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Talk;EAL

Thursday stream 6 Session 16.10 - 17.25 Length 25 minutes

Neuropsychological aspects in the approach of teaching and learning a foreign language

Katrin Sellin

Lübeck, Germany

Abstract

The traditional practice in the U.K. of teaching French as the first language and often the only one is contrasted by the practice most commonly used in Germany, offering English first, followed by either French or Latin. Reasons why German might be more appropriate for English-speaking people: From the point of view of early sensory experiences of the English-speaking students, i.e. the experience of touch and movement in the mouth, the tactile-kinaesthetic similarities between the two largely Germanic languages English and German, give the English students a good starting position for mastering a fairly good articulation in German compared to the completely different situation for the production of acceptable French pronunciation and reproduction of sentence melody. There are helpful similarities in the sound-letter correspondences in English and German, but major differences in this field between English and French, and also between German and French. The main obstacle in reading and writing French are the high linguistic demands of French, where multi-sensory teaching is not an appropriate help. Besides that many spatial-sound correspondences, 'les accents' -the French accents, have to be taken into account and add to the confusion of many students. There are high demands on attention to be focused on various grammatical aspects in a complicated French expression, a big problem for students with attention deficits and/or with a lack in abstract thinking, lack of maturity of the brain and lack of structured experiences with languages. There are the problems of memory and how they can be bettered in the learning of foreign languages. There is the common prejudice of comparing logical thinking in mathematics to the logical procedure necessary for translating/understanding the structures of Latin sentences and regarding them as equal achievements of the brain. From the neuropsychological point of view two entirely different procedures are involved and the prejudice should disappear to the advantage of many people.Linked to a certain subtype of dyslexia there may even be dyslexics with a gift for languages. They have to be identified and encouraged.

Neuropsychological Aspects in the Approach of Teaching a Foreign Language.

1. The prerequisites for learning a language are

- tactile-kinaesthetic-motor , mirrored in articulation
- well regulated eye movements, saccades
- visual perception, details
- auditory perception
- feeling for rhythm and melody
- storage of all patterns of perception in well engraved engrams in the memory
- possibility of active retrieval of patterns from the memory
- adequate level of brain activity for complicated tasks
- level of attention
- working memory
- a favourable combination of strenghts and weaknesses to learn a foreign language

2. Diagnosis of aptitudes

Dyslexics may belong to the 10 to 15% of people who mostly have a handicap in visual perception.

It is possible that students of this group have a gift for languages , although it might be somewhat hidden.It seems advisable to make an analysis of these students`spelling mistakes, of their abilities in abstract thinking and of their grammar skills. If they have a good auditory memory, they should be encouraged to learn foreign languages.The Ann Arbor Test of psycholinguistic abilities (PET) is very helpful for a diagnosis.

There is another main group of students, about 85 - 90% , who have phonological problems, either with the discrimination of sounds in general, or with the phonological analysis in the individual word, with the discrimination of sequences in the words and with remembering all auditory stimuli.

The above mentioned problems are often accompanied by impairments in abstract thinking, in regard to working with grammar and possibly also on the higher levels of processing language. These individuals will have major difficulties learning a foreign language. It must also be considered whether a student is rather young, about 9 or 10, possibly not having mastered strategies of coping with dyslexia because of lacking brain maturity and / or because of insufficient compensatory strategies.

Adults having a fully matured brain and having had experiences in coping with their mother tounge, sometimes learn a second language a little bit easier, but the basic problems will remain. There must be made a fundamental difference between those language learners who do not perform well in foreign languages because of the above mentioned neuropsychological reasons or because they are not offered enough practice in school. It may take them longer to develop compensatory strategies, to store patterns of language stimuli in the brain and to automatize what they have learnt in class. The quick learner will always impress the teacher. But we will have to have a close look at all those, who might profit from extra tasks especially devised for their special needs or who need special tutoring outside of school. For the group of those severely handicapped phonologically and in the abstract language processing we ought to chose a language with a minimum of difficulties.

It is not only important to acquire a second language to have better job prospects, but also for the self-esteem of the individuals, which can be rather low in dyslexics. To find the best possible language meeting the learning abilities of students we suggest to take into consideration the hierarchy of languages according to the difficulties they have for the problematic learner:

Languages which have a 1:1 sound-letter correspondence are

Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Ancient Greek, Latin,

mostly 1:1 German, some words 1:1, mostly irregular spelling - English,

predominantly not 1:1 - French

Some people think that learning Latin might be a way out of the dilemma, if visual perception in general and visual detail analysis especially are good. But these abilities are necessary for all school subjects. Others compare the ability for mathmatics with the logical processes in dissolving a Latin sentence. This is rather superficial reasoning, because in mathematics we have a spatial-numerical system, which cannot be compared to the linguistic-phonological-sequential one Latin consists of. The problem with Latin very often is the impaired abstract thinking of the students and lack of practice with the language stimuli / forms /texts. Those who are good on the abstract-grammatical level can be very good at Latin and enjoy it.

Criteria for choosing a language for most of the dyslexics:

- predominantly 1:1 sound-letter correspondences
- possible division into syllables, such as " la-zy, Mon-day"
- moderately difficult pronunciation with similarity to the articulation basis of the mother tongue
- possibility of student exchanges

French is the most difficult modern language

- French is a Romanic language
- correct articulation very difficult when the basis of articulation of the mother tongue is very different, as it is in comparison between English/German and French
- correct articulation influences the correct spelling, unintentionally incorrect articulation can lead to spelling mistakes, Germans may say "think or sink" instead of "thing",
- the articulation is very fast when spoken correctly- a tactile-kinaesthetic achievement or problem
- sound-letter correspondences predominantly not 1:1, because
- grammatical references influence the spelling,"je vois les filles bien aimees; nous les avons vues." The rules of grammar to get accordances right have to be known and they must be applied ´ quickly, which demands a high level of abstract thinking , enough practice and a high level of attention, i.e. a good working memory
- accents must be considered, which is a spatial-visual-auditory achievement, intermodal, such as in "se promener / je me promene / nous nous promenons, depending on the shift of stress recevoir / je recois/ nous recevons", depending on the letter following the "c", "la fenetre" from Latin "fenestra" which you have to know.
- the two articles "la" and "le" are problems of memory and demand accordation of endings and adjectives, such as "les filles", la bonne fille, les bonnes filles, les trauvaux dures,..."
- problems with sequences in a rather strict word order F

rom the neuropsychological point of view German is easier to be mastered by English students than French.

Advantages of German:

- rather similar basis of articulation
- no particularly high speed of articulation when spoken correctly
- a Germanic language with quite a number of closely or remotely similar words to English
- strictly 1:1 sound-letter correspondences, apart from a few rules of spelling
- gestures exist which make reading and spelling easier, an exteriorisation of an inner process
- but no problems of pronunciation, such as they exist in English, where one only knows from experience whether to pronounce (u) as in "enough" ( u ) as in "through" or (ou) as in "though", where one has to discriminate between "to shoot" and "to shout", between "where" and "were"....,
- Letters /sounds are not slurred together als in English or French, but each letter /sound /syllable is pronounced distinctly so that the spelling can be checked accurately . There are no silent letters or endings except "ie" for "i" and "th" for "t"
- nouns must be discriminated, because they are written with capital letters
- Some grammatical abstractions must be applied for derivations, such as "Wände" from "Wand" or "er rennt" von "rennen",
- three genders of nouns have to be memorised and accordance between nouns and adjective endings have to be considered
- But unlike French or English the word order in German is not strict at all.