Question:

Submitted by Fatima Zafar, AIOU Islamabad, Pakistan

What are the psychological barriers in speaking English as second language?

Dr. Richards responds:

An internet search should help you answer this question as well as the writings of Zoltán Dörnyei (Zoltán Dörnyei is a Professor of Psycholinguistics at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. He is renowned for his work on motivation in second-language learning and has published numerous books and papers on this topic.)

One important issue relates to affect. Affect refers to a number of emotional factors that may influence language learning and language use. These include basic personality traits, such as shyness, and long-term factors, such as attitudes towards learning, as well as constantly fluctuating states, such as anxiety, boredom, enthusiasm, apathy and so on. Emotions are often a feature of language classes. In some classes, one senses a feeling of positive interest and enthusiasm for learning. In others, there may be negative feelings of disinterest and boredom. And many classroom activities, such as tests, evoke stress and anxiety. Researchers such as Dörnyei are interested in how affective factors influence cognition or learning. And since language learning is primarily a social activity – it involves interaction with others – it is bound to arouse emotions, some of which may be obstacles to successful learning and teaching

Another factor that can affect students’ classroom participation, closely related both to learning styles and affective factors, is their willingness to attempt to use English in the classroom (also referred to as WTC) (MacIntyre, 2007; Peng and Woodrow, 2010). WTC is a factor that has been linked to variables such as personality, self-confidence, attitudes and motivation, and is linked to anxiety, as well as learners’ views of their own communicative competence. However, other situational factors are also involved, such as topic, task, group size and cultural background.

Question:

Submitted by Muhammad Jamil, Jubail, Saudi Arabia

1. What is the purpose of second language teaching? (a) to enable students to be able to communicate in the target language (b) to prepare them to be achieve native like fluency?
2. Is it practically viable to train second language learners like natives? If not then why is there so much stress on native-like fluency?
   

Dr. Richards responds:

In formulating language policy towards the teaching of English in a country, a variety of options are available to educational planners. For example, English could be positioned as the language of English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Australia and be linked to the cultures of those and other English-speaking countries. Another option would be to emphasize its role as an international language and as a means of communication with the world beyond a country’s borders. A different function for English would be to position it as a tool for providing access to information needed for technical, scientific and economic development within a country, i.e., as a form of economic capital. English is learned for many different reasons. It may be an essential tool for education and business for some learners; it may be the language of travel and related activities of sightseeing for others; and it may be needed for social survival and employment for new immigrants in English-speaking countries. For some, it may be a popular language for the media, entertainment, the internet and other forms of electronic communication. For many, however, it may merely be a language that they are obliged to study, but which they may never really have any obvious need for. So to answer you first question, the goals will depend on the context and will differ accordingly.

Regarding the second question, today it is no longer assumed that learners need master a so-called “native-speaker” variety of English. When it was taken for granted that the variety of English which learners needed to master was a native-speaker one, the choice was often determined by proximity. In Europe, due to its proximity to the United Kingdom, British English was usually the model presented in teaching materials. In many other parts of the world, North American English was normally the target. In some places (e.g. Indonesia), learners are more likely to encounter Australian English, and this may be the variety of English they feel most comfortable learning. However, in recent years, there has been a growing demand for North American English in places where British English was the traditional model, particularly among young people for whom American English is ‘cool’. It seems, perhaps, that it more closely resembles their ‘idea’ of English.

The two schools of thought concerning how closely learners should try to approximate native-speaker usage can be summarized as follows: The traditional view is that mastery of English means mastering a native-speaker variety of English. The presence of a foreign accent, influenced by the learner’s mother tongue, was considered a sign of incomplete learning. Teaching materials presented exclusively native-speaker models – usually spoken with a standard or prestige accent – as learning targets. The second school of thought is that when English is regarded as an international language, speakers may wish to preserve markers of their cultural identity through the way they speak English. In such cases, learners may regard a French, Italian, Russian or Spanish accent in their English as something valid – something they do not want to lose. This is a question of personal choice for learners, and teachers, therefore, should not assume that learners always want to master a native-speaker accent when they learn English. As one learner puts it, ‘I am Korean, so why should I try to sound like an American?’

Question:

Submitted by Kawthar A. Nahi, M.A. student at University of Basra, Iraq

What is the role of Neuro-Linguistic Programming in Language teaching?

Dr. Richards responds:

There is no research evidence to support the claims of NLP, which is a blend of new age pop psychology and 70s psychobabble. There are extensive critiques of it on the internet, which I need not repeat here. It is certainly not worth wasting time on for a master’s thesis, and despite its possible appeal to the untrained, NLP is not supported by SLA or any other field of related research in applied linguistics.

Question:

Submitted by Tri, Indonesia

Does conscious awareness of language features play a role in language learning?

Dr. Richards responds:

It has been proposed that some aspects of language are learned more easily if the learner is consciously aware of them in the language he or she hears – i.e. the learner ‘notices’ them (Schmidt, 1990). This is known as the noticing hypothesis. Schmidt proposed that for learners to acquire new forms from input (language they hear) it is necessary for them to notice such forms in the input. Consciousness of features of the input can serve as a trigger that activates the first stage in the process of incorporating new linguistic features into one’s language competence. Schmidt  further clarifies this point in distinguishing between input (what the learner hears) and intake (that part of the input that the learner notices). Only intake can serve as the basis for language development. In his own study of his acquisition of Portuguese, Schmidt found that there was a close connection between noticing features of the input, and their later emergence in his own speech. The extent to which a learner notices new features of language in the input (for example, the use of the past perfect tense in a narrative) may depend upon how frequently the item is encountered, how salient or ‘noticeable’ it is, whether the teacher has drawn attention to it or the nature of the activity the learner is taking part in. Schmidt found from a detailed longitudinal study of his own acquisition of Portuguese that new forms appeared in his Portuguese only after he had become aware of them in the Portuguese he was exposed to. On the other hand, forms that were frequent in the input he was exposed to, but that he was not consciously aware of (i.e. that he had not noticed) did not appear in his use of Portuguese. The noticing hypothesis emphasizes the role of awareness in language learning and has implications both for the teaching of grammar as well as the teaching of listening.

Question:

Submitted by Satoshi, Japan

What role do schema play in language learning?

Dr. Richards responds:

The notion of schemas  refers to cognitive aspects of learning. Schemas are mental models, or frameworks, which organize information in the mind and represent generalized knowledge about events, situations, objects, actions and feelings. They are part of prior knowledge that learners bring to new experience. For example, the schema of ‘the evening meal’, for some people, will consist of information about the time of the meal, where it takes place, the sequence of activities involved, the food items eaten and utensils used, and the participants and their roles and actions. Such a schema may differ considerably from one culture to another and may need to be revised as new experience is encountered.

Schema theory has had a significant influence on our understanding of the nature of listening comprehension and reading in a second language, and on approaches to teaching both of these skills. It has emphasized the role of prior knowledge in comprehension, and the importance of pre-listening and pre-reading activities in preparing students to understand spoken and written texts. Teaching schemas involves helping students develop the interconnected meanings and relationships that make up schemas, and an understanding of the hierarchies of meanings and connections that underlie many concepts. The role of prior knowledge in learning is a core feature of constructivist theories of learning – one kind of cognitive approach to learning. Constructivist theory emphasizes that new learning is built upon existing knowledge and understanding. In second language learning, the process that results when new learning builds on existing knowledge is known as restructuring.