On Exposure and Form: How do adults learn L2?

(Reflections on unit 10 of the Cambridge TKT prep course book) 

I really enjoyed this unit because it delved, ever so lightly, into the incredibly interesting subject area of "How do people learn L2?" I'm relieved that many"experts" agree that L2 is acquired through massive exposure to the target language.  Like children, you can learn a second language by being exposed to it on a regular basis, in a massive way, and NOT via the classic "study" method. It comes naturally as a result of massive exposure.

"One way we learn a foreign language is by exposure to it…{Experts}say we then pick it up automatically…This is the way children learn their first language." (Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams 41)

But if you're an adult, according to the text, massive exposure is not enough. You need to have help with form. Form is how a word is pronounced, how it's spelled, and it's related grammar.

Reflecting on my own experience learning Spanish, I tend to agree. I've been massively exposed to Spanish during my six years here in Mexico. I literally live the language every day. I've never taken a Spanish course, and I can now understand about 90% of what I hear, and I can easily hold conversations with little to no serious communicative hang ups. However, I've often found myself feeling the need for a guide at times. Someone to help me along with the grammar or how a word is pronounced, or did I spell that word correctly. 

In a way, children get "light" focus on form from adults. We, at times, correct their pronunciation and grammar. We usually, in informal settings, don't worry about sitting down to examine grammar on paper – we simply model it verbally.  For example:

Child: What does my nose smell?

Adult: What's that smell? Hmm…*sniff sniff* I think it's a hotdog!

The child will often make the same mistake a few times, but with repeated modeling they often "fix" the mistake on their own.

Back to the text:

I agree strongly with the idea of Comprehensible Input. That you should expose yourself to the target language often, and at levels that are slightly above your present skill set. Exposure should be regular. It should be filled with variety. And OBVIOUSLY, but often ignored by teachers, the exposure should be INTERESTING to the student. L2 exposure MUST NOT be a boring, painful experience! (Why subject yourself to something that's not fun?)

Exposure/L2 learning is not instant. (Most people will not become fluent in a year, two years, or even three. It takes many years of hard, continued exposure for acquisition to take place.) And like my son right now, there is always a silent period before you begin using the language yourself. This silence is when you're taking in the language, processing it, pondering the grammar etc.

L2 learning requires other people. Requires interaction. Communication is about transmitting meaning to another. How will you know you've used correct English if you don't speak with another English speaker?

L2 is learned through a combo of "acquisition, interaction and communication, and focusing on form." (41)  

References

Spratt, Pulverness & Williams. The Teaching Knowledge Test Course. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

More about Dependent/Independent clauses

Dependent clauses must have a subject and a verb as well. They are, afterall, clauses. 

Clauses: the Essential Building-Blocks
A clause is a group of related words containing a subject and a verb A clause can be usefully distinguished from a phrase, which is a group of related words that does not contain a subject-verb relationship, such as "in the morning" or "running down the street" or "having grown used to this harassment."

You can change an independent clause into a dependent one by adding a subordinating conjunction to the beginning of an independent clause. By adding a subordinating conjunction, you transform the IC into a dependent one. (Cool.)  Common Subordinating Conjunctions are:

Common Subordinating Conjunctions
after although as as if as long as as though because before even if even though	if if only in order that now that once rather than since so that than that	though till unless until when whenever where whereas wherever while

*via the CCC site.**I found the OWL over at Purdue University to be of great help in my quest to grok Independent and Dependent sentences. 

What is a Sentence?

A sentence usually contains a subject and verb. It expresses a complete statement. According to the Macmillan dictionary, a sentence is a

“group of words, usually including a subject and a verb, that express a statment, question, or instruction. A written sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point.”

A sentence may be a question or an exclamation!

The context of this post comes from an exercise I’m doing to prepare for a workshop. Here’s the problem sentence. (Which I now know is a sentence.)

As a responsible executive, what should you do?

What kind of sentence is this? Simple? Complex?

The subject, I think, is “you.” (The verb is “should do.”  Who or what should do? “You”)

“As” is a subordinating conjunction. That clues me off to this being a complex sentence. “As a responsible executive” cannot stand alone. It is a dependent clause.

“What should you do?” is an independent clause.

Subject and Predicate

A nice explanation about finding subjects and predicates. What I really felt was helpful here was how they explain compound predicates. A compound predicate is more than one verb which still pertains to the subject. In other words, the moment the verb switches subjects on you, you are dealing with a new sentence?

Subject and Predicate
Every subject is built around one noun or pronoun (or more) that, when stripped of all the words that modify it, is known as the simple subject. Consider the following example:

A piece of pepperoni pizza would satisfy his hunger.

The subject is built around the noun “piece,” with the other words of the subject — “a” and “of pepperoni pizza” — modifying the noun. “Piece” is the simple subject.

Likewise, a predicate has at its centre a simple predicate, which is always the verb or verbs that link up with the subject. In the example we just considered, the simple predicate is “would satisfy” — in other words, the verb of the sentence.

A sentence may have a compound subject — a simple subject consisting of more than one noun or pronoun — as in these examples:

Team pennants, rock posters and family photographs covered the boy’s bedroom walls.
Her uncle and she walked slowly through the Inuit art gallery and admired the powerful sculptures exhibited there.

The second sentence above features a compound predicate, a predicate that includes more than one verb pertaining to the same subject (in this case, “walked” and “admired”).

Complex Sentences

Complex sentences express more than one idea, and they have more than one verb. They are composed of independent and dependent clauses.

An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence.  It has a subject, a verb, and a predicate. It expresses a complete thought.

A dependent clause, on the other hand, does not express a complete thought. (It depends on an independent clause to express a complete thought.) A dependent clause may appear as  nominal, adjectivial, or adverbial.

Nominal Dependent Clauses contains a noun and one of the following that, if, or whether.

An example: I studied all night wondering if exams were really useful means of evaluation.

Adjectivial clauses contain who, which, or that.

This is the book which was written by Dickens. – [It's complex because it has more than one idea - this is the book, and written by Dickens. It has two verbs: is and was. ]

Adverbial clauses tells you how the action of the verb was done. The adverbial clause is separated from the rest of the clause by the following: after, although, as, because, before, if, since, that, though, till, unless, until, when, where, while.

An example: You shouldn’t give tests unless you are willing to grade them.