第七章 自然法Natural Approach

第七章

自然法

Natural Approach:

background---

The

Natural

Approach

was

proposed

in

1977

by

Tracy

Terrell, a teacher of Spanish at the University of California. Later, Terrell

joined force with Stephen Krashen, an applied linguist at the University

of

Southern

Cal

ifornia.

Drawing

on

Krashen’s

influential

theory

of

second Language Acquisition, they tried to provide a detailed theoretical

rationale for the Natural Approach. In 1983, their joint effort came out in

a

book

The

Natural

Approach

:

Language

Acquisition

in

the

classroom,

which

states

the

principles

and

practices

of

the

Natural

Approach.

This

new

philosophy

of

language

teaching

was

an

attempt

to

develop

a

language teaching proposal that incorporated the “naturalistic” principles

in

the

studies

of

second

language

acquisition.

The

Natural

Approach

emphasizes

the

central

role

of

comprehension

and

believes

that :

①

Comprehension abilities precede productive skills in learning a language

②

The teaching of speaking should be delayed until comprehension skills

are established

③

Skills acquired through listening transfer to other skills

④

Teaching

should

emphasize

meaning

rather

than

form

⑤

Teaching

should minimize learns’ stress

Main

features---

⑴

Language

is

best

taught

when

it

is

being

used

to

transmit

messages.

The

Natural

Approach

considers

input

as

the

most

important element of any language teaching programme. Language is best

taught

when

it

is

being

used

to

transmit

messages,

not

when

it

is

explicitly

taught

for

conscious

learning.

⑵

Implications

for

classroom

practice:

①

whatever helps comprehension is important.

②

V

ocabulary is

important. With more vocabulary there will be more comprehension and

with

more

comprehension,

there

will

be

more

acquisition.

③

Students

must

understand

the

message.

④

Classroom

with

interesting

input

may

be a very good place for second language acquisition.

⑶

Guidelines for

classroom

practice:

①

The

goal

of

the

Natural

Approach

is

communication

skills.

②

Comprehension

precedes

production.

③

Produ ction

emerges.

④

Ac quisition

activities

are

essentia

l

.

⑤

Lower

the

affective filter.

⑷

Characteristics of classroom teaching:

①

Class time is

devoted primarily to providing input for acquisition.

②

The teacher speaks

only

the

target

language

in

the

classroom.

Students

may

use

either

the

first or second language. If they choose to respond in the second language,

their errors should not be corrected in the process of communication.

③

Homework may include grammar work and errors should be corrected.

④

The goals are to enable students to talk about ideas, perform tasks, and

solve

problems.

⑸

The

role

of

learner:

The

language

learners

are

considered as processors of comprehensible input. They can decide when

to speak, What to speak about, and what linguistic expressions to use in

speaking.

Their

roles

change

according

to

their

stage

of

linguistic

development. (6)The role of a teacher: The natural Approach teacher has

three central roles. She is first the primary source of comprehensible input

in

the

target

language.

Her

second

role

is

to

create

a

classroom

atmosphere

that

is

interesting,

friendly,

and

in

which

there

is

a

low

affective

filter

for

learning.

Finally,

the

teacher

must

choose

and

use

a

rich

mix

of

classroom

activities,

involving

a

variety

of

group

sizes

content,

and

contexts.

(7)The

role

of

testing:

is

to

motivate

students

to

prepare for tests by obtaining more comprehensible input and to motivate

teachers to supply more comprehensible input.

Objectives---

The

Natural

Approach

is

primarily

designed

to

develop

basic

communication

skills---both

oral

and

written ---and

is

designed

to

help

beginners

become

intermediates.

The

students

are

expected

to

be

able to function adequately in the target situation. They should be able to

make

the

meaning

clear.

The

goals

of

a

Natural

Approach

class

are

divided according to basic personal communication skills and academic

learning

skills,

with

focus

on

the

former.

Communication

goals

are

specified in terms of situations, functions and topics.

Proce dures---

⑴

Pre-production stage: At this stage, the teacher provides

comprehensible

input,

maintains

focus

on

the

message

and

helps

lower

affective

filters.

This

pre-production

stage

allows

the

students

an

opportunity

to

begin

the

acquisition

process.

⑵

production

stage:

The

Natural Approach uses three stages as a basis for beginners; all involve

personalization and the use of family topics and situations. The first stage

is aimed primary at lowing the affective filter by putting the students into

situations

in

which

they

can

get

to

know

each

other

personally.

