From Atlas and Audiolingualism to Acquisition

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CHAPTER 1

• From Atlas and Audiolingualism to Acquisition

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In this chapter we explore

• The Atlas Complex
• Audiolingualism
• Communicative language teaching
• Second language acquisition research

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The Atlas Complex

• The roles that instructors often assume (and that
  students very willingly grant to them) is that of
  the authority, the expert, the central figure in
  the classroom who transmits knowledge to the
  students.
• The students become their passive audience,
  receptive vessels into which that knowledge is
  poured.

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Knowledge Transmission in a transmission-oriented
class
I

• S S S S S S S
• S S S S S S S
• S S S S S S S

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Secondary Roles in a transmission-oriented class
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The Atlas Complex continued

• All action and interaction, as well as all
  explanations, are dictated by the instructor
• The students role is to be taught, to receive
  knowledge
• Like the titan Atlas of Greek mythology, who
  supported the heavens on his shoulders,
  instructors

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assume full responsibility for all that goes on.
They supply motivations, insight, clear
explanations, even intellectual curiosity. In
exchange, their students supply almost nothing
but a faint imitation of the academic performance
that they witness. Instructors so thoroughly
dominate the proceedings that they are cut off
from what the students know or are confused
about. For their part, the students form a group
of isolated individuals who have no more in
common than their one-to-one relationship with
the same individual.
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• While instructors exercise their authority
  through control of the subject matter and the
  social encounter in the classroom, they lack the
  power to make things happen for their students.
  They are both caught in the middle of their
  classes by a host of mysterious forces- hidden
  assumptions, hidden expectations, and the results
  of the own isolating experiences. This is the
  Atlas Complex.
• (Finkel Monk, 1983, p.85)

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The Atlas Complex continued

• An implicit assumption here is that students
  actually do learn from the explanations
  instructors provide.
• Another assumption is that students learn by
  being asked questions by improving the questions
  asked, instructors assume students will learn
  more.

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Audiolingualism

• As the profession moved from grammar and
  text-translation methods to a more oral
  approach, the instructor-as-authority-and-expert
  was codified in a teaching method called
  Audiolingual Methodology.
• ALM was predicated on the marriage of behaviorist
  psychology (Pavlov Skinner) and then-current
  structural linguistics (Chomsky).

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Audiolingualism continued

• In ALM, language habits were formed by memorizing
  dialogues and practicing sentence patterns,
  usually through drills that required learners to
  imitate and repeat what their instructors said.
• Second language acquisition was seen to be the
  replacement of first language habits by second
  language habits.

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No errors!

• Maximum care was taken not to allow learner to
  make errors.
• A premium was placed on error-free repetition,
  with no attention paid to whether or not learners
  understood the meaning of what they were saying.

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Audiolingualism continued

• ALMs teaching materials explicitly cast the
  instructor as drill leader.
• The students role has been likened to that of a
  parrot.

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Activity A. Substitution Drill

• Change the model sentence, substituting the cue
  word for its corresponding element in the model.
• Model I dont want to eat anymore!

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Activity B. Transformation Drill

• Transform each sentence, substituting the past
  for the present.
• 1. I eat. I ate.
• 2. He goes He went.
• 3. We sleep We slept.

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Audiolingualism continued

• Nothing that happened in an ALM classroom could
  be construed as an exchange of information
  because output (the actual production of
  language) was severely restricted.

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Communicative Language Teaching

• With the advent of communicative language
  teaching (CLT), the instructors role changed.
• The instructor was no longer simply the drill
  leader but was also charged with providing
  students with opportunities for communication.

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Early CLT

• Many instructors equated communication with
  conversation
• But conversation of a particular type the
  authority figure asked the questions, the
  students answered them.
• The students task was no longer to parrot but to
  create an answer.

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CLT continued

• Although CLT may have caused a major revolution
  in the way that some people thought about
  language teaching, no major revolution occurred
  in the day-to-day practice of most language
  teachers.
• The roles played by instructors and students
  changed very little, if at all.
• However, as seen on the next slides, Atlass
  burden was yet to be relieved or shared.

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• I Pensez-vous quil y a vraiment une
  personnalité française? Claudia?
• C Um. Je pense quil y a une
• I (interrupting) Quil y a une personnalité
  française? Bon, décrivez la personnalité
  française.
• C How do you say pride?
• I (writing on blackboard) ltLa fiertégt est comme
  en anglais pride et ladjectif, ltfiergt
• Je suis fier. Im proud.
• Bon, est-ce que les Français sont trés fiers?
• Ils ont beaucoup de fierté?
• (Silence)
• Est-ce que les Français sont nationalistes?

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CLT continued

• The instructor as central figure and authority is
  clearly evidenced.
• Line 2 She selects the next person who will
  speak.
• Line 4 She finishes the sentence for Claudia.
• Lines 11-13 She continues to ask questions.
• This instructor assumed the responsibility of not
  only asking questions but also answering them.

