The Natural Approach

-Language Acquisition in the Classroom-

By Stephen D. Krashen & Tracy D.Terrell

English education Master-course A

by Prof.Watanabe

Mitsumasa Matsumoto

Jan.24th Fri.1997

Study of "Chapter Six" :

"How does the Natural Approach match Japanese education ?"

"#" means my opinions considering Japanese junior high situation:

Additional Sources of Input for Acquisition and Learning:

  1. The Place of Reading in the Natural Approach

# "beginning student" means the student before getting to "Critical Period", i.e. the

student at the age of under 12. If so, Japanese situation is quite different because

most of students start learning English soon after entering a junior high school at

the age of 12.

　

　

　

# In Japan the textbook is chosen by some committee men and given by municipal

board of education, so before starting English the content has been already

determined without considering the students' real situation.


　

2.Reading as Comprehensible input

　

　

# "i+1" , "i" (abbreviation of "interlanguage") means students' average ability , but

how can we recognize and confirm it in a large classroom which has sometimes

more than 35 students ?


3.How should reading be taught ?

Text + Goal → Reading Comprehension → Language Acquisition

　

# Generally speaking in Japan we have 3 lessons a week from the first grade to the

third , in such a situation do you think "natural reading" can realize ?


  1. Appropriate Texts

    2 criteria

....translate word for word ,spending most of their time.....the reader need not know every word to succeed in extracting meaning......

Grittner's example:

Suddenly the flangel swooped out of the sky and snatched an unsuspecting spider monkey from the midst of his companions.(easy to infer level)

Suddenly the flangel gleeped out of the simmel and snatched an unsuspecting brill from the midst of his fribbeling companions.(nonsense unit level)

〜....precisely what confronts the student who is prematurely thrust into the reading of literary selections..〜

"Upper limit" for the introduction of new words in a passasge.

  1. Syntax

Syntactic complexity, ......readers can understand passages that contain syntactic structure that are "over their head", or well beyond their "i+1".

Schlesinger:"...readers use semantic strategy to understand the text rather than a syntactic one; they may bypass difficult structures and make hypotheses about meaning primarily based on the words used in the text."

Syntactic difficulty; ....lexical and semantic factors can outweigh syntactic factors.......text on unfamiliar topic or not........

They can ignore grammar that is beyond their "i+1" and derive meaning from other sources(lexicon,grammar they have acquired , context)

Hatch;"If we can identify content words and if we use our knowledge of the real world, we can make fairly successful guesses about what we read without always paying attention to syntax."

  1. Semantics

Ideally, the reader should have texts on somewhat familiar topics that have new information so that interest is maintained.

Interest in content may be the most important....

..our goal is to involve students so deeply in the message that they actually "forget" it is encoded in another language...selecting texts....

# At a junior high school we tell them to pre-study and read the text book, and check the meaning of new words on the next lesson's part of the text book, so they never feel refreshed and fun on it.

4.Goals and Reading Skills

　

5.Reading Strategies


# "the right skill at the right time" can be realized through the reader's experience,

but in Japan, there are so great gaps between students that we teachers have to

take "Intensive reading" for the slow learners. Some are enough to do the rapid

reading, but others cannot even pronounce "ABC". It depends on a school's

situation. Public schools have more great gaps than private schools.

We've all notice students' reading absolutely need more. We are forced to choose

more "quality" than "quantity".


figure:


  1. The Development of Reading Strategies without Direct Instruction


# Once the textbook publishing company is chosen students use it through the 3 years,

of course the content is different in each grade, but the policy, topic, and graphics are

almost similar. There is little chances to give them an "Interest-continuing text".

Because in terms of the priority the text has to be finished until their garaging up.

We have to go through the text in hurry, because of lessons lack, even 3 lessons a week

many school events prevent us from giving them a lesson. School events are prior to

the lessons, inevitably many lessons are cut.

  1. A non-interventionist reading program
  2. Choosing reading materials
    1. Goals
      • ...many questions ..asked of readers are aimed at none of the "4 skills".....irrelevant to the

central meaning of text.

6.INTERVENTION

  1. A philosophy of intervention

・mild intervention program

  1. Read for meaning
  2. Don't look up every word

　

　　　　　　　　　　

# I agree on "the students' prediction" , but in such a case the interesting content of the

text and the unknown content should be required, in Japan I said above, the content is

well known before a teacher's instruction.

every nth (5-10)word is omitted and the reader must use the context in order to

predict the missing word

itself

  1. strategies that use knowledge outside the text

# I think if we let them know the knowledge outside the text the mother tongue should

be allowed to be used enough.........

strategies in an integrated fashion

intelligent prediction of the meaning of the word.

