CLT Principle 3: Language Acquisition is Constrained by Internal and External Factors – Part 1

Today we’re looking at Bill VanPatten’s third Principle of Contemporary/Communicative Language Teaching in the book While We’re on the Topic (ACTFL, 2017).

Before we look into the principle, let’s begin by defining a couple of terms.

Acquisition: Bill VanPatten, Stephen Krashen, and others make a distinction between learning and acquisition. Typically, adherents to this distinction describe acquisition as subconscious, implicit, seemingly effortless, and based on communication (the expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning). Learning, on the other hand, is conscious, explicit, requires effort, and is not communicative. This position is controversial, and some make a distinction between short-term and long-term memory rather than learning and acquisition. However, the distinction is helpful when considering the kind of input and instruction to provide in a language course.

Constrain: The verb means to compel something by stricture, restriction, or limitation; to limit or restrict. We see this often and think nothing of it. Our ability to jump is constrained by both internal and external factors, i.e. the strength of our muscles and length of our limbs (internal) as well as the force of gravity (external) limit the height to which we can jump. If we can change the parameters of the internal or external constraints, we can change how high we jump.

VanPatten begins his discussion by describing the traditional process of language instruction and a typical understanding of acquisition: learn some rules or vocabulary, practice, receive correction, and over time learn the language. Teachers, students, and others believe this is the way languages are acquired.

However, generations of students have gone through this process and report things like, “I took four years of Blovish but can’t even understand it when people talk to me.” Language teachers often make statements like, “The only way to truly learn a language is to go where people speak it.”

Which is true?

Obviously, we need to take a new look at second language acquisition, and VanPatten provides an introduction, noting along the way that we have nearly 50 years of empirical research to inform our understanding. Unfortunately, not a lot of that research has managed to make its way into the thinking, planning, and instruction of language teachers.

So, what are some basics about Second Language Acquisition that we need to know?

1. Second language acquisition is a rich, complex, and dynamic process. Van Patten maintains that is is slow and piecemeal.Some would disagree with this. There are many people who advertise speedy language acquisition. One entrepreneur has a program he calls “Fluent in 3 Months”, although he admits that this is a goal rather than a guarantee.

   Part of the discrepancy depends, I believe, on the definition of fluent. VanPatten seems to be talking about high-level proficiency while the purveyors of language learning systems and programs are talking about basic, simple conversation. Someone who wants to learn more should investigate the writings of Steve Kaufmann.

   Both VanPatten and Kaufmann agree that comprehensible input is essential to acquisition, and “the traditional methods” will not lead to acquisition or fluency. First language acquisition requires thousands of hours of exposure. A key question is whether second language acquisition requires the same amount of time. [I don’t believe it does, for more than one reason.]

   The piecemeal nature of acquisition means that we do not acquire or learn one aspect of language and then move on to something else. No, instead we are adding bits and pieces of language in various categories all the time. We are always working on acquiring the whole language, not just limited aspects of it.

2. Second language acquisition is stage-like and follows a path not dictated by instruction or external forces. This is part of the internal constraint on language acquisition. Krashen talks about the “Natural Order”. Extensive research in English has revealed that certain items in the language are “early acquired” and others are “late acquired”. The correct kind of instruction may accelerate acquisition, but it cannot change the order of acquisition.VanPatten describes the stages of acquiring the Spanish verbs ser and estar as follows:
   Stage 1: No verb
   Stage 2: Emergence and use of ser for most contexts
   Stage 3: Emergence and use of estar as auxiliary for progressive
   Stage 4: Emergence and use of estar as copula for location and adjectives
3. Learners come to implicitly know more about language than they have been been exposed to.This is a bit of an enigma. How can this happen? How do learners come to know what can and cannot be done in the language without having been exposed to every possibility? VanPatten later in the chapter ascribes this to internal factors.
4. Almost all L2 learners fall short of native-like competence and abilityThis realization should be freeing. It is neither necessary to achieve native-like ability (including accent) nor embarrassing when we do not. Our job is to become the best non-native speaker we can.

In summarizing this portion of the book, VanPatten states the following characteristics of language acquisition:
– It is slow
– It is piecemeal (i.e. occurs in bits and pieces)
– It is stage-like (i.e. is ordered and sequenced independently of instruction and other factors)
– Instruction does not significantly affect the first three characteristics
– We create mental representation that we couldn’t learn from the environment
– Some kind of non-nativeness seems to be the norm

VanPatten makes one more key statement:

The learner is … in much more control of the process than … teachers and lay people may want to admit

but that control is unconscious.

The next section of this chapter enters seriously controversial territory: the idea of Universal Grammar. So, we’ll take a look at it next time.