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Speaking the target language or playing the CD?

First, this talk by Patricia Kuhl about child language acquisition, the brain and picking up sounds, is both interesting and occasionally amusing. But about eight minutes in she describes experiments carried out with American babies in which they are exposed to Mandarin either by human talk with toys, a video with pictures of toys, or just audio with a picture of a toy. Only when the babies interacted with humans did they learn to discriminate certain phonemes.



Now, it has often occurred to me that in the modern language classroom, students seem to prefer, and seem to understand better, language spoken by me rather than the CD.  I had assumed this was because I slow down a touch and emphasize certain words. I think I also had a hunch that students naturally prefer to listen to another person rather than a recording. So I wonder whether the preference which babies unconsciously demonstrate in language acquisition persists in later life, despite the brain's inferior language acquisition ability.

In any case, this might be an argument for teachers talking more, rather than playing the CD. For this, very good fluency and pronunciation skills are needed. The CD still has to be used so that students hear a variety of models and are prepared for the exam situation.

Teachers talking to kids is a little out of fashion these days, although it has been demonstrated that lecturing is the most efficient and effective way of transferring knowledge. In our subject area talking to classes is one of the most important things we do, and we should not shy away from it.

By the way, Patricia Kuhl has a number of talks posted on youtube.

Comments

  1. Anonymous27 September 2011 at 18:13

    Interesting to read your comment concerning the efficiency of lecturing as a way of imparting knowledge. Spoke to a lecturer recently who felt his students were sated with Powerpoint and data projectors and has abandoned these tools in favour of speaking in fully-formed sentences and paragraphs. He says everyone's delighted.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve Smith27 September 2011 at 19:03

    I believe there is research evidence to support lecturing as a means of imparting knowledge. here is a reasoned essay about the advantages of the lecture format:

    http://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/ed-lect.html

    ReplyDelete

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