Second edition

Have you learnt English more successfully from formal study or just by picking it up?
Research has identified three main ways in which we learn a foreign language. Firstly, experts talk of us acquiring language, or language acquisition. This means the same as picking up language. They say that to learn a foreign language successfully we need lots of exposure to it and that we learn from being surrounded by language. We need to hear and read language which is rich in variety, interesting to us and just difficult enough for us, i.e. just beyond our level, but not too difficult Acquisition then takes place over a period of time without our realising that we are learning. We listen to and read items of language many times before we begin to use them (silent period), unconsciously working out (calculating/deducing) their meaning and form.
Secondly, experts believe that to learn language successfully we need to use it in interaction with other people. We need to use language to express ourselves and make our meanings dear to them, and to understand them. The person we are talking to will let us know, directly or indirectly, if they have understood us or not. If they have not understood, we need to try again, using other language (paraphrasing), until we manage to communicate successfully. It is this process of struggling to make meaning clear which helps learners experiment with language, forcing them to try out structures, chunks and vocabulary they have already learnt, to see if they help them get their message across.
Thirdly, research shows that foreign language learners also need to focus on form. This means that they need to pay attention not just to the meaning of language but also to its formal features, e.g, pronunciation, word order, affixes, spelling, grammatical structures.
Nowadays, it is thought that, depending on our age and learning style, we learn language best by picking it: up, by interacting with others and by focusing on form.
This suggests that several approaches to language teaching which were commonly


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Unit 10 Exposure and focus on form

used in the past may not be sufficiently helpful to learners, e.g. the Grammar- trahslation method which’ fоcused only on grammar and translating texts, the Structural Approach which focused only on learning and practising structures, or communicative approaches which just, focused on using language fluently in communication. But the research still continues, and we do not yet fully understand how foreign languages are learnt.
■ Key concepts and the language teaching classroom
Read these tips and tick the ones which arc most important for you.

9. 
   To acquire language, learners need to hear and read a wide variety of language at the right level for them. They need exposure to language both inside and outside the classroom. In the classroom they can listen to recordings of e.g. stories or songs, or they can read e.g. magazine articles - maybe without any accompanying comprehension or language tasks. Outside class, they can also read e.g. graded readers and maybe use the internet to either read or listen to things that interest them - without tasks to complete so that: they can just take in the language.
   

• To acquire language it is not sufficient just to listen to or read language. It has to be language at the right level. This means language that is just a little challenging for learners because it's a little beyond their current level. Teachers can choose recordings and reading materials at the right level of difficulty. m Learners need time to acquire language. They may need a silent period before they can produce new language and we cannot expect them to learn things immediately. Learning language is a slow process that necessarily involves making mistakes.
© Learners need to use language to interact. In the classroom this can be with classmates or the teacher. This gives them the opportunity to experiment with language and find out how successful their communication is. Pair and group work give the opportunity for interaction, as do problem-solving activities and project work. When they try to communicate, learners will often make mistakes. When classmates don't understand these, the learners will be forced to paraphrase what they have said, which is a valuable learning process.
© Learners can benefit from opportunities to focus on forms of language. There are many ways teachers can help learners notice forms (become aware of particular language), e.g. by presenting new target language to learners, by asking them to find certain grammatical patterns in listening or reading texts, by pointing out useful language after they have completed a task, and also through correction,
© Some learners may like to learn and/or are used to learning in particular ways, This means that teachers should consider learners' age, learning experience and learning styles when deciding how to teach. For example, focusing on form by asking learners to highlight conjunctions in a text may be much more effective with older learners than with younger learners. Correction may be the most suitable way to focus on form with younger learners, but some older learners may dislike being corrected in front of classmates.
See Units 12,13 and 14 for the different characteristics and needs of learners, Unit 15 for approaches to language teaching, and Unit /7 for ways of focusing on and practising language, and for examples of communicative tasks.