压码鉴赏与评析外语教学法系列《七个外语成功者》为你解惑

Chapter Four
An Imaginative Learner
Derek learning German, Russian and Finnish
Derek was a middle-aged executive who had already been highly successful with
German and Russian. He was also doing very well in his current study of Finnish,
but as we will see, Finnish turned out to be a very different experience from German
or Russian. Derek’s approach to the task also proved to be quite unlike the
approaches of Ann, Bert or Carla. Throughout the interview Derek spoke
deliberately, appearing to think carefully about each answer as he gave it.

Chapter Four  第四章
An Imaginative Learner 一个富有想象力的学习者
Derek learning German, Russian and Finnish 德里克学习德语、俄语和芬兰语
Derek was a middle-aged executive who had already been highly successful with German and Russian. He was also doing very well in his current study of Finnish, but as we will see, Finnish turned out to be a very different experience from German or Russian. Derek’s approach to the task also proved to be quite unlike the approaches of Ann, Bert or Carla. Throughout the interview Derek spoke deliberately, appearing to think carefully about each answer as he gave it.
德里克是一位中年执行官总裁，他已经是非常成功是应用德语和俄语。他过去也是做得很好，在他的目前正在研究学习芬兰语，但是，就像我们将要看到的一样，芬兰语变得非常不同，从德语和俄语的经验来看。德里克的方法，将要完成的任务看，所证明的是一个相当不同于安的方法，或者伯特和卡拉的方法。通过这个访谈采访，德里克说话是自发故意的，看上去出现了每个答案仔细思考就像他自己给出的它一样。

4.1 Imagination in mastering fundamentals
To me, the most striking thing about Derek’s approach to languages was his high
degree of originality and imagination. This showed up first in his learning of
grammar.
4.1.1 Devising one’s own tables of forms
n What works with one language may not work with
another.
n Importance of learner accepting responsibility for
own progress.
m ‘Stockpiling’ grammatical forms.
‘I arrived expecting Finnish to be difficult,’ he began, ‘and I’d say at the end of
4½ months that the claims were not exaggerated. It’s quite difficult in comparison to
German, or even to Russian.’
‘Those were the languages you had studied previously?’
‘Yes. And I soon realized I’d have to find some way of handling certain aspects of
57
58 Success with Foreign Languages
Finnish grammar. I don’t recall such a thought in regard to either German or
Russian. I was able to just take those languages as they were presented.’
‘You discovered that this time, you’d have to find a way for yourself.’
‘Yes. For example, I can cite one technique that I don’t recall having used in
either German or Russian. It was to devise tables which would present to me all of
the significant inflections of the nouns and the verbs.’
‘Devise tables?’ I thought. ‘Carla could never have done this! And there’s no
evidence that Ann or Bert did, either. ’ ‘Inflections,’ I repeated. ‘You mean the basic
form of a noun or verb with all its endings and combinations of endings.’
‘That’s right. And these tables let me see on one sheet of paper what was
happening in the structure.’
‘You got a bird’s-eye view,’ I said.
‘Yes. And by so doing I was able to isolate what, for my memory process at least,
were key distinctive features.’
‘That is, the features that you had to notice if you were going to keep track of
what was going on.’
‘Exactly. I found that taking say, the declensions of the noun, I had to deal with
them one at a time. There are so many of them in Finnish - there are so many types
of endings depending on what sort of stem you have. And an additional
complication of Finnish is that the whole word can be transformed depending on the
ending. The visual shapes of the inflected forms may bear very little resemblance to
the nominative form that you find in the dictionary.’
‘That does sound complicated,’ I agreed.
‘Yes. So at that point, quite early