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Expert remarks

• As Leeman Guthrie (1984) points out about this
  exchange
• It is clear that the instructor defines her
  own role not as that of a conversational partner
  of facilitator, but as one responsible for
  telling her students how to speak (p. 46)

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Next phase of CLT

• Students were now allowed to work in pairs and to
  pose questions to each other.
• But for many, the basic assumed roles of
  transmitter and receptacles were played out in
  pair work as well.
• The following exercise clearly spells out the
  Atlas-like question-and-answer model of
  conversation.

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What did you eat last night?

• Model French fries
• ?Did you eat French fries last night?
• ? Yes, I ate them. (No, I did not eat them.)
• 1. Tacos
• 2. Hamburgers
• 3. A steak

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Pair Work

• The resulting speech from pair work did not
  necessarily entail true communication, namely,
  the interpretation and expression of meaning.
• Many paired exercises differed very little from
  the classic ALM pattern-substitution drills.

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Evolution of Language Teaching

• Practice did not keep up with theory.
• Instructors might have wanted to take on new
  roles, but the classroom activities still
  emphasized formal correctness, not communication.

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Theory and Practice converge

• In addition to providing controlled exercises
  such as the previous activities, instructors also
  engaged in more open-ended conversations.
• In the next example, the instructor is dialoging
  with the students.
• Does this instructor still carry an Atlas-like
  burden?

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• I What did you do last week? Raúl.
• R I went to Florida. To the beach. We are in a
  lot of restaurants.
• I That sounds like a fun week. Gloria, what did
  you do last week?
• G Not much. My husband and I read. We watched
  TV
• I Did you go to Florida?
• G No.
• I Did you go to Florida last week? John.
• J Me? No, I went to Bloomington to visit my
  parents.

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Activity Analysis

• In spite of the surface differences between this
  exchange and the French one, the instructor is
  still the central figure.
• The students answering the question will most
  likely address only the instructor and not their
  classmates.
• The entire burden is still on the instructor.

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To sum up

• In the activities we have examined, the
  instructor assumes an authoritative role and then
  asserts it in all situations.
• Both instructors and students accept the fact
  that instructors are language authorities or
  experts, and ought, therefore, to be the central
  figures in the classroom.

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Second Language Acquisition Some Givens

• SLA involves the creation of an implicit
  (unconscious) linguistic system.
• SLA is complex and consists of different
  processes.
• SLA is dynamic but slow.
• Most L2 learners fall short of native-like
  competence.
• Skill acquisition is different from the creation
  of an implicit system.
• VanPatten (2003a)

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SLA involves the Creation of an Implicit
Linguistic System

• Second language (L2) learners construct an
  implicit linguistic system consisting of a
  variety of components that interact in language
  use
• Noun and verb markers
• Phonological system that governs the sounds
• Syntactic system that controls the structure of
  the sentences
• By implicit we mean we are unaware of its
  properties even though we use it every single
  second of our lives.

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Example in English

• Who do you wanna invite to the party tonight?
• Who do you wanna bring the potato chips tonight?
• For speakers of English, (1) sounds fine, but (2)
  sounds awful.
• The speakers will tell you that they have no idea
  why (2) is bad but (1) is acceptable.
• The rules of syntax that govern sentence
  structure lie outside their awareness in an
  implicit system.

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Second Language Learners

• They may not arrive at the same implicit rules as
  native speakers.
• BUT, they do create an implicit system that
  functions in the same manner.
• What is important about this is that researchers
  test them on things they could never have been
  taught and could never have learned from
  instruction or feedback.

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Second Language Learners

• L2 learners may have conscious or explicit rules.
• Verb-subject agreement
• Difference between active and passive voice
• When to use du in French
• However, this conscious knowledge of some rules
  is not the same as and is not the starting point
  for the creation of the developing system.

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Input

• The finding that learners come to know things
  they couldnt have been taught has led the field
  of SLA theory and research to posit a fundamental
  role for what we call input.
• Input is the language learners hear that is meant
  to convey a message that is, the learners job
  to attempt to understand what is being said.

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Input continued

• It is NOT an explanation about language.
• Nor is it explicit corrective feedback because
  the learner has made an error.

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Input continued

• It is NOT input when we tell learners the rule
  for pluralization it is input when learners hear
  pluralization in sentences that they are to
  attend to for meaning
• For example So, just how many houses not house
  do you think Bill Gates owns?

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In short

• Input is language embedded in some kind of
  communicative interchange.
• The role of the learner is to attend to the
  meaning in order to respond to the content or
  perform a task.

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Input Hypothesis

• Krashen (1982 and elsewhere) has put forth the
  Input Hypothesis.
• Comprehensible input causes acquisition.
• As long as there is motivation and the right
  affective environment (e.g., low anxiety) a
  person cannot avoid learning a second language if
  there is sustained comprehensible input.

