Language Learning vs Acquisition

[Niko]

Language Learning vs Acquisition

An ESL student says: "I goes to school every day," and the teacher says: "No, I go to school every day." The student is supposed to think, Oh yes, that -s is third person, not first person. That is what is supposed to happen. So theoretically, error correction is aimed at learning, not acquisition.

So conscious learning does have some function, but it turns out to be quite a small function, relatively small with respect to acquisition. As research shows, that function tends to get smaller and smaller.

The bulk of one's language learning therefore is via acquisition. And one of the best sources for this acquisition is submerging yourself in another country or watch foreign TV.

[nelliemuller]

I would be interested in reading studies that have been done on the subject. Are you familiar with any?
Thank you.

[Niko]

An excellent book would be INNOVATE APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHING by Robert Blair. This is a very hard to come by book, and I don't think it's published anymore.

Other than that, I would go for Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching by Jack C. Richards.

[ShelleyV]

Immersion is without doubt the fastest way. However some hard graft also goes a long way too!

Watching movies and reading novels or cartoons if the level is not high enough for novels yet provide the foundations for fluency and correct grammar and the learning of idiomatic expressions. Yet the study of grammar books and learning of vocabulary provide a great boost to the learning process.

I recommend ten new words a day, revised on the second day, a week later and a month later. Each day there are ten new words so after a month one is looking at forty words a day - thirty of revision and ten new ones. This is for the dedicated student of course! The reviewing is essential as a word learned once and not seen again for a long time will not be remembered.