CHAPTER 1

From Atlas and Audiolingualism to

Acquisition

In this chapter we explore:

The “Atlas Complex”AudiolingualismCommunicative language

teachingSecond language

acquisition research

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.

Knowledge Transmission in a transmission-

oriented class

S S S S S S S S S S S S S SS S S S S S S

I

Secondary Roles in a transmission-oriented

class

Instructor StudentLecturerLeaderTutor

WardenDisciplinarian

NotetakerFollower

TuteePrisoner

Disciplinee

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………

…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.

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).

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.

The Atlas Complex continued…

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 and then-current structural linguistics.

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.

Audiolingualism continued…

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.

No errors!

ALM’s teaching materials explicitly cast the instructor as drill leader.

The students’ role has been likened to that of a parrot.

Audiolingualism continued…

Activity A. Substitution Drill

Change the model sentence, substituting the cue word for its corresponding element in the model.

Model: I don’t want to eat anymore!

Instructor’s cue Student response

To sleep I don’t want to sleep anymore!

To study I don’t want to study anymore!

To drink I don’t want to drink anymore!

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.

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.

Communicative Language Teaching

With the advent of communicative language teaching (CLT), the instructor’s role changed.

The instructor was no longer simply the drill leader but was also charged with providing students with opportunities for communication.

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.

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, Atlas’s burden was yet to be relieved or shared.

I: Pensez-vous qu’il y a vraiment une personnalité française? Claudia?

C: Um…. Je pense qu’il y a une I: (interrupting) Qu’il y a une personnalité

française? Bon, décrivez la personnalité française.

C: How do you say pride? I: (writing on blackboard) <La fierté> est

comme en anglais pride et l’adjectif, <fier> Je suis fier. I’m proud. Bon, est-ce que les Français sont trés fiers? Ils ont beaucoup de fierté? (Silence) Est-ce que les Français sont nationalistes?

(translation) I: Do you think there is really one French personality, a

typically French personality? Claudia? C: I think that there’s a…… I: (interrupting) that there’s a French personality? Good,

describe it. C: How do you say pride? I: (writing on blackboard) Okay “la fierté” is like in English

“pride” and the adjective, “fier.” Je suis fier, I’m proud. Good, are the French proud? (silence) Are the French nationalistic?

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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)

SLA involves the Creation of an Implicit Linguistic

System SL 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.

Example in English1. Who do you wanna invite to the party

tonight?2. 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.

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.

Second Language Learners

SL 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.

Input

The finding that learners come to know things they couldn’t 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 learner’s job to attempt to understand what is being said.

Input continued…

It is NOT an explanation about language.

Nor is it explicit corrective feedback because the learner has made an error.

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?

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.

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.

Other views

Others don’t 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.

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.

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

More…. 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 don’t added to list of negators, but don’t is considered one word. I no can swim. I don’t see nothing mop.

More Stages of Development

Stage 3: negator attached to modals but initially may be unanalyzed as is don’t in Stage 2. I can’t play this one. I won’t tell.

Stage 4: auxiliary system of English is developed, and learner acquires correct use of not and contractions. He doesn’t know anything. I didn’t said it.

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.

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.

For example…

It has been shown that the acquisition of verb morphemes (pieces and parts of words) tends to follow the following order

1. -ing2. Regular past tense3. Irregular past tense4. Third-person present tense -s

Universal pattern of acquisition

The order on the last slide would be apparent regardless of the learner’s L1.

Provides empirical evidence that learners possess “internal strategies” for organizing language data

These strategies do not necessarily obey outside influences.

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

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.

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.

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.