Out of the Ashes

As years go by, we encounter ourselves with different people we are, different faces we show, and different aspects of our own personality that we share in the classroom. I used to be a nervous teacher only during the first two months of my personal experience –about 12 years ago-; a submissive one during my first three years –doing as I was told by my bosses-; a creative one by my fifth year as a teacher; a very good one by the seventh; and a relaxed, almost obsolete one by the tenth year. I had tried it all and it had worked, but I knew that I needed a new tool to make that contribution every experienced educator talks about, that one experience that makes you reset your brain and open your mind to what you had always thought of as unthinkable.

Then I decided to change jobs, change cities, and change routines, discovering that every end brings a new beginning. Black is white and old is new. Sometimes we hit the bottom and only then decide to start it all over…another strategy that worked, with the aid of technology, the piece that had been missing. I started my Master’s and my thesis, and focused more and more on my contribution to society: a new methodology for my classes, which would affect a population of 120 students at my university every semester. I dared. I was forced by myself to find myself. Not only would I implement technological tools to class but also change my own teaching style, from giving instructions to redefining personal aspects to reinvent myself as a teacher. It has taken four years. If someone ever asked me if it has been worth it, I would not hesitate to nod yes, with a smile on my face, and believe it or not, I suspect my students would too.

LAD Vs. LASS

As to Generativism, I personally believe that the fact that every language learner is highly influenced by the surroundings within which learning has taken place, whether formal or informal, affects his/her performance. No person carries out the very same cognitive processes as another one, but several people can be taught in the same classroom and be simultaneously successful if instructed in a way that fits their personal needs and their learning styles. These aspects seem to have been neglected in Chomsky’s theory about the innate faculty to learn a language (LADs) because I strongly believe that language mostly depends on interaction and negotiation of meaning.

Brunner’s concept of the Language Acquisition Support Systems (LASS) has to do with being able toresort to an affective “support wall” created by a child’s family as s/he is learning a language. Thus, children learn through error and trial, with constant monitoring and correction of the family.
I also agree with Brunner, and also with John Mac Namara when he states that children have the capacity to descipher the mearning and sense of words from the context. Children’s speech is reinvented everyday as a result of constant interaction with the environment.

L1 ACQUISITION - NURTURING NATURALLY

Theories on Emergentism and Generativism still seem to bring about controversial viewpoints among language educators who are interested in dealing with language acquisition in their classes. To make a long story short, the parameters set by Emergentism assure that individuals are able to learn from the context (the linguistic situation, the exposure to parents’ speech, and to the environment), as well as because of cultural evolution. On the other hand, Generativism, coming from early linguist Chomsky, argues that every child is born with an innate ability (or “LAD”) that allows him/her to learn a language due to humans’ innate ability to do so, theory which seems outfashioned nowadays if compared to recent research.

My personal experience as a learner forces me to believe that nature had a lot to do with how fast I reached a high level of performance, having neither studied at a bilingial school, nor traveled abroad to be immerse in an English-speaking environment (also considering how poorly English classes were taught in my high school). However, my experience as a teacher has always taught me that no matter how little a student wants to learn English, I have always been able to provide the right tools to teach him/her English in a professional, appealing way, and most students can learn this way. I believe that a good input, including proper instruction on learning strategies, is the key factor to transform a below average student into a successful, autonomous one.