To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Interchange, now in its fourth edition, we’re delighted to
announce a new series of blog posts by Interchange author and world-renowned
linguist Jack C. Richards. Over the next twelve months, Jack will be exploring
a range of topics here at Cambridge
Conversations, all of them
elucidated by of one of the most successful, innovative minds in the history of
English language teaching.
Today’s post, the first in the series, outlines the
five most difficult challenges faced by teachers as they help students
transition from intermediate to advanced language learning. In the coming weeks
we will consider how teachers can address each of these challenges, before
moving on to topics such as effective lesson creation, and competence and
performance in language teaching.
As they move from basic to intermediate to advanced
levels in language proficiency, many second-language learners will confirm that
language learning does not always follow a smooth progression. There are times
when progress seems to be marked and noticeable, as for example with many
basic-level language learners. After their first 200 or so hours of
instruction, they begin to break through the threshold of learning to become
real users of the language, even if at a fairly simple level. Those who have
experienced the transition to this level of learning recall the feelings of
satisfaction and achievement that came as they found themselves actually
capable of real communication in English.
However, once learners have arrived at an intermediate
level of language learning, progress does not always appear to be so marked,
and making the transition from intermediate to the upper-intermediate/advanced
level sometimes proves frustrating. Some may feel they have arrived at a
plateau and making further progress seems elusive, despite the amount of time
and effort they devote to it.
Inevitably, learners who have reached the upper-intermediate
level will have somewhat different language use profiles and learning needs,
but the following problems are often encountered:
1. There is a gap between receptive and
productive competence. Learners
may have made considerable progress in listening comprehension and reading, but
still feel inadequate when it comes to speaking skills.
2. Fluency may have progressed at the
expense of complexity. Learners
may make primary use of lower-level grammar, as well as vocabulary and
communication strategies to express their meaning and may not have acquired
more sophisticated language patterns and usage characteristics of more advanced
second-language users.
3. Learners have a limited vocabulary
range. Vocabulary development has
not progressed sufficiently. Learners tend to overuse lower-level vocabulary
and fail to acquire more advanced vocabulary and usage.
4. Language production may be adequate but
often lacks the characteristics of natural speech. Learners’ English may be fluent and grammatical but
sounds too formal or too bookish.
5. There are persistent, fossilized
language errors. Errors
that are typical of lower-level learners reappear in certain circumstances
despite the amount of time and effort devoted to correcting them.
So, how we do resolve these five problems?
Jack will be back tomorrow, offering advice on tackling the first of these
issues: the gap between receptive and productive competence.
Excerpted and edited from Moving Beyond the Plateau: From Intermediate to
Advanced Levels in Language Learning by Jack C. Richards
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