FWEN 1

Teaching English to speakers of other Languages

Linguistics is the scientific study of language which has two main branches.

1.    Theoretical linguistics

Concerned with the nature of language and its components (Sound, Structure and Meaning)

2.   Applied linguistics

Concerned with language use, how it is learned, acquired and may be thought.

Phonology

Focuses on the pronunciation systems of a language. The study of the various sounds available.

Morphology

Ways various languages build words

Syntax

Rule for building sentences (S - V - O)

Semantics

The meaning of words, phrases and sentences combined -> different interpretations of a word

Pragmatics

The use in context. It looks at all aspects of communication

Lexis

The words available in a language

English is the second language in most countries and the common language in many important fields such as commerce, science and culture.

What influenced English being a global language?

• 17th and 18th centuries English was the language of the leading colonial nation - Britain
• 18th and 19th centuries it was the leader of the industrial revolution - Britain
• 19th and early 20th it was the language of the leading economic power - the USA

English emerged as a first-rank language in industries which affected all aspects of society (press, advertising, broadcasting, motion pictures, sound recording, transport and communication). At the same time international alliances were forged which needed a lingua franca - English. English became a leading language of international political, academic and community meetings.

The English language as used internationally, especially with or among non-native English speakers.

The language used for communication between groups of people who speak different languages. The lingua franca isn’t the native language from either of those groups.

Also national language

Also official language in a multi-lingual nation. It’s used in government, courts of law, official business etc.

Erziehungsdirektoren Konferenz - besteht aus den 26 Erziehungsdirektoren der Kantone.

HarmoS is a so called „Schulkonkordat“ between the Kantons of Switzerland and the Fürstentum Liechtenstein, which was formulated by the EDK.

It is the harmonization between the participating Kantons regarding their mandatory school system.

Main aims are:

• quality assurance and development
• degrade mobility hindrance (moving between the Kantons with less problems concerning the children and their school based competences)

Achieving through:

• same duration of the obligatory school system
• harmonization of the main aims from the different grades
• national education standards

Due to the fact that Switzerland is a Multilingual country, the harmonization is special.

-> A secondary Language has to be thought from the 5th grade (counting KG) and the third from the 7th on. Which language is learned when can still vary depending on the Kanton.

Contracts and agreements made between the Kantons are called Konkordat.

Is used in BL, BS, BE, FR, SO and VS

Ideas:

• making the language competences comparable (GER)
• Functional multilingualism; communicate in our Multilingual country and global world
• Language acquisition as active construction
• „Mehrsprachigkeitsdidaktik“; connecting the „Didaktik“ of the different languages

Celtic influence on Englisch: pre history / stone age. Celtics influenced most of the time in name of places.

F.E.: „ardu“ = „haut“ / „high“

They covered the whole of mediterranean.

Latin stood for social standing (soldiers, business). Latin was also used for writing, colonisation, christianisation (translation of bible).

Name of places like Manchester, Lancaster, Chester etc.

Latin is still fixed in some expressions today: in vino veritas, summa cum laude, am (ante meridiem) and pm (post meridiem).

Latin was used for all things very high status (law, religion, business etc.)

F. E: „scola“ (latin) - „scol“ (old English) - „school“ (modern English)

Transferred from Skandinavia to England.

Cild (Angleland) - child (English).

Germanic influences in the days of the week.

Originally a germanic tribe - sea nation.

They came manly from Scandinavian north cost to Ireland & Wales. They pushed down the Anglo-Saxens to the south of England.

F.E.:

- Places with endings like -by.

• Lifestyle words like „fisk“ - „fish“
• Word „window“ comes from them = „wind-eye“

1066 Battle of Hastings: King of Saxens was killed by the Normans (Normandie). The Normans brought all their people to England.

English replaces French as language of law.

Early modern English began in the 1540s.

    Celts                   Romans           Anglo-Saxons          Vikings                Normands

    410 n. Chr.       6th century         7th-9th century           787. n. Chr.        1066 n. Chr.

Words borrowed from another language (for example: anger, awkward, bag, Tsunami etc.)

