Language News Update: Language Acquisition

Beyond bilingualism, much research continues to reinforce what we know about language acquisition and pedagogy, and the brain science in particular is always impressive and vital to what language teachers do.

• Repetition does aid learning!
• And repetition aids learning because, well, that is just how the brain science works.
• One should not, however, overstate the knowledge that we have from brain science, because even though language acquisition is largely a science, it is also an art. And even in the scientific realm, we still have a lot to learn. And so the debate will go on as to just how we learn language (consciously or unconsciously), and therefore just how we should teach languages. Steve Kaufmann is a businessman and language learned who popularizes Steve Krashen's hypotheses about language learning, particularly the acquisition-learning hypothesis. This is a great hypothesis, and Krashen and Bill VanPatten et al. have done great research, but one must remember that these remain hypotheses and theories, not proven fact.
• In a related area nearer and dearer to my heart, we are learning more about the brain, language acquisition, and literature. One thing all researchers and teachers can agree on is the importance of reading, and a lot of it.
• Does one ever forget one's first language? My answer would have been yes, but I just might be wrong.
• And finally, here at home and dear to my heart, some schools have started teaching Gullah in South Carolina.