Another day, another discussion of foreign language instruction on Facebook. This time, an article was posted that described a research study of first language acquisition in small children. The discussion was on the potential relevance and application of the findings to L2 teaching, especially regarding output.
Basically, the study measured brain activation while children (ages 4-6) listened to stories, and they also measured the children's language use, including:
The question of relevance to L2 teaching centered on what that means about the role of output in language learning. Though this is not an L2 study (a point I'll get back to later), for the sake of argument, the above bullet points could be translated to ACTFL-speak as interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational, respectively. Or just input, output, and interaction. If one were to assume the results of the study could be extrapolated to the very different circumstances (e.g. environment, cognitive development) of foreign language classroom instruction, the surface interpretation would probably be that interaction is more effective at impacting language acquisition than straight input (i.e. listening without interaction) and especially output (i.e. speaking practice). I still had some questions after reading the MIT News blurb, so I looked up the original article. A couple thoughts:
After reading the journal article, I would boil the findings down to this: Children who experience more interactive conversation have more brain activation in the speech production center of the brain even when passively listening. Back to what this says for L2 acquisition. Hard to say. It's good to think about how/whether L1 studies can be extrapolated to bilingual or formal L2 situations, but it's also possible that if this effect translates to L2, it wouldn't even be relevant until the learner has enough proficiency in the L2 to be equivalent to a 4-6yo. A baby or toddler version of this study would in some ways be more applicable (but harder to measure). A bilingual version of this study would be fantastic, of course. It's possible that those kids who experience more interactive conversation in any language (e.g. L1) could have more brain activation in the speech production center of the brain when passively listening in any language (e.g. L2), meaning students coming to language classes could already differ in their brain activity in ways that impact their L2 processing. Or maybe the effects don't span across languages, in which case it wouldn't affect L2 processing, and interaction in L2 is what affects L2 processing. Or maybe not. Lots of avenues for research before we can confidently make judgments about L2 learning or instruction. If anything, I interpret this research to support the notion that rather than talking at students or asking them to talk for talking's sake, those interested in supporting language development (whether L1 or L2) should emphasize talking with students.
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AuthorThis is a place where I record thoughts on second language research and pedagogical theory Archives
June 2019
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