  • Evidence for Intervention

    • 　　　　　.....Swaffer and Woodruff reported that extensive reading along with deliberate teaching of strategies resulted in improvement in college-level German.........Newmark used extensive reading alone and apparently had excellent results with a similar population.

    　

    7.TEACHING FOR MONITOR USE
    　

    # That's right...we Japanese always use the monitoring when we communicate with foreigners because we are too shy to make a mistake in every way. Our culture is derived most from "personal appearance". Taliking of junior high level English teaching , we had better take the communicative teaching method through communication first, but gradually it should be changing into grammatical one, academic English. Then what about senior high level English teaching ?

    8.Grammar Explanation

    ...avoid oral grammar explanations in the classroom simply because they take time

    away from acquisition activities......

    # Yes, but in Japan we just have 3 lessons a week. In such short lessons how can we let

    them acquire the skills without the explanation of grammar ?

    ....in case in which the student can profitably use a grammar text outside the

    classroom, such use is recommended...........if grammar explanations are done in the

    classroom, we recommended that they be short, simple and in the target language.

    # We are very relieved to read the comment above, but "short explanation" is not enough

    to go through the text. I want to tell this: Explanation outside of the classroom is O.K.

    but we should give them more homework and referring prints, then in the classroom

    the most efficient short explanation should be required.

    We can imagine foreign language classes in which a very short explanation in the

    native language could be acceptable. In general, however, we prefer explanations in

    the target language. .............if the explanation is so complex that it cannot be

    understood from an explanation in the target language , there is a good possibility

    that the rule in question is too complex to be learned at this stage, and the

    explanation should be postponed until more acquisition has taken place.

    # If the early English learning realize in Japan, i.e. the introduction of curriculum in

    elementary school's, I think Acquisition should be required through the native

    speaker's instruction. No grammar explanations but just listening , being

    motivated, encouraged, and

    speaking a little.

    　

    9.Learning Exercises

    There are 3 principle types of learning exercises:

    1. Written grammar drills of the sort used in grammar courses
    2. Audiolingual drills
    3. Communicative grammar drills

    　

    # Of course we aim at No.3 drills, and most of our drills are very close to it. This book's suggestion has no differences in our daily teaching drills. We actually do like this but even this kind of drills are sometimes called "just pattern practice" in Japan. Is this kind of drills enough as "communicative drills" ?

    　

    .......communicative drills differ from grammar exercises and audiolingual drills only in that they attempt to give the material the student is working with a realistic context and perhaps a purpose. The follwing is a typical example of a communicative audiolingual drill.

    　

    Example(A):

    Your friend Marie is visiting. Ask her if she wants to go to the following places.

    Example: Beach, Do you want to go to the beach ?

    1. lake
    2. movies
    3. park
    4. mountains
    5. grocery store
    6. shopping center

    In the following example the students practice the past tense forms.

    Example(B):

    Tell your Mom that you and your friends did the following things yesterday.

    1. go shopping
    2. eat at a restaurant
    3. finish the homework
    4. study in the library
    5. play baseball

    Communication drills are closest to acquisition activities in that there are potential messages to be communicated. Despite their label, however, communicative drills remain grammar exercises, and this focus on form prevents full focus on the message. The Input Hypothesis thus predicts that little acquisition will result from communicative drills. We recommend, in general, that one should not depend on learning activities to provide input for acquisition. What acquisition does take place in learning-oriented classes may be largely the result of the language of explanation, the teacher-talk, rather than the exercise.

    　

    10.The Balance Between Acquisition Activities and Learning Exercises

    ......Learning will be useful to these students in writing and in prepared speech, and give their output a "polished"look. Some students are intersted in the structure of language for its own sake. For these students, grammar can be taught as subject matter. such study does not derectly help second language proficiency. If a course in grammar is taught in the second language, however, the instructor's speech will provide comprehensible input and help acquisition.

    For students of all ages, we recommend that learning activities not begin until the students have progressed through the prespeaking and one-word stages, i.e., until they are starting to produce at least short sentences. For children, acquisition activities will continue to dominate the class and learning activities will be used primarily in learning to write. For adolescents and adults, we recommend that at least 80% of the course be devoted to acquisition activities and only 20% or less given to learning exercises.

