COMPULSORY TASK #3: Investigate and reflect upon widespread beliefs

MYTHS IN THE STREETS

There have been many myths around teaching ESL. Parents, educators and students might have very different points of view on how English should be learned. Here are some of the most commonly spread believes among society and a brief reflection.

1)    Translating word by word :

Some parents and educators might argue that when a student faces a text in English we should not have them translating every single word of the reading. Instead we should teach them how to get the general idea, and by doing so they will gain more vocabulary and greater reading skills and/or strategies. However, educators face the students’ desire of knowing everything that appears in a text. It should be noticed that every student will eventually end up translating lots of words into their own L1 regardless of dealing with the new vocabulary through a text (reading), or a conversation (speaking) or any other area of learning.

Bilingualism has a great role in this aspect of learning. According to Jessner and Cenoz “a bilingual speaker develops a common underlying proficiency that represents a kind of linguistic reservoir enabling transfer of concepts and strategies across languages and results in potentially enhanced metalinguistic abilities” (2007:159). These crosslinguistic relationships are undoubtedly beneficial for the learning process.

2)    They are really young to start speaking English:

It is widely thought that kids are unable to talk in English until they have assimilated a great load of knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. This is not true. Let’s consider the case of learning a L1. Do we learn grammar and vocabulary at first and then we speak it? No. Children are the perfect auditory type of learner; they assimilate what they hear and see of the L1 and then imitate and/or articulate it. That is how they learn their first language and surely the second, too. Grammatical structures and the like come way after that. Hence, there is neither excuse nor limitation for young learners to speak English. This myth is highly connected with the following one.

    3)    Speaking more than 2 languages is too much for the kids: parents seem to have a certain feeling of mistrust when they say that kids might get confused if they learn more than 2 languages. They argue children can suffer from a “cognitive overload”. Nevertheless, it is in fact all the opposite. Childrens’ brains are prepared to operate “multilingually” if necessary, and it is at younger stages when they are ready to assimilate better pronunciation and to associate the new language to particular and natural contexts of their lives. As mentioned before, bilingualism has a positive influence on acquiring new language and has more advantages than drawbacks: creativity, cognitive flexibility, and metalinguistic awareness among others.

4)    The younger the better: there has been no proof that can confirm this widespread belief in schooling contexts. Great part of society thinks that an early start to learning a language is 100% beneficial and effective. It is said that younger learners’ brains are more flexible, therefore they perform better in the learning process. It is false because adults have acquired language learning strategies while young children seem to acquire social language more easily. However, age has made no miracles yet.

It is true though, that an early start would be effective and would make a difference -in comparison with those students who had a later start- as long as the context was an immersion and natural context. Therefore, exposure and quality of the teaching is essential.  In schooling contexts where kids only receive a couple of hours of English, starting earlier would not make of the young learners more proficient than those who started later. It is important to stress that children need comprehensible input so no matter how much amount of time the learner spends surrounded by a foreign language if that input he is receiving is incomprehensible.

    5)    Speaking English at home is better for their proficiency: Second language learners will acquire academic English faster if their parents speak English at home. That is what most people think. Nonetheless, it is much better for parents to speak in their mother tongue to their children. This language will be richer and more complex. As mentioned in 1), children will eventually translate that learning to English. We should encourage parents to read in both languages if they can, but we should never instruct a parent to speak only English at home.

*References: Jessner, Ulrike., & Cenoz, Jasone. 2007. “Teaching English as a Third Language”. International Handbook of English Language Teaching. Vol. 15: 155-167.