The

students learn how to describe themselves, their family, and their friends

in

the

targe

language.

The

second

stage

consists

of

giving

the

students

comprehensible input about experiences and allowing for opportunities to

engage

in

conversations

about

their

own

experiences.

The

third

stage

consists of input and discussions, concerning opinions. Students discuss

political issues, civil rights, family, and so forth, and gain the competence

to express their own views.

Techniques---

⑴

Acquisition

activities:

①

Affective-humanistic

activities

attempt

to

invo

lve

students’

feelings,

opinions,

desires,

reactions,

ideas,

and

experiences.

Open

dialogues,

interviews,

reference

ranking, personal charts, supplying personal information, description, etc.

are

often

used

to

involve

students

in

communicating

information

about

themselves.

②

Problem-

solving activities are those in which the students’

attention is focused on finding a correct answer to a question, a problem

or

a

situation.

③

Games

are

the

third

group

of

activities.

The

primary

focus

of

any

particular

game

is

on

words,

discussion,

action,

contest,

problem-solving,

and

guess.

④

Content

activities

are

the

ones

whose

purpose is for the students to learn something new other than language.

They

include

slide

shows,

panel,

individual

reports

and

presentations,

“show

and

tell”

activities

,

music,

films,

film

scripts,

TV

reports,

news

broadcasts, guest lectures, native speaker visitors reading and discussions

about any sort of the target language and culture.

⑵

Typical techniques:

In

the

early

stages

of

speech

production,

the

Natural

Approach

uses

random

volunteered

group

responses,

which

place

little

demand

on

the

individual student but allow early use of the target language. As for errors,

if students’ response is wrong in meaning, the teacher will correct them

immediately.

But

if

the

response

is

appropriate,

but

ill-formed

or

pronounced

incorrectly,

the

teacher

will

first

give

a

positive

response,

then use reformations and expansions, just as in real-life situations. The

particularly good technique is the one that consists of giving commands

to students and having them actually act out what the teacher says. The

Natural Approach also provides appropriate texts and reasons for reading.

Natural

Approach:

Theory

of

language--

-a.

Communication

as

the

primary

function

of

language;

and

emphasis

on

meaning

Krashen

and

Terrell see communication as the primary function of language and since

their approach focuses on teaching communicative abilities, they identify

the Natural Approach with the Communicative Approach. What Krashen

and

Terell

emphasize

in

their

approach

is

the

primacy

of

meaning.

b.

Importance

of

vocabulary

Krashen

and

Terrell

stress

the

importance

of

vocabulary,

suggesting

that

a

language

is

essentially

its

lexicon.

c.

Not

necessary

to

analyze

grammatical

structure;

and

rules

automatically

provided in the input. Krashen and Terrell hold that grammatical structure

does

not

require

explicit

analysis

or

attention

by

the

teacher,

by

the

learner, or in language teaching materials. They assume that if we provide

input over a wide variety of topics while pursuiting communicative goal,

the necessary grammatical rules are automatically provede in the input.

Theory

of

learning---

a.

Krashen’s

Monitor

Model

of

second

language

development

The

Monitor

Model

is

the

center

of

Krashen’s

second

language

learning

theory.

Krashen

argues

that

his

account

provides

a

general or “overall theory” of second language acquisition with important

implications for language teaching. b. Two distinct processes: acquisition

and learning Krashen’s Monitor Model of second l

anguage development

distinguishes

two

distinct

processes

in

second

and

foreign

language

development

and

use.

One

is

called

“acquisition”,

which

refers

to

the

subconscious process leading to the development of “competence” and is

not dependent on the teaching of grammatical rules. The second process

called

“learning”,

refers

to

the

conscious

study

and

knowledge

of

grammatical

rules.

In

producing

utterances,

learners

initially

use

their

acquired

system

of

rules.

Learning

and

learned

rules

have

only

one

function:

to

serve

as

a

monitor

or

editor

utterances

initiated

by

the

acquired system. c. The five hypothesis of Krashen’s Monitor Model

①

The

acquisition-learning

hypothesis

Krashen

maintains

that

second

language

learners

have

at

their

disposal

two

distinct

and

independent

ways of developing competence in a second language. One is acquisition.

The

other

is

learning.

Acquisition

comes

about

through

meaningful

interaction

in

a

natural

communication

setting.

This

contrasts

with

the

language

learning

situation

in

which

students

try

not

to

make

mistakes

and their teacher corrects them once they are found. Learning, according

to the theory, cannot lead to acquisition.

