The interview
The interview
An interview took place via Zoom with Marcela, who is the partner of my brother-in-law. Marcela is a 49 year old woman and she was born in Slovakia, where she was first taught English at school by a non-native English speaker in the 1980's, from Year 5. She first learnt English when Slovakia was still a part of Czechoslovakia, which was at that time heavily under Russian influence. Her first English language teacher was her classroom teacher. The method of teaching used was rote learning of the grammatical rules, using textbooks, which focused on tense and sentence structure. It was teacher centred and the individual needs of the students were largely not considered.
I will label the excerpts from the interview as follows: S(section) 1 = S1 and so on.
S1: Marcela describes her early English language experiences
Marcela describes her early English language at a selective language school. where she learnt Russian until Year 5 and then after that she learnt English nearly every day from a non-native English speaker. Marcela describes how the focus was on grammar during which they had to learn words and do a pattern of grammar exercises. Marcela explains that she was good at grammar but "not real talking and listening". She did not have the opportunity to hear real accents when she was being taught English this way.
From a cognitive language theory perspective this method of teaching may not have created a low affective filter, as the focus is not necessarily on the student's individual needs, but on the class as a group. The student, according to Krashen, (1985, in Myles & Mitchell, 2004), would be more likely to learn if the communication had meaning for them. This method of teaching also does not consider what motivates the student to learn. Krashen, would consider this form of language teaching as creating learning, rather than acquisition, as it is a formal and conscious process, focusing on form and grammar. Marcela describes that she was good at written grammar. Krashen's theory however, might explain why Marcela struggled to always locate the correct grammar when speaking when she was young, after having been taught in this way at a young age.
S2: Marcela continues to learn English at high school
Marcela continued to learn English at high school, but had to go back to the beginning of her English learning, as individual differences were not considered in the student's learning needs. She explains that she found the written side of learning English easy as she knew all the basics of grammar, but still did not know how to talk in English in real life situations. There was a discrepancy between the real world usage of spoken English language and what she was learning. She had no exposure to accents, which is what she experienced later in her language journey, when she conversed with the native English speakers.
This would align with what Swain (1985, in Mitchell et. al, 2019), proposed regarding the importance of output, which forces L2 learners to process grammar. This occurs as when the learner speaks, they notice the gaps in their language and are then aware of their errors.
Marcela describes how she also learnt German in high school, so she had two languages to learn. Marcela notes that it was when she was in Year 8, that it became more popular in Slovakia to learn English and to go abroad for that purpose.
S3: Marcela realises the need for her to improve her English abroad
Marcela describes how as Slavakia was opening up to the rest of the world, more foreign companies were coming to Slovakia and the need for English became increasingly important. This had occurred after the Velvet Revolution whereby, Slovakia separated from Czechoslovakia, and the Russian influence ceased. Due to this need for proficient spoken English, Marcela realises she needed to go to England to learn English in an intense Summer course.
S4: Marcela attends English lessons in Slovakia with the British Council
Marcela describes how before she went to England, she did an external course at university, run by the British Council. She had a very different English learning experience as she had a native English speaker. It was noted that Marcela still occasionally makes mistakes in her spoken English such as when she says "that was a huge advantage when the native speaker, so he knew all the limited English". Marcela uses the conjunction of the time word "when" incorrectly to describe the advantages of having a native English speaking teacher. It is noted as a mistake, rather than an error as it can be self-corrected if the mistake were to be shown to Marcela (James, 1998, in Brown, 2007).
Marcela describes how the lessons varied from her earlier experiences of learning English as the lessons were more interesting and fun and involved talking and listening,and working in groups. She explains that the lessons were organised to be more close to reality. She was able to listen to a native speaker speaking, which she saw as advantageous. She realised that knowing all the words and grammar was not enough to understand spoken English, as it did not teach you about the different accents and the speaker might also speak too quickly for you to follow easily.
The presence of some mistakes may support the cognitive view of SLA as Brown notes (Brown, 2007, p. 215), "second language learning is a process of the creative construction of a system in which learners are consciously testing hypotheses about the target language from a number of possible sources of knowledge: knowledge of the native language, limited knowledge of the target language itself, knowledge of the communicative functions of language, knowledge about language in general, and knowledge about life, human beings and the universe". The term 'interlanguage' (Selinker, 1972, in Brown, 2007), was coined by Selinker which described the "separateness of a second language learner's system, a system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target languages", (Selinker, 1972, in Brown, 2007, p. 215).
According to Corder's stages of learner language development (Corder, 1973, in Brown, 2007), Brown proposed four stages of language development. Marcela would be placed in the final and fourth stage of language learning called 'stabilisation', where she "makes few errors and has mastered the system to the point that fluency and intended meanings are not problematic" (Brown, 2007, p. 229) and she is still able to self-correct, if necessary. The minor errors made may be due to 'fossilisation' of her language. Brown notes (Brown, 2007, p.231) that 'fossilisation is "the relatively permanent incorporation of incorrect linguistic forms into a person's second language competence".
In the following Figure 8.1, Corder (1971, in Brown, p.221) provides a model for identifying possible errors or mistakes in speaking a second language:
In the following Table 8.1, Richards (1971, in Brown, p. 225), also provides a list of typical English intralingual errors when using articles. It is noted that Marcela makes mistakes when using the article 'a' several times during the interview.
Mitchell, R., & Myles, F. (2004). Second Language Learning Theories. (2nd ed). London:Arnold
Mitchell, R, Myles, F., & Marsden, E. (2019) Second Language Learning Theories. 4 Routledge
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