Acquistion and Learning

Acquisition and Learning

Acquisition and Learning are important in learning languages but there is a huge difference between acquisition and learning. In fact, the two concepts do not relate.

Learning involves the ability to comprehend and recall information. It can be reached through reading, discussion, attending lectures, conferences and can be assessed via formative and summative assessment.   

Acquisition is much more than simple learning. Acquisition involves applying learnt principles in the real world. When it comes to language learning, acquisition is truly the only way to measure students' success. This means that students are not only able to understand and recognize vocabulary words and grammar tenses, but they can also use the linguistic structures they learned in a way that is fluid and automatic. In some sense, the idea behind acquisition is using the language outside the classroom in real context and under real circumstances. To better enhance acquisition teachers and students alike must understand the different modes of learning.

Two Modes of Learning

H. Douglas Brown introduces the idea of two different types of learning by using the metaphor of a camera. For Brown, using language is like using a camera that has two different lenses, a zoom lens and a wide angle lens. When one is learning a language through a zoom lens, one is focusing in on a very small specific linguistic form, like a vocabulary word, the past tense or a small pronunciation rule. However, when one is in a wide angle lens mode of learning, one is trying to understand an overall general meaning. Or try to convey a message without worrying so much about rules of grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation. Like Brown, Barbara Oakley, the famous mathematician, asserts the two modes of learning, calling them the focused mode and the diffused mode of learning. In a focused mode, one concentrates and looks very specifically at certain tasks, such as reading a chapter in the textbook. She recommends focusing for a specific short length of time, like 25 minutes when one is involved in a focused mode. A diffuse mode, however, is a time of letting one's mind wander and make connections (time of processing the information).

As teachers sometimes we have to focus on certain features of the language, other times we have to concentrate on making students exposed to the language or use the language without focusing on details or mistakes. By stepping back, a teacher will help learners understand overall structure and meaning as they communicate and gain fluency.

Acquisition refers to the ability to put language into practice, the ability to interact with others in a real language environment in order to convey meaning and ideas that will be useful to communicate information. Test taking and learning in a focused mode is not enough. In fact, many people have taken years of language classes without ever really acquiring the language as they have not really experimented or practiced the language.  

As teachers we should try to use the 80/20 principle  which suggests that practice should be the majority of what is learned in class, 80%, the remaining 20% of the time is dedicated to providing instruction.

 The focus mode is the time students need to zoom in on the details of learning like learning from a vocabulary list, practicing a particular tense, or working on the pronunciation of a group of similar sounding words. Learners need to allow their brain time to process the information via practice, revision and spaced repetition. Spaced repetition is a particularly good technique for studying. Rather than learn all the words at once and considering the learning finished, learners spend a limited amount of time with the material, and then come back to it at a later time. Each time the learner comes back to it, however, the amount of time between intervals increases. This allows for the learning to stick.

As teachers when we teach number of words during a week of instruction, please remember to recycle and use those words in upcoming weeks. Just giving students lists, asking students memorize those lists, and then leaving all that learning alone without usage, practice, recycling will simply cause students to believe that learning a language is nothing more than memorizing, taking a test, going home, and forgetting this knowledge and not trying to use it till the next exam. You know what I'm talking about. Don't do it. Engage students in activities that move them beyond a list of words or a single rule,  create general, not specific, tasks for your learners, challenge students to think critically by asking questions that require students to synthesize, and put together what they are learning.  Let them try to express what they they think, feel, and believe.

Finally, there's a big difference between Acquisition and Learning. Learning by memorizing lists of vocabulary and grammar can be important, but acquisition means you can put all that knowledge to use through real communication. Learning tends to be more focused and acquisition tends to be more diffused. As teachers we should give learners both modes of learning and to switch between them like a photographer might with a camera.

This entry is based on Arizona State University TESOL lectures.