Access to meaning: The anatomy of the language/learning connection

Abstract

In this Part II the author examines the most common assumptions about second language acquisition by means of the anatomical model created in Part I. The examination includes a review of the most widely‐used second language acquisition methods, and shows how they owe their basic assumptions to those embodied in the Direct Method — a century‐old approach to teaching second languages.

The two most basic assumptions — that people acquire a second language in the same manner as they acquired their first; and that the most appropriate language of instruction is L2 — are shown to be inconsistent with the views of Cummins, Vygotsky, Piaget and Chomsky. Furthermore, when these assumptions are subjected to analysis with the anatomical model they are found potentially to retard and/or delimit both the development of second language proficiency and the learning process of the typical student.

The analyses that the model permits provide many clearer explanations for the empirical results generally experienced by students who receive second language instruction through the methods in most common use. Based upon the model, and the resulting analyses, the author outlines some of the principal characteristics that a more effective second language acquisition approach would incorporate. These characteristics appear to be quite consistent with the principles of bilingual instruction.

Notes

The ideas and analyses that are contained in this article are excerpted from a book that is currently in preparation. That book, Quantum Learning, proposes a new theory of learning, and shows how that theory applies to learning in general, and to language acquisition in particular.

This article demonstrates how certain basic concepts in the fields of language acquisition, learning and language proficiency may be usefully related as a means for better understanding both the learning process and the nature of language acquisition.

Because these relationships stand on their own, without reference to Quantum Learning, and because there is much current debate on the issues of second language acquisition, the author believes that these findings may represent a useful contribution to that debate.