How does English work? (How is it different to my mother tongue ?  What particular features have I noticed?)

·         What’s it like to learn a language? (How have I gone about improving my English?  Do I have any learning  tricks-of-the-trade?)

·         What should I learn and how? (Have I set myself any goals?  What resources do I use?  How do I use them?)

·         How am I doing? (Can I recall a time when I have asked myself this question?  Are there particulars of English  I still need to work out?)

·         What am I getting out of this? (Are some activities more useful than others?) and how am I responsible for my learning? 

Behind the questions lies a range of possible strategies listed below in three groups: [return to top]

TOPICS

* Noticing

* A language learning model

* Good learning practice

* Learning approach

*Developmental sequences

* Learning strategies