Concentrate beginning foreign language instruction on listening and speaking¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The article recommends that beginning foreign language learning be concentrated on the natural stage, stating that "The natural stage, which is where the beginning learning should be concentrated, is almost completely ignored" in the Japanese system. The strategy is to make listening and speaking the focus of early foreign language classes, mirroring the home environment that native language learners receive, before literacy instruction begins.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Classes must provide sufficient oral-aural practice to build first-stage competency, since the home environment does not supply it

Constraints¶

• The author notes the foreign language natural stage is extremely difficult and requires the motivation and effort every child gives to learning the mother tongue

Target Learners¶

• beginning foreign language learners
• Japanese university students of English

Target Learning Goals¶

• listening comprehension in a foreign language
• speaking proficiency in a foreign language

Affordances¶

• Two Stage Natural Nonnatural Language Acquisition

Related Strategies¶

• Delay speaking practice and emphasize listening comprehension in adult language training

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Neiburg, Michael S. (1997). Following Native Language Acquisition. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (23rd, Hamamatsu, Japan, October 11, 1997). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED417613