Explicit instruction does very LITTLE for language acquisition

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

As a language teacher, BVP is my go to for how I should be setting myself up. I am on my third book of his. His explanations of how acquistion functions are in line with my expectations and experiences in the field. Unfortunately in a school setting teaching English in a Spanish speaking country I am 1 teacher in about 30 and I am the only teacher to question existing methodology, to bring a scientific approach to the profession and I am not understood by my bosses nor my colleagues who think grammar and the cloze and exam practice is king. I treat the job as a conversation between myself and my students giving them opportunities to meaningfully exercise the language they need to acquire based on their current competence levels.

[@learnyourenglish397]

BVP is the best - we're very lucky to have interviewed him. Thanks for sharing and that's quite unfortunate. We've found many teachers need to create their own business outside of their school so they can truly teach in the way the want.

[@Alec72HD]

Perhaps you will find this experiment interesting. Can a young adult in one year learn English to a near native C1 if the starting level was A1 ? Yes, most can do it if the conditions are right. And it's well documented. Here is the complete story. I had spent 7 years learning English the conventional way (grammar, translation), some in school, and some as an individual hobby. And even though I did well in school, realistically, my final level was barely a beginner. (A1-A2, as was confirmed by the lowest TOEFL score possible) This was before the Internet, so my choices for Comprehensible Input were non-existent. At that time, I understood basic English grammar (explicitly) as a set of rules in my native language (Slavic). Then, as a 19 year old I was a part of this experiment. I was placed in a US MILITARY academy with very strict guidelines. Foreign students were only allowed to use English. Native language (Slavic) WAS NOT ALLOWED, it was an absolute 100% immersion environment 24/7. (Kinda similar to Middlebury Language school or French Foreign Legion approach) And even though I was already an adult, I learned a second language to a near native level within a year. I could physically feel the development of a second language. After 3 months, I was thinking in L2 full time, I had near native listening comprehension in 6 months. And obviously i wasn't studying a second language exclusively, I was learning science, engineering, humanities, doing sports. I was having a rich learning experience while acquiring a second language at a rate that seemed magical. There are very important conditions that allow adults to learn on par with immigrant kids. One condition, really. Temporarily abstain from native language and dedicate all the remaining time to a second language. Regarding the deliberate study of GRAMMAR. Nobody was teaching me any of that. Well, I had a tutor for a few sessions, but then a school decided to forgo tutoring because our progress was too fast to keep track of. Yes, our progress, because there were 5 of us. And we all exhibited remarkable rates of improvement. We were separated to different battalions (dorms), and we weren't allowed to communicate. As far as EXPLICIT knowledge of L2 grammar, I FORGOT everything I knew as a beginner. I ACQUIRED grammar the same way native speakers do, and I was reasonably grammatically correct. A grammatically correct sentence SOUNDS right, incorrect sounds funny. I don't know much of the textbook grammar explanations. That being said, studying English (L2) grammar ENTIRELY in English when a student is progressing beyond A1-A2 could be a USEFUL tool, though not entirely necessary. In many countries, children learn Native (L1) Grammar in school. I studied my L1 Grammar and forgot absolutely everything soon after graduation. Studying L1 Grammar never changed the way I spoke L1. It was a totally useless academic endeavor. So, I have a conflicted opinion on this. Studying L2 grammar (or vocabulary) using native language is extremely INEFFICIENT. Conclusion: The goal for any beginner should be to reach a level where they can progress in L2 monolingually, i.e., without using L1 in the process of learning.

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

@@Alec72HD That is a great story and yes I do agree that it should be possible to make big gains under the right circumstances. I did see it happen just once with a 13 year old kid in my school (english speaking in a spanish language country) who entered speaking only spanish, and by the end of the year he was fluent. At the time I was not a language teacher, the school was an american school overseas and 90% of classes were in English and 1/3 of studentds were native english speakers 1/3 from other parts of the world, 1/3 locals. Grammar is a tool used to analyze form of language, not a teaching tool. As for A1 to C1, these are competence levels and theoretically an A1 student should be fluent, just with less rich expressions and vocabulary, approriate for 7 to 8 year olds.Unfortunately most kids in schools and institutes are identified by teachers as A1/2 but generally have no fluency whatsoever, just a jumbled mess of knowledge and grammar that the kids never use, some ability to communicate but with a lot of errors. Thanks for sharing your story.

[@andrew_day_mc]

I've been explaining that I'm much more of a facilitator for years. Who doesn't like being vindicated? I often compare the process to training for a race. Imagine you're going to swim 100M Free. Does it make sense to always train to 100M during the practice sprints? No. You need to do 150M and 200M sprints *at least* so that you can build the endurance to maintain, as much as possible, peak racing speed during that 100M. You're going to go to conferences, meet people, talk about your background, education, career, insights, opinions, etc. Well then, just talk about exactly those things! When learners get it and say something like, "Yeah, I went to this event and I felt really comfortable talking to people, I even asked questions, etc. so now I get that this practice is really helping me." I always interfect with, "What practice? You're not practicing. This is life." It's not rocket science, but it's a hard sell because the educational system has primed people differently. I act as a conduit of experience, wisdom, and ideas between relatively high-level professionals so that they're not wasting time acquiring English through something like rote memorization, but it sounds "woo-woo" or vaguely esoteric.

[@learnyourenglish397]

Sounds like you're on the right track. You don't need to convince anyone, just work with those who align with your perspective.