Chapter 2 Principles of Language Learning and the Role. of the Teacher * How well students learn a language ultimately depends more on their own efforts than on the teacher's. Thus, any attempt to understand effective language teaching ‘must start with an understanding of language learning. * Four basic realities of language learning are that a language is a tool for communication, that learning a language involves mastery of both knowledge and skill, that the struggle to learn a language is a battle of the heart as well as of the mind, and that learners differ from each other in ways that have significance for language learning. * Language teachers are not simply transmitters of knowledge; like coaches, language teachers need to assist students in understanding the task before them, staying motivated, building discipline, and learning how to pursue the task on their own. * Many of the assumptions in this chapter are based on the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach. While an understanding of these ideas should be valuable to you in your teaching, CLT is not the only legitimate approach to language teaching, and itis up to you to decide how to adapt elements of CLT to your own teaching situation.8 € 3 2 s ° = e & & 2 3 = 6 Starting from the Language Learners Even though this is a book about language teaching, any discussion of teaching needs to start with students, In recent years, more and more books on language teaching place students rather than teachers at center stage. This shift is due to a growing recognition that whether or not students succeed in learning a language depends more on their own efforts than on the teacher’s and that a good program of instruction therefore needs to be student centered instead of teacher centered. This is not to say that the role of teachers and teaching is unimportant; far from it. However, effective language teaching needs to take the perspectives of students as its starting place—teachers need to understand as much as possible about what the language learning expe- rience looks and feels like from the students’ point of view. WHY START WITH THE STUDENTS? ‘The first reason it is important to view language learning as student centered is that students are individuals who differ from each other in significant ways. For example, students differ in their language knowledge and skills; one student may read well and have a broad vocabulary but be almost incapable of speech, while another student may have exactly the opposite profile of skills. Students also differ greatly in their levels of motivation, their attitudes toward study in general, and their feelings toward English study in particular. One student may be quite diligent but resent ‘Western cultural influence in her country; another thinks the West is appealing but has litle love for study; a third doesn’t care one way or another about English but would like to get a good grade on the final exam. Finally, students differ in their learning styles and strengths; a study - method that is intolerably boring, confusing, or intimidating for one student may prove comfort- able and effective for another. (More is said about this later in the chapter.) Consequently, the reasons for a student's successes or failures have to be sought at a variety of different levels and differ greatly from person to person; inevitably, no teacher-designed, one-size-fitvall lesson or program will meet the needs or suit the styles of all of the students in a class, and students need to find whatever path to success in English that suits them. A second argument for student-centered approaches is that students will learn more effec- tively if they are active participants in the process than if they only passively follow the teacher's, instructions. This is true even if for no other reason than much language study and practice take place when the teacher is not around to give instructions or to check up on students; students who view homework or small-group conversations as a welcome chance to develop their skills will make much better use of these opportunities than students who merely consider them a chore to bbe coped with as quickly as possible. To a large extent, students’ success in English study depends less on how well the teacher presents lessons than on how well the students study. ‘The final reason that language learning needs to focus on students is that few programs of English study in EFL settings are long enough to guarantee that students will have mastered English by the time they leave the program. In many countries, English is offered in middle school and even primary school—often as a required subject—but students study English only a few hours a week and have little opportunity to practice what they learn. Even the few students ‘who complete a university major in English still usually have gaps in their English skills when they ‘graduate, and students who are not English majors or who study in a night school have even less English training and practice. Thus, ifa high level of proficiency is the goal, students will prob- ably have to continue study of English long after they leave the educational system. The students who are most likely to keep making progress toward mastery of English—and eventually suc-ceed—are those who are already accustomed to designing and carrying out their own language study plans. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING Of the great many points one could make about the nature of language learning, I have chosen to focus on four basic assumptions of communicative language teaching (CLT) that stadents in EEL settings can easily lose sight of: (1) language is a tool for communication, (2) learning a language involves mastery of skills as well as knowledge, (3) learners need to give serious consid- eration to the impact of feelings on language study, and (4) learners differ in their learning styles Language as Communication One of the most fundamental realities of language learning is that language is a tool for commu- nication, As obvious as this point may seem, its implications are not always as clear to students as, they should be. Remember that many students’ experience of English learning does not encour- age them to see English as a communication tool. The daily reality of English study for many students consists of memorizing words and rules in preparation for a test and rarely involves using English for communicative purposes. After years of this kind of study, itis only to be expected that students will come to see language learning as an exercise that is primarily geared toward formal accuracy, especially on tests. Such noncommunicative approaches to English study tend to focus students’ attention on form instead of use and to undermine student interest; few students are excited by grammar and vocabulary study per se. The study of English is potentially more appealing and even exciting if English is seen as a tool that makes communication with a new world possible, allowing students to talk face-to- face with someone from a foreign country, read books or articles from the world’s vast library of material published in English, or even watch films and listen to songs in English. In all these cases, learning English means developing the ability to understand and interact with a universe that is largely inaccessible to those who don’t know English. Here it is worth pointing out that, although learning any language opens new doors, this is especially true of English particularly because of its growing role as an international language; English is now the language of pul ing and speech for most international communication and is often used even by people from non-English-speaking countries when they need to interact with people from other nations." There are other reasons to emphasize the communicative nature of English, one being that such a focus may make language learning easier. Brown (1991, 36) notes that in learning their first language, children tend to focus on communication before accuracy and suggests that this order of priority should also apply to learners of a second language. Taylor (1987, 46) also sug- gests that a communicative approach to language learning helps students learn grammar more effectively because their desire to communicate ideas can make them more interested in learning grammar structures that help them get their meaning across. If students are to view study of English as the learning of a tool for communication and to begin to taste the thrill of discovery that mastery of a new language can entail, they need to actu- ally experience language as communication as early as possible in their learning. In an English lass, this means using speaking or writing practice as an opportunity for students to share what they really think, feel, or believe. . "for example, Crystal (2008, 111, 115) point ou that 70-00 percent of scientific journal articles and roughly 89 percent ofthe world’s ‘ectronically stored information ae in English PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AND THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER a