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Language Acquisition without Speaking and without Study
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11 thoughts on “Language Acquisition without Speaking and without Study”
In some European countries like Finland, TV series are shown in their original version with subtitles. American shows are very popular. The worse the more addictive. When I go back to my native country kids are up to date on Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, they even know Snooki (huh!). I have often thought that American TV no matter how low, has done more to promote the language than any methodology could ever do. I’ve been amazed at the level of fluency and accuracy in English of young kids, let’s say 10 and over. Other factors have played a role of course.
It comes at a price though. Go explain to a Finnish kid that not everyone lives on Wisteria Lane, shops on 5th Avenue, and gets spray tans twice a week.
Catharina, I remember reading Jim Trelease comment on this!
See #9: http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/10-reading-facts-brochure.pdf
Interesting. Thanks Eric.
Listen, I will bet my house + my beloved vintage station wagon (and that says a lot)
that there isn’t a single TCI teacher in Finland. I’ll even include Sweden,
Norway, Denmark and Iceland. How about that ?
If I had your courage and talent, Eric, I’d write to the biggest Finnish newspaper praising the American school system. I’d tell them about this amazing approach in teaching kids languages. How Finland should send a team of teachers to learn from the US (and not the reverse).
They would of course respond “thanks but no thanks” thinking of how well English is taught in schools… Really??? Or should we rather give credit to Hannah Montana and Sasha Baron Cohen
aka Ali G.?
Don’t get me wrong. I love Finland.
But I suggest not spending all that money on sending teams of US teachers abroad.
You have the very best teachers in your own country.
Right here. On this blog.
Catharina, I never had even a hint in your posts that you are not a native speaker of English. That’s really impressive. It seems like those who accomplish that, in my experience, are all Scandanavian. Were you watching shows from the US in your childhood too?
The Chinese subtitle all their TV shows (even news broadcasts) in order to overcome any dialect-related confusion, but also to encourage literacy. I think it’s a great idea.
…there isn’t a single TCI teacher in Finland. I’ll even include Sweden,
Norway, Denmark and Iceland….
Catharina just yesterday I worked with the faculty of Svenska Skolan Colorado, the Swedish School of Colorado (sponsored by the Swedish government to protect language and culture much like the French Lycée Programs here). They get it. They want more of it. They travel every summer to Sweden. So there will be teachers doing this work there soon. You should have seen them.
Great Ben! Thank you!!! Finally!!!
Diane, I came to the US 26 years ago with a basic knowledge of English, enough to function, but miserable at the movies. Over time English became my strongest language because I used it daily, today even in my dreams. I will never master the language like Ben Slavic, Robert Harrell, Eric H. or yourself. Not in any of the languages I speak, for that matter.
I grew up with one foot in Finland, the other in Belgium. The school year was spent in Brussels, the summers in my parents’ native country. I remember clearly watching Daktari, Bonanza, and the Flintstones on black and white TV. Not understanding a single word. Guess I didn’t bother with the subtitles? America was synonyme to Disney World paradise. We pretended to speak English as kids, it was chic.
I love and respect Dr. Krashen’s work. Based on my personal experience and observations, far from scientifical, it just makes sense.
Catharina, I totally agree that anecdotally, and also in my experience this just makes sense.
I also had no idea you were not a native English speaker. You must have watched ALL the seasons of Gossip Girl. Hahaha 😉
It’s interesting that kids like you describe spend hours watching “foreign” shows on their own time. I can’t think of many kids here that would do that. Other than our CI students, that is!
Catharina you said:
…I remember clearly watching Daktari, Bonanza, and the Flintstones on black and white TV. Not understanding a single word. Guess I didn’t bother with the subtitles? America was synonyme to Disney World paradise. We pretended to speak English as kids, it was chic….
So this reflects the premise of the Lao/Krashen paper, which
…describes how Paul did it. Nearly all of his exposure to Mandarin has been through media, through TV and CD’s, with no classes, no study, and no interaction….
And you said that pretending to speak English was considered chic.
So you had the input and the motivation. And now you have near complete command of English, as per:
…over time English became my strongest language…
Your story fits right in with the point of the article!
I did notice walking around in the Swedish School (I felt as if I actually was in Sweden because there was no evidence of American culture in the school) that the teachers had almost no accents when they spoke English. So much of it has to do with motivation, and so many of us are loaded down with large amounts of unmotivated students. I feel this idea of motivation is not fully appreciated in the general discussion about how people acquire languages. We speak of not forcing anything in language classes, and yet the kids are often forced to take the class. Oh well, sorry for the digression. But you are a treasure to this group, Catharina, and no doubt about it.
My Dad, from Cuba, always told us that he learned English at the cinema. He would skip school frequently (haha…he even failed Spanish, his native tongue!) to watch US films. This was “way back in the day” ie, before TV even. 40s and 50s He was hired as a University Instructor (of English) before he even graduated high school because apparently his English was so good. I cannot verify that obviously. Just one of the Juan legends. But it makes total sense. He did not live in a home with anyone who spoke English, and from his sketchy school attendance, probably did not learn by “studying.” Kind of like the guy in Krashen’s article. Motivated by the compelling stories / love of film.
There’s that word compelling again. So many words Krashen uses to describe how we really learn languages are not appreciated or valued by the language community as a whole. Compelling. It has to be interesting at least, right? And how many language teachers are going to present uninteresting stuff to their kids today? It could be millions of kids! Oh well. I’ll get over it. Maybe.