What is it about?
A common assumption about second langague (L2) learning is that you could master your L2 well if you spend long long time learning it. This is not necessarily true. L2 learning is not likely to be maximally effective if there is some or much missing of the following: - an exclusive focus on academic second language training in addition to daily oral/aural activities - plentiful of L2 inputs which are slightly above the current linguistic level of the students - a chance to interact meaningfully using the L2 with people of or above students' current language ability - that there are meaningful connections between different modules within the L2 lessons, and/or between the L2 lessons and content subject lessons which are preferrably taught in L2 It's worthwhile noting that typical L2 learning and teaching may lack much of the above.
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Why is it important?
The discussion of more and less effective ways of learning and teaching the second language, based on language acquisition theories and accompanying empircal findings which stand the test of time, contributes to our knowledge of language pedagogy and saves valuable time and effort in an endeavour undertaken by millions of school teachers and chidren around the world every day.
Perspectives
I hope senior school adminstrators and language educators would seize the chance to revamp the school curriculum in such a way that there are meaningful connections, in content and/or language use, between language and content subjects. If there is some strategical planning in teacher training to cultivate more 'content-aware' language teachers and 'language-aware' content teachers, all the better.
Edward Chu
The Open University of Hong Kong
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: What is effective second language exposure and how does it relate to content-based instruction and language across the curriculum?, Journal of Second Language Studies, April 2019, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/jsls.18002.chu.
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