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- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 07:39:37 -0700
- Sender: SLA Research and Teaching <SLART-L@PSUVM.BITNET>
- From: LCINKO@ARIZVMS.BITNET
- Subject: Re: fl
- Lines: 28
-
- "Picking up the language naturally", OK.... But before sending students
- abroad, they need to go through some formal instruction. The advantage of
- instruction is that it breaks down and organizes the material. Instruction
- makes the input comprehensible. Sending students abroad is a great idea for
- them to go on learning through practice. However, without formal basis, there
- is little chance they will pick up anything. Personally, I tried to learn
- Chinese naturally when I was in Asia (I staid there one year)... But for some
- reason I always ended up hanging around French and English speaking folks.
- The outcome of one year in Asia is that I know three sentences in Chinese!!!
- Krashen and Terrell had also run an experiment: they had a nonspanish speaking
- person in a house where Spanish only was spoken. I forgot how long the
- experiment lasted, but the outcome was that very little learning was going on.
- Krashen himself ended up believing that formal instruction has the advantage of
- providing a comprehensible input. Some people, with a precise personality
- profile are pretty good at picking up languages naturally. However, those
- people are rare. I agree that a combination of instruction and traveling
- provides the best outcome regarding language acquisition. We know that
- instruction alone is somehow limited (due to a lack of sociolinguitic reality
- in classrooms) and that immersion is not enough unless some previous
- instruction has been going on (Krashen). Of course, instruction and immersion
- could both be taking place in the target language country at the same time...
- that's an idea...
-
- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
- Lydie Meunier-Cinko
- lcinko@ccit.arizona.edu
- lcinko@arizvms.bitnet
- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
-