Gooder Language Learning

Written by Dr. David E. Shaffer

We often talk about the “good language learner” and the characteristics that make them “good.” We have done so in this column you may remember. We’ve talked about student motivation, being organized by setting goals and keeping records, and taking chances and guessing. But the lists of characteristics are usually short and assume that the language learner picks up these characteristics on their own. Here we will consider some of the lesser-discussed, but still very important, characteristics and what the teacher can do to help instill them to make a “gooder” language learner.

CURIOSITY
Granted, there is the saying that “Curiosity killed the cat,” but Arnold Edinborough countered with “Curiosity is the very basis of education, and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.” The greater a learner’s curiosity, the more effective they will be at language learning. Some students are more curious than others, so it is for the language teacher to ensure that their lessons arouse curiosity in all their students. This can be done by supplementing the coursebook material with in-class discovery activities and out-of-class projects. Rather than spoon-feeding information to the students, making them curious and wanting to discover the answer or solution makes for “gooder” language learning.

INVESTMENT AND INTERACTION
Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Learning a second language can of course substantially increase one’s career opportunities. However, Bonnie Norton posits the notion of investment to replace that of motivation to capture the complex social history and multiple desires that the learner brings to the language learning situation. The teacher must be aware of the student’s social history and their desires to effectively sculpt the “goodest” lessons and language learning environment. This will include ample opportunity for interaction in the second language with both the teacher and with other students. This is not saying that individual practice is not effective; it most definitely has its place. But individual practice coupled with abundant interaction is “gooder.” In addition to fostering interaction in the classroom, the teacher can guide students to safe places on the internet to interact with others in the second language as well as to places in the local community outside of the classroom.

AMBIGUITY TOLERANCE
Individuals vary greatly in the degree that they feel comfortable in guessing at things that they are not certain about. This is true of people when listening and reading in their first language, and it can only be truer of students learning a second language. Language learners need to realize that ambiguity is a built-in part of language learning and that they need to learn to deal with it. Here the teacher can help by introducing a couple of strategies that cop[e with ambiguity. Students drawing on their own prior knowledge to connect with a gap in their comprehension can make for very educated guesswork. They can also refer to the information surrounding an unknown word or expression to help them understand the meaning of the message. Having a high tolerance for ambiguity and using strategies to deal with it makes for “gooder” language learning.

STUDY TIME AS QUALITY TIME
What I mean by “quality study time” is that effective study methods should be used. The problem in many cases, however, is that learners are not aware of many study methods and are aware of even fewer effective methods. Rote memorization of vocabulary items and grammar rules, simply listening to music, and merely watching a movie are often about the only study methods that Korean learners of English are aware of – and as teachers we know that these methods in themselves are not very effective for language learning. It is very important that, in addition to using effective teaching methods, teachers introduce effective study methods to their students and also train their students on how to reflect on their study methods to determine their effectiveness. To learn a language, students need to spend a lot of out-of-class time learning the language, and as teachers we need to help ensure that our students’ study time is quality time.

CONSISTENCY
Another very common saying is “Consistency is the key to success.” This is true for language learning as much as it is for anything else. What many students do, however, is put off out-of-class language study, practice, and review until right before test time and then binge study. We know from research (and our own anecdotal evidence) that studying a lot one day a week is not as effective as spreading out that same study time over the seven days of the week. Such consistency in out-of-class language is something that teachers need to instill in their students, as few students pick up this habit on their own. Just telling our students to do daily language learning will likely not be very effective; we need to do something “gooder.” Instead of giving a couple of major tests in a course, we can give our students many small projects of various types to do out of class for assessment purposes. This can aid in forming consistency in language study.

REVIEW
Korea’s teach-and-test methodology is not very conducive to creating the habit of review in language learners. Coursebooks do not have very much review of material built into them. Vocabulary and structural patterns are introduced in one unit but may not appear again in the coursebook. Consequently, students see little need to review language material once they have been tested on it. We know however that language acquisition comes from meeting the same material over and over again. As teachers, we need to incorporate material from earlier units into our later lessons and assessments. This will hopefully help to create the habit of review in our students. Recycling is not only good for the physical environment, it is good for the language learning environment as well.

Your students may already be good language learners, but if they are not yet aware of the information presented above, you can make them “gooder” language learners.

The Author
David E. Shaffer is vice-president of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter of Korea TESOL (KOTESOL). On behalf of the chapter, he invites you to participate in their teacher development workshops at their monthly meetings (always on a Saturday). For many years, Dr. Shaffer has been a professor of English Language at Chosun University. He is a long-time member of KOTESOL and a holder of various KOTESOL positions; at present he is national president. Dr. Shaffer credits KOTESOL for much of his professional development in English language teaching, scholarship, and leadership. He is board chair at the GIC and also editor-in-chief of the Gwangju News.