②

The Monitor hypothesis The

monitor hypothesis states that learning has only one function, and that is

as a monitor. It uses conscious grammatical knowledge to determine the

form of produced utterances. The monitor (knowledge of grammar rules)

is thought to play a minor role in second language learning process.

③

The natural order hypothesis The natural order hypothesis states that we

acquire the rules of language in a predictable order, some rules tending to

come

early

and

other

late.

The

order

does

not

appear

to

be

determined

solely by formal simplicity and there is evidence that it is independent of

the

order

in

which

rules

are

taught

in

language

classes.

④

The

input

hypothesis The input hypothesis assumes that human acquire language in

only

one

way---by

understanding

messages,

or

by

receiving

“comprehensible

input”

which

refers

to

utterances

that

the

learner

understands based on the context in which they are used as well as the

language

in

which

they

are

phrased.

In

language

acquisition,

we

move

from i, our current level, to i+1, the next level along the natural order, by

understanding input containing i+1.

This hypothesis

involves four

main

issues: First, the input hypothesis relates to acquisition, not to meaning.

Second,

people

acquire

language

best

by

understanding

input

i+1.

Comprehension is helped by the situation and the context, extra-linguistic

information

and

knowledge

of

the

world.

Third,

the

ability

to

speak

fluently can not be taught, it “emerges” independently in time, after the

acquirer has built up language competence by understanding input. Forth,

enough comprehension input provides i+1 automatically.

⑤

The affective

filter

hypothesis

Krashen

argues

that

attitudinal

factors

also

play

an

important role in acquiring a second language. Krashen sees the learner’s

emotional

state

or

attitude

as

an

adjustable

filter

that

freely

passes

or

blocks

input

necessary

to

acquisition.

Krashen

identifies

three

kinds

of

affective

variables

related

to

second

language

acquisition

:

motivation,

self-confidence

and

anxiety.

For

Krashen,

the

affective

filter

is

the

principle source of individual differences in second language acquisition.

Definition---

The

Natural

Approach

emphasizes natural

communication

rather than formal grammar study and is tolerance of learners’ errors. The

core of the Natural Approach is language acquisition which is considered

a

subconscious

process,

dependent

on

two

factors:

the

amount

of

comprehensible

input

the

students

get

and

the

amount

of

input

the

students “allow in”.

Advantages-

⑴

The classroom consisting of acquisition activities can be

an

excellent

environment

for

beginners.

The

Natural

Approach

is

an

attempt to simulate in the classroom an environment that will be similar

to the context in which children acquire their first language, as they create

utterances

to

express

their

own

thoughts.

⑵

Comprehensible

and

meaningful practice activities are emphasized. In the Natural Approach, a

focus

on

comprehension

and

meaningful

communication

as

well

as

the

provision

of

right

kinds

of

comprehensible

input

provide

the

necessary

and

sufficient

condition

s

for

successful

classroom

second

and

foreign

language

acquisition.

It

emphasizes

comprehensible

and

meaningful

practice

activities,

rather

than

production

of

grammatically

perfect

utterance and sentences. Listening comprehension is also emphasized.

⑶

The teacher creates speeches which enable students to interact using the

target

language.

⑷

Students

are

not

forced

to

respond

in

the

target

language

immediately.

⑸

Students

interact

in

meaningful

situation

at

their

own

level.

The

Natural

Approach

classroom

contains

a

teacher

whose

main

purpose

is

to

create

a

net

of

speech

which

will

enable

students

to begin

interacting using

the

target

language

and

to

begin

the

language acquisition process. The teacher can provide a large amount of

language

input

without

forcing

the

students

to

respond

in

the

target

language immediately. In the classroom, students also have the advantage

of being able to interact in meaningful situations with other students at or

near

their

own

level

of

competence.

⑹

The

teacher

knows

students’

needs

and

concentrates

on

appropriate

and

useful

areas.

Another

important

feature

of

the

classroom

is

that

the

teacher

is

aware

of

the

specific

vocabulary

needs

of

the

students

and

can

concentrate

on

appropriate and using domains. Thus the conclusion is that while the real

world can provide excellent input for intermediate or advanced acquires,

the

classroom

consisting

of

acquisition

activities

can

be

an

excellent

environment for beginners.

Disadvantages--

-

⑴

The Natural Approach ignores many factors essential

in second language course design.

⑵

It simply borrows techniques from