Common European Framework of Reference = seeks to analyse and describe in a comprehensive way language teaching and learning, language use and language performance in all possible contexts. It also explores in detail a wide range of types of assessment (scales, levels, performance indicators etc.)

Competences in more than one language & switch between languages

Connected to situations where multiple languages exist side-by-side in a society but are utilized separately.

F.E: School language is German. They also learn English and French. At home & with friends they speak Swiss-German.

Understand & being understood; just speaking (not always perfect)

BICS = Basic language and every day language (level A)

CALP = higher levels (B2+, C1, C2). Academic language. Going out of your comfort zone.

Stage where you are at starting to gain words.

F.E: child - children. baby - babies.

• Kids hear the language and learn a lot by just listening.
• They gain confidence.
• They repeat while listening.
• Receptive to productive: need to hear before they can speak.

• Teachers may have limited English fluency in language
• Incorrect models.
• May be difficult to do any reflection on learning or discjss pupils opinions on learning English
• maybe too much effort to understand for not highly motivated pupils

Zone of proximal Development: difference between what a learner can do without help and what he/se can’t. Concept of Vygotsky.

People learn language best trough imitation (by what the teacher says and you repeat). Stimulus and response. Drilling of patterns and positive reinforcement. Behaviourists are looking for perfection. The students don’t learn to use the language in a creative way. They just learn the patterns.

By Skinner

Criticism: L1 learning in U-Modell (first by imitation, than creativity and then correcting). This shows that children learn language not simply by imitating but by working out grammar for themselves.

17th and 18th century: Theories there were innate (biological) and therefore universal features of the human mind.

Theory was revived by Chomsky in the 1950s: children are pre-programmed, they automatically notice and focus on language around them rather than simply imitating and responding to stimulus. Function of the brain helps them to process what they hear, to structure language and to produce their own creative and meaningful sentences = „Language Acquisition Devise“.

CPH = Critical Period Hypothesis: critical period for learning language. Children up to the age of eleven are more open to learning foreign languages than older children or adults.

By Chomsky around 1959 and then also Lennenberg 1967.

Criticism: one-sided focus on how learners learn language structures and one-sided in age factor.

„Learner is lone scientist who is looking for answer“. 1964 Piaget argued that language develops in stages, with each stages building on the stage before. Language development is linked to development of motor skills of a child & ability to to think abstract. He assumed that children learn by doing - they actively construct knowledge through solving problems and by being given time to explore. „Child as central to his/her own learning“.

Criticism: view of lone scientist neglects the social aspects in language learning - in particular, how language learning is influenced by interaction w/ others.

„Language is a code which children learn to use by interacting with people around them“. Expose learner to simplified language and interaction to find a common understanding. 1934 Vygotsky emphasized the importance of social interaction for language acquisition process. Children learn better with the help of more knowledgeable people. ZPD = Zone of proximal development = state between what children could do alone and with support. Scaffolding, structure or framework. Scaffolding & ZPD good for teachers because gives idea of how they can both support and challenge learners through careful design and sequencing tasks.

Growing importance of oracy, communication important for modern languages.

Focus on translations, written language, rules, language system, grammatical accuracy

Language is not learnt by imitation and repetition only but is created from an innate rule-based competence, Universal Grammar (Chomsky) — cognitive Change: constructivism.

Focus on oral language production, drilling of sentence patterns, language lab, mistakes are eliminated.

Total Physical Response. Method based on findings from L1 research had only marginal impact, methodology based on acting out commands cannot really work on the long run.

Focus on input first, physical reactions to commands, students are only ask to speak when they are ready.

Method replicates real communication. The search for real authentic communication led to the development of task-based learning and CLIL.

Focus on real-life communication, goal to reach communicative competence, transmitting meaning is more important than correct language use

Content and Language Integrated Learning.

Works well if there is a lot of exposure to the foreign language of if there’s a basic knowledge of the foreign language. Return to focus on form to prevent language fossilization.

Focus: English is the medium for studying another subject, transmitting meaning is more important than correct use of language.