17.3.2. The special nature of language

A language is not just a subject in the sense of a package of knowledge. It is not just a set of information and insights. It is a fundamental part of being human. In fact, some people see it as the fundamental part of being human. It is, of course, perfectly possible to treat a language as if it were a freestanding package of information, i.e. to observe it, to analyse it and to fit together examples of how others use it. It is even possible to use this analysis and working out as the way to learn to use the language ourselves. Many of us who are now teachers first learnt a foreign language that way. For some it leads to success. But it is a very abstract process and experience has shown that it does not appeal to everyone. To learn to use a language at all well for ourselves rather than for textbook purposes, most of us have to become involved in it as in experience. We have to make it a human event, not just a set of information. We do this by using it for real communication, for genuinely giving and receiving real messages.

As we have already seen, giving and receiving messages in the early stages of learning a language, whether it is our mother tongue or a second language, involves using limited resources creatively. So, we can see why attitudes such as confidence and risk talking have a central role in language learning. The important point to remember is that the attitude goals are not just there in order to motivate the children to accept the content. They are far more crucial than that. We need them in our language teaching because they are a key part of the process by which language develops.

The big question is how to make attitude goals a high priority. Giving a high priority to attitude goals will show in the kind of interaction set up between teachers and learners and between learners themselves, e.g. in the checking of understanding and the correction of mistakes.

17.3.3. The significance of the way we check understanding

Unless we are true bilinguals, most of us operate in a foreign language by taking the risk of operating on partial information. We may well not understand completely what has been said to us, but we are usually willing to guess the bits we don’t understand or to operate as if we do understand everything. In classroom however, we often hear teachers checking the meaning of almost every word of English as they go along. They perhaps see one sentence in English and then translate it back into the mother tongue. Or perhaps they get the children to translate it. They keep asking ‘Do you understand?’

This happens from the best of motives. Ironically, the teacher wants to make sure that the children are secure and confident. What ultimately happens is the reverse. By constant checking in this way the teachers are implying that they expect the children to understand every little bit they hear. From that it follows that the children begin to think that they will not be able to understand at all unless they do understand every little bit. They will also come to believe that they have not understood unless they can give an exact mother tongue equivalent. In fact, they are unlikely to be able to understand everything. Nor do they need to. Nor will they always be able to give a mother tongue equivalent for something they have understood. Even in our mother tongue we do not understand every little bit. We deal with whole messages. As you are reading this you are not stopping over every word. If you did slow down like that, the meaning would begin to disintegrate. As primary teachers you will see this happening when children at an early stage of reading are reading aloud. As they concentrate on each single word in turn, the meaning disappears both for them and for the listener. Constant explicit checking in the foreign language has the same effect.

Of course, we will need to check their understanding somehow, but we do not have to draw their attention to the fact that we are doing so. We can check by watching what they do, watching their faces. Teachers do this all the time anyway. If we can see they do not understand, perhaps by the look on their faces, perhaps by the way they are sitting, or more obviously by the fact that they do not do what we are expecting, then we can rephrase the words. If it does not work, we can show them again what we mean before the temporary lack of understanding becomes critical.