Saravanan, my co-volunteer in Evergreen Tamil school, told me a story or part of a story from "Diary of a wimpy kid". There is a language acquisition lesson here..
A kid and the parents were somewhere. They meet with someone who spoke español only. The parents were wondering what to do. The kid starts talking in español.They were surprised to see this kid talk in español because the kid never spoke español before, did not go to español class etc. But, the kid went to a daycare which was run by an español person.
We are familiar with how well and fast kids acquire their first language (L1). How did this kid acquire español so well? What is the language acquisition concept behind it?
Professor Dr. Kumar of SJSU says “for someone to acquire a language two conditions must be met:
1. ability to acquire a language
2. surrounded by linguistic environment.
”
Dr. Krashen goes to next level and says "you acquire a language when you understand the message in a low anxiety environment".
Now, we can connect the above 3 pieces together and see how this kid was able to acquire español without any lessons/school/syllabus/test/etc.
Natural ability - is already there. We are born with natural ability.
Surrounded by linguistic environment - the caretaker was conversing in español with these kids and others all day.
Understand the message - I am sure the caretaker was giving simple and easy to follow instruction for the kids to follow.
Low anxiety environment - the kid need not have to memorize anything, nor take a test.
The lesson and hence is: let's surround our students with lots of Tamil language as much as we can
in that 90 minutes; and also try our best to remove the anxiety from them in the class.
A kid and the parents were somewhere. They meet with someone who spoke español only. The parents were wondering what to do. The kid starts talking in español.They were surprised to see this kid talk in español because the kid never spoke español before, did not go to español class etc. But, the kid went to a daycare which was run by an español person.
We are familiar with how well and fast kids acquire their first language (L1). How did this kid acquire español so well? What is the language acquisition concept behind it?
Professor Dr. Kumar of SJSU says “for someone to acquire a language two conditions must be met:
1. ability to acquire a language
2. surrounded by linguistic environment.
”
Dr. Krashen goes to next level and says "you acquire a language when you understand the message in a low anxiety environment".
Now, we can connect the above 3 pieces together and see how this kid was able to acquire español without any lessons/school/syllabus/test/etc.
Natural ability - is already there. We are born with natural ability.
Surrounded by linguistic environment - the caretaker was conversing in español with these kids and others all day.
Understand the message - I am sure the caretaker was giving simple and easy to follow instruction for the kids to follow.
Low anxiety environment - the kid need not have to memorize anything, nor take a test.
The lesson and hence is: let's surround our students with lots of Tamil language as much as we can
in that 90 minutes; and also try our best to remove the anxiety from them in the class.
