The final installment has finally arrived. Here are the links to parts I, II, III, and IV. In the near future there will be a link on one of the sidebars to the entire discussion here and also other discussions that I think are important or interesting.

What is the likelyhood that early L2/FL instruction is harmful to L1 development?

Spada started this part by stating that there is a common belief that one should wait to establish L1 before introducing a second language. But the key point is when is this achieved? How do you determine that the first language is established? at 4 years, 10 years, puberty? She went on to state that there is no agreement on when a language is established. Personally I find the idea of delaying the introduction of a second language foolish. By this I mean bi-lingual parents choosing to speak only one langauge so as to not “confuse” their child. I remember reading about 10 years back (sorry no source) that it is true that children may seem confused at first but by the time they reach 4-5 years old the languages will have sorted themselves out.

The reason that many people believe this is that early, flawed, research showed that there was a cognitive and social disadvantage to bilinguingual children. However, recent research has shown that there is no negative affect and that there is in fact a positive benefit. Blinguals are superior to monolilnguals in verbal and nonverbal intelligence. This research unfortunately is not applicable to foreign language learning. It is applicable to immersion programs though.

More important than age is the amount and intensity of language exposure. How much time is required? It is accepted that children will master their first language, with the exception of some rare grammar and high level vocabulary, by the time they are four years old. During this entire time they are exposed to Language from the moment they wake up until they sleep. At this point Spada brought up 10,000 hours as the amount of exposure recieved required. Last fall I was doing research for an essay and used the 10,000 hour figure myself. You can read more about it in: Annual Review of Psychology, Feb 1996, Vol. 47, pp. 273-305 EXPERT AND EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE: Evidence of Maximal Adaptation to Task Constraints by K. A. Ericsson and A. C. Lehmann Or google ericsson and expert performance.

Spada then stated that for immigrant children to achieve native social fluency they require a minimum of 5000 hours of instructional and play time. In addition to reach academic fluency they need to be exposed for at least five years. The next bit was about the benefits of immersion study, extended daily exposure over a short timve vs the “drip-feed” approach, small exposure over a long time. The research she cited is: Hawkins, E. & Perren, G. (1978). Intensive language teaching in schools. Centre for information on language teaching and research. London UK The results clearly indicate that it is intensity of time that is more important. This is because in the drip-feed approach the teacher is the only model of proficiency and that most if not all input comes from the learners themselves. This sounds almost exactly what the Korean (Asian?) education system does. A drip feed of English, unfortunately focusing on grammar and discrete testing rather than fluency.

Spada concluded by saying that incomplete acquisition is due to lack of time rather than age. And if instruction time is limited it is more efficient to begin instrution later. If possible, intiensive exposure to language is better than a slow constant approach.

During the Q&A time Spada was asked a question that I didn’t write down but her answer stated that mastery of English is not necessary nor realistic in a foreign language setting. The questioner then asked a followup question about whether it is good to talk to learners about it not being reailistic to want to master English as it may be discouraging. Spada’s response was that it is good for students to set high goals but that they should be realistic. I agree 100 percent with this statement. Besides what is the point of sounding like a native speaker?

Her presentation in all four cities in Korea were taped and will be available on the oxford Korea site in early May.

Any errors in all five sections of the write up are entirely due to me - poor notes, poor memory, and taking a long time to write it up rather than doing it that day or the next day.