Humanistic Teaching

An approach to learning English

Last week I attempted to split two stories and in doing so avoided talking about my theme BICS and CALPS. So this time I'm going to get right to it. Though they sound like haircare products BICS and CALP are supposedly, or perhaps I should write inherently, two different forms of language. BICS being basic interpersonal communicative skills and CALP cognitive academic language proficiency. Just as the definition of the acronym NLP left Andrew Wright with a sour taste in his mouth, so go these two with me. Sometimes I wonder how much of academic language is really required? But then the question that immediately springs to mind is, required to do what? Is the purpose of academic language to increase understanding and advance knowledge or is it self serving? Is the purpose perhaps bound up with social hierarchy and control? Or perhaps it is all about confusing and hiding meaning? Lines from Adrian Mitchell's The Oxford Hysteria of English Poetry spring to mind:

Under the Normans the language began to clear,
Became a pleasure to write in,
Yes, write in, by now everyone was starting
To write down poems.

Well, it saved memorizing and improvizing
And the peasants couldn't get hold of it.

Is modern academic language similar in function to the medieval guild? Though perhaps guilds were socially more useful. Anyway, when I come across this kind of choking language two thoughts spring to my mind. One is George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language. I first read it when I was 13 and I still reread it from time to time. The other is to get my breath back by putting the language into words that make sense to me. So let's see - basic interpersonal communicative skills - that could be conversation, cognitive academic language proficiency, that could be, pedantry, no, no, studying.

Is there a difference between the language required for daily conversation and that for academic performance? Surely, that goes without saying? But to be fair to Professor Cummins, who came up with the acronyms I've been dissing, what he wanted to warn about was not assuming that just because students are socially fluent that means they will be academically fluent. The skills required are different, with academia being more demanding. Well, yes.

All this is more the concern of those working with students learning English as a second language rather than those learning it as a foreign language. I work mainly with Japanese children and many have enough trouble retaining basic language never mind academic learning. But perhaps that's because I focus too much upon teaching them to learn language rather than enabling them to acquire it. I guess what I mean is that the most humanistic way to teach is not to teach at all. I think that If we can engage children in English so that they have an emotional attachment to English then they will be able to acquire English without needing to learn it. For example, music is a popular tool for language teachers because of its impact. If we want children to learn the days of the week using a chant or a song will be more effective than a dry parroting of the words. But the question still remains, why would children want to learn the days of the week in a foreign language?

One immediate answer, is why wouldn't they? Children seem to have an almost infinite, inexhaustible curiosity. That is, if they haven't been over-schooled. I seem to remember learning Frere Jacques in French long before I ever knew of Brother John in English. Having said this, I never knew what the French meant, it was the sound and melody alone that was attractive. So, at least for children, acquiring words of a foreign language doesn't necessarily mean acquiring meaning. Does this mean that teaching meaning is necessary after all?

I seem to be weaving more threads with this entry than I can handle. Combined with last week what have we got? A little girl failed by competitive games; a little boy trained to win by all means (I didn't mention the training last week. I just slipped it in now); a teaching technique (split stories); advice to avoid teaching; advice to keep teaching; language learning, language acquisition; emotional attachment; meaning and understanding. I'm getting a headache! I need some time to pull this altogether. Where did I put my hat? Is there a rabbit in it?

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• Yada!
• Question Time?
• Kind Hearts And Pancakes
• Teaching To The Test
• The Keyword Game
• Quitting
• New Year Resolutions
• Partied Out
• Christmas Reverie
• Feedback Fallacies

• Yada!
    - michelle
  
• The Keyword Game
    - Brett Iimura
    - Renae
  
• New Year Resolutions
    - Robert Sieveking
    - Chris (Hunt)
    - Steven Williams
    - Chris (Hunt)
    - Steven Williams
  
• Quitting
    - Jon Otto
    - Chris (Hunt)
  
• Improvisation
    - Dr. Michael Cubbin
  
• Violence
    - Jon Otto
    - Chris (Hunt)
    - Jon Otto
  
• Ambivalence
    - Ben Shearon
  
• Negotiated Syllabi
    - Harry
    - Phil
  
• Mitigating Quietness
    - Alison Miyake
  
• Motivation Mores
    - Kelly Brown