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Other views

• Others dont make as strong a claim
• Language acquisition is a complex process.
• It involves social, cognitive, linguistic, and
  other factors.
• Nonetheless, every scholar today believes that
  comprehensible input is a critical factor in
  language acquisition.

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What does that mean?

• Successful language acquisition cannot happen
  without comprehensible input.
• Classroom learners who get a steady diet of
  explanations and practice might appear to have
  some kind of language ability, but
• It is not the same as those who get consistent
  and constant exposure to comprehensible input.

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SLA is complex and consists of different processes

• To learn a second language, here is a partial
  list of what a person must acquire (depending on
  the language type)
• The lexicon the words, including their forms and
  meanings
• What words can do
• The phonology the sound system, pronunciation
• Inflectional morphology (dog ? dogs)
• Derivational morphology (transport ?
  transportation)
• Particles
• continued

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More on what needs to be acquired

• Syntax
• Pragmatics what a speaker intends by a sentence
• Sociolinguistics what is appropriate and
  inappropriate use of language in particular
  situations (Howz it goin? or How do you do?)
• Discourse competence what is permissible in a
  language regarding cohesion across sentences.

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Imagine that learning those things happens all at
the same time in SLA!

• The learning process is complex when it comes to
  the what of the language.

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The how of acquisition

• Input processing How learners make sense out of
  the language they hear
• System change
• Accommodation How learners incorporate a
  grammatical form into the implicit system
• Restructuring How the incorporation can cause a
  ripple effect and make other things change
• Output processing How learners acquire the
  ability to make use of the implicit knowledge
  they are acquiring to produce utterances in real
  time

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A point to be made

• Just because something appears in the input does
  NOT mean that learners get it right away.
• Learners selectively attend to features in the
  input.
• Learners filter and sometimes even alter what
  they pick up in the input.
• Some linguistic forms are incorporated and others
  are dumped ? point not yet understood.

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SLA is Dynamic but Slow

• Acquisition is dynamic it evolves.
• Acquisition is slow it takes years for learners
  to build up a system that is anywhere native-like.

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Stages of development

• Acquisition of negation in English
• Stage 1 no phrase
• No drink.
• No you playing here.
• Stage 2 negator moves inside phrase not and
  dont added to list of negators, but dont is
  considered one word.
• I no can swim.
• I dont see nothing mop.

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More Stages of Development

• Stage 3 negator attached to modals but initially
  may be unanalyzed as is dont in Stage 2.
• I cant play this one.
• I wont tell.
• Stage 4 auxiliary system of English is
  developed, and learner acquires correct use of
  not and contractions.
• He doesnt know anything.
• I didnt said it.

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Stages of development

• Each stage of development marks some kind of
  restructuring in the mind of the learner.
• Does not just pop into the heads of learners
  It evolves over time.
• Suggests that learners actively organize language
  in their heads independently of external
  influence.

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Acquisition orders

• Acquisition orders are another example of the
  slowness of acquisition.
• This refers to the sequential acquisition of
  various grammatical features over time without
  focusing on the acquisition of any particular
  item.

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For example

• It has been shown that the acquisition of verb
  morphemes (pieces and parts of words) tends to
  follow the following order
• -ing
• Regular past tense
• Irregular past tense
• Third-person present tense -s

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Universal pattern of acquisition

• The order on the last slide would be apparent
  regardless of the learners L1.
• Provides empirical evidence that learners possess
  internal strategies for organizing language
  data
• These strategies do not necessarily obey outside
  influences.

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Most L2 Learners Fall Short of Native-like
Competence

• Reasons
• Their implicit system in nonnative-like.
• Their ability to use the implicit system is
  nonnative-like.
• Why?
• Still unknown
• Evidence for a critical period, a time around
  puberty from which learning another language is
  difficult

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Skill Acquisition is Different from the Creation
of an Implicit System

• Learners may be quite aware of certain
  distinctions in a language.
• Vowel contrast between kook and cook
• But they might not be able to produce them.
• Skill acquisition happens independently of the
  creation of the linguistic system, even though
  speaking must access the system in order for the
  learner to express meaning.

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Processability Theory

• The concern of the theory is about how learners
  acquire the procedures necessary for creating
  novel utterances and not the acquisition of the
  linguistic system itself.
• Pienemann, 1998
• The procedures are used to put together
  linguistic elements in real time (while speaking)
  and exist in the mind of the learner as
  mechanisms and not as knowledge.

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Summary of chapter 1

• Saw that many instructors take on the burden of
  ensuring learning by the roles they and their
  students adopt in the classroom.
• Saw that we can still find an Atlas-like role
  played out in question-answer conversations
  that teachers carry out with students in their
  classroom.
• Learned that the language learner is in much more
  control of acquisition than anyone had assumed
  prior to the 1970s.

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• Many thanks to Prof. Drew Farley (Texas Tech
  University) for his PowerPoint presentation.