    # The Natural Approach's main theme is , "acquisition and L.A.D". We Japanese take them wrong, because we think the more we input the target language, the more they can acquire. We forget and ignore to wait until their natural produce. I think we have perfectly forgot to wait students' acquisition , which results from "Silent period" without quick response or produce, output. In Japan communicative activities mean quick responses and more talking, outputting.( It's true we don't have much time to wait in our curriculum...)

    　

    11.Writing

    Writing Goals:

  • ...The students' own output is theoretically secondary with regard to the acquisition process.Oral output, speech, is indirectly useful in that it helps to encourage aural input, i.e., conversation. It is therefore useful for acquisition for the student to speak the target language after some competence has been built up via input.
  • Writing may,of course, be an additional goal of a course in which the Natural Approach is being used to impart oral communication skills.
  • ......A Latin American student from Brazil, for example, who wishes to travel a bit in France, may want to learn enough oral French to communicate basic travel needs, but may be entirely uninterested in learning to write French.The inclusion of a writing component is thus dependent more on the goals and needs of the students rather than on its methodological usefulness for the development of oral cummunication skills.
  • There are 4 possible reasons for including writing in a Natural Approach classes:
    •  
    1. to record and review vocabulary in the prespeaking stage
    2. as an integral part of an oral activity which provides comprehensible input
    3. as practice in moniroring
    4. as a practical goal

    　

    # In Japan we do not have the definite purpose of not only writing but speaking ,listening, reading. It's true most of us do not use English so frequently in our daily life, but we are forced to learn EFL in order to catch up with the future international world. So English use world is nearly "virtual rearity world".In other word, pedagogical world. The vital problem is this: we don't have the definite purpose and need for English here in Japan. So we don't know which competence is the most important for students to acquire. In the post industrial age we will need reading and listening ability alone ? Above all students want to enter a high level upper school, then they will need grammatical competence as academic learners ?

    # In Japan the purpose of learning English itself is very obscure, it's natural we teachers should be embarrased with how to..........

    　

    Writing in the Prespeaking Stage:

  • ....if students are literate adults, it is possible that copying important vocabulary words that the instructor writes on the chalkboard during comprehension activities will help them remember the meaning of the words, as well as the sound-letter correspondences.............a completely oral experience is often very difficult to adjust to; thus, writing may have important affective implications.
  • The writing of key words can have some adverse effects, such as overdependence on the written word or interference in pronunciation because of some native language orthographic correspondences.
    •

    　

    Writing and Oral Production:

  • Writing can also play a role in many of the activities in which the goal is oral production.
  • In the following activity for a Spanish class, students are asked to fill in a chart with personal descriptions of their fellow students(eye color, hair color, clothing, favorite course, year in school):
    •
    Nombre Compa~nero 1 Compa~nero2 Compa~nero3
    Color de los ojos 　 　 　
    Color del pelo 　 　 　
    Ropa que lleva 　 　 　
    Curso favorito 　 　 　
    Nivel escolar 　 　 　
  • Problem-solving activities very frequently involve writing:
  • First the students write the indicated paragraphs; follow-up is oral.
  • In all of these cases, writing is not an end in itself but is preliminary to the execution of an activity whose central purpose is to provide an opportunity to interact and gain comprehensible input.
    •

    # I know before the communicative activities they have to gather some information sources. And that authentic ones are better to communicate. Of course when we gather some information we need take notes through the writing skill. But in Japan the writing skill will be required in other meanings: i.e., correct mail, correct test answer sheet, criteria of English ability, etc. I cannot regard the writing skill as just an aid tool for the oral communication.

    Writing to Practice Monitoring:

  • There are 2 different sorts of circumstances in which monitoring can be practiced in writing. First, it is appropriate to monitor carefully when writing grammar exercises aimed at learning rules............Second, the instructor can encourage the students to monitor at appropriate times in their creative written work.
  • We recommend that instructors encourage free rein of the acquired system during actual composing, but that, afterwards, students be encouraged to edit using conscious rules. They will not be able to correct every error this way but will be able to significantly increase their written accuracy.
    •

    # We cannot expect students' creative written works so easily, especially at a junior high school.

    　

    Functional Writing Foals:

  • ...writing can, in certain circumstances, be an appropriate goal in its own right in a second language course. In this case, writing activities will correspond directly to writing needs.....Certainly students who will study in a second language need highly developed writing wkills. This can be done via a great deal of reading of appropriate documents to acquire the specific "styles" and writing exercises that encourage the conscious learning of late acquired but necessary aspects of each writing syle.
    •

    # We need the good writing skill because most of the entrance exams are on a writing test.

    　

    12.TELEVISION AND RADIO AS INPUT SOURSES:

    ......................................( this paragraph is ealily expected).....................................

