[accessibleimage] Re: more Re: Molyneaux's question rephrased

Peter,

The interactive emergent-type methods I am talking about are for the class
setting and can work in a country where the language is not used by most
people. Teachers who have a functional command of the language to be taught
are able to use them effectively. Students who are learning the new language
practice with each other as well as the teacher, and studies have shown that
they benefit from such practice--it develops the habits of use, even when
students do not yet use the new language proficiently. These methods are
taught in many education courses for language teachers-to-be in
universities, and I have been to very many training workshops for certified
teachers where they were strongly advocated by practicing teachers. The
problem is, of course, that the teacher does need to have a good command of
the new language, and many teachers in schools throughout the world, only
have a rudimentary command of the new language, so they aren't able to model
and coach the students. Also, these methods require more than just following
exercises in a book, including flexibility and experimenting with language.
But,  many teachers and students are not used to this kind of
experimentation and improvisation in the class, and some teachers are afraid
of this everywhere in the world.

In many countries, in high quality and expensive private language schools
and in some better language courses in universities these more interactive
methods are used. They are generally used in the special courses for
training diplomats too.

But, in most of the schools for less well-off students, including in very
many classes for immigrants and refugees in the United States, most teachers
are encouraged or even required to just follow the scenarios laid out in the
picture-centered and drill-centered books. And, unfortunately, they are also
given very heavy teaching loads, and required to give and mark a lot of
tests, so they tend to teach in a sort of industrial production way, even if
the results aren't great.

As for the issue of age, children tend to absorb new language usage faster
than adults, but adults tend to develop comprehension of the meaning of both
the written and spoken language much faster, because they can build on their
prior knowledge from their first language. This is true even for adults who
were not literate in their first  language, although the challenge of
learning literacy for the first time as an adult is significant.

Also, there is more and more evidence that older adults can learn new
languages much better with these kind of interactive emergent methods than
with the rote memorization of grammar rules and vocabulary. Some older
people may not learn as quickly as younger people, and many may not develop
full command of the standard grammatical structures, but if they do not have
severe cognitive impairment, they can definitely learn to understand and use
a new language in a living functional way.

I don't know how this would carry over to the kind of sensory learning you
are working on. I would imagine that there are both significant similarities
and significant differences between learning a new language, which involves
communication between people, and learning new ways of understanding the
world through the senses.  And, of course, there is also the factor of
learning to interpret sensory information through language... many things to
think about...

Sylvie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Meijer" <blindfold@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 12:11 AM
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: more Re: Molyneaux's question rephrased


Thank you for this information, Sylvie. I suppose that
one of the reasons that adults (used to) learn a foreign
language without immersion was also that the language
immersion can often be a bit difficult to arrange in
their own country where their own language is spoken by
the majority of people. I'm no expert in these matters
though, so I appreciated your input. In any case, there
is still a lot to be investigated where it comes to the
use and value of technology now that "visual" immersion
for blind people has become a technical possibility. A
lot depends on how plastic the human brain is, and how
that depends on age, just like one has to have mastered
the grammar of at least one language before a certain
critical age or else the prospects of mastering language
appear to be low. No one really knows where the limits
are for learning to see, either if one has never seen
before, or if the visual input runs via another modality
like touch or hearing. Interesting note about the role
of laughter.

Best wishes,

Peter Meijer


Seeing with Sound - The vOICe
http://www.seeingwithsound.com


Kaizen Program wrote:
> Hi Peter,
>
> You wrote:
>
> "babies do not get grammar lessons first (although parents will speak
> simplified sentences to support learning by example). With adults it can
be
> somewhat the other way around, taking grammar lessons plus memorizing
> vocabulary lists in mastering a new language before getting fully immersed
> in the foreign language."
>
> Nowadays, language teachers have found that the best way to start teaching
> functional language is through emergence, teaching through social
> interaction and interaction with pictures and objects. When I teach
> immigrants and refugees who are blind or have low vision, I emphasize the
> objects and social interaction because I obviously have to leave out the
> pictures. When I teach fully sighted immigrants and refugees (which I did
a
> lot of in the past), I do the same, and it actually works better than
using
> pictures because pictures can sometimes be ambiguous or misunderstood by
> students due to different ways of understanding pictures in different
> cultures, etc.  And, people can remember vocabulary much better when they
> associate it with bodily movements, objects and even small dramas. For
> example, people remember "hello" in the beginning as associated with my
> shaking their hand, and the words for "a cup of tea" with the actual cup
of
> tea they are given, and the word "stomachache" with my holding my stomach
> and groaning, even and especially when it makes them laugh. By the way, I
> just recently read that new research has shown that laughter can increase
> learning, even when the laughter is not directly related to the new things
> being learned, only occurring directly before it. I already knew that
> laughter or just smiles can relax people and make it easier for them to
> learn... We learn something new every day. (smile)
>
> When adults have some basic English language to build on, they can begin
to
> understand grammar and it can be of much greater use to them. Before that
it
> can be very confusing. And, it takes a lot longer to remember rules than
to
> react on the basis of habits built up from social interaction and haptic,
> sound, taste, etc. memories.
>
> Best,
>
> Sylvie

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