L&S ch 3 dealt with when it's best to learn a language. Basically if it's done very young the learner will gain near native fluency. However beyond that studies are all over the place. Various ages learn different aspects more quickly than others. In the end there wasn't any clear cut advantage in adolescent vs adult learning. Different characteristics can be "proven" to be most important in acquisition.
The chapter in Brown about age levels was obvious. For one thing younger learners don't have the vocabulary in their L1 to talk about the concepts that adult learners do, therefor there will be things that can't be done in their L2. Also, when planning activities for a class, a good rule of thumb is 1 minute per year of age, then change activities...this has to do with attention span. You go too long and they are playing TMNT, Little Ponies, Harry Potter, planning their next date, passing notes, paying bills...they've made the change for you. Of course this is only a rule of thumb, and some activities hold them longer.
The specific advice in chapter 7 felt fairly obvious. However, it was so nice to finally see a breakdown of the major levels of language acquisition. In trying to plan a lesson for _________ level learners I was completely making things up. I didn't know what it meant and made guesses. If I said beginning I went way back, and advance very advanced. I made sure I never had to plan anything for intermediate learners, because how far from the extremes was it really. This chapter would make more sense at the beginning of the book. For one thing, knowing what level I am looking at makes different theories hold more true in my head than others.
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2 comments:
I'd not heard about the 1 minute per year of age rule of thumb before. Thanks.
Good point about the breakdown of levels of acquisition being at the beginning of the book. I'll have to remember that for next year.
In terms of acquisition cricical period is so important I think Because i had lots of adults although they really worked hard they could not progress well.
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