    # I really want to show an English commercial video to students. I think a commercial video is very short , and easy to understand by pictures. Above all it's fun. How can I get it ?

    　

    13.HOMEWORK:

  • Homework can be classified into 3 types:
    1. activities that provide more comprehensible input, to supplement class offerings
    2. activities that provide the student with routines and phrases that help conversational management
    3. activities that build a Monitor, i.e., to learn rules
  • Home may also be the appropriate place for the practice and optional memorization of short dialogs that contin routines and phrases that may be helpful in conversation. Such dialogs should be extremely short and maximally useful. The classroom will then provide situations in which to practice these memorized routines and paterns.Finally, learning acitvities for Monitor practice are probably most efficiently done outside of class.
    •

    # Then we can attribute grammar learning to homework ? All routines and patterns are homeworks, is that O.K.? In Japan if we give them some homework they will not do it sometimes. And they don't have enough time to do homework after school. Mmm.......but homework role will be more important in the 3 lessons a week situation. Writing and grammatical matter are owed to homework ? That sounds good.

    　

    14.Vocabulary:

  • Vocabulary is basic to communication. If acquirers do not recognize the meanings of the key words used by those who address them, they will be unable to participate in the conversation.........we are not impressed with approaches that deliberately restrict vocabulary acquisition and learning until the morphology and syntax are mastered.
    •

    The Role of Vocabulary in Natural Approach Stages:

  • .....the purpose of the prespeaking stage is for the students to develop listening strategies based primarily on lexical item recognition......vocabulary continues to play a dominant role in the early speech stage. Indeed, as students begin to produce one-and two-word utterances, the instructor expands the input with new vocabulary. As the students become increasingly able to recognize familiar words without depending on context, these words themselves then become part of the context, thus allowing the acquirers to interpret new lexical items.
  • Finally, as speech emerges, vocabulary remains important as the students begin to expand their range of interaction in the target language to new topics and new situations.
    •

    Teaching Vocabulary:

  • ....our classroom acquisition activities aim at continual comprehension of new lexical items in a communicative context.......in all of these activities the focus remains on understanding messages.
  • Students' atttention is not on vocabulary learning per se but on communication, on the goal of an activitiy.
  • ......Natural Approach to vocabulary acquisition is impractical, in that classroom time is limited and that only a small range of topics can be discussed. Thus, some intervention in the form of more direct teaching, such as rote learning or vocabulary exercises,is necessasry.......It appears to be the case that "memorized" or "drilled" vocabulary does not stick; words learned by rote or drill donot enter permanent memory storage.True vocabulary acquisition with long-term retention occurs only with meaningful exposure in situations in which real communication takes place.
    •

    # Yes, it's exactly true. Memorizing new words is not so easy. But the vocabulary acquisition takes so long time, I think. In Japan English lesson is not long enough to wait to emerge the long-term retention occurence. Knowing the meaning of new words through contextuarized communication is basis, I believe.

    　

    Pre-teaching Vocabulary:

  • ...presentation and explanation of certain key words preceding a discussion or acquisition activities.
    •

    The goal of the Natural Approach is to provide enough vocabulary to allow language use outside the classroom, and to place the student in a position to substantial recognition vocabulary and a sufficiently large production vocabulary so that the student can participate in a variety of interpersonal communicative situations. It does not entail trying to prepare students in advance with every word they might meet in their future language use. Such preparation is neither practical nor necessary. If our students are able to communicate with native speakeres, and read for interest and pleasure, even if they do not understand every word, vocabulary will continue to grow.

    # Trying to prepare in advance is just as usual lesson in Japan. Especially checking up new words in advance is forced. Of course we want them to do "substantial recognition" of new words through context or communication. But it can't be done. Our English textbook has so many new words beyond their ability, i.e., comprehensible input. We can't help using one to one equivalent drills in vocabulary teaching. Our English lesson absolutely run short for students to acquire. But I find a clue to solve this problem in the homework, or outside classroom. Writing , post reading or even listening check can be done as homework. If our teaching materials get less, we can focus the lesson on "natural input" and communicative "meaningful task".

    Generally the Natural Approach does not match well English lessons in Japan because of the time shortage in the well-organized input.

    What do you think of my conclusion ? Probably you don't agree with me............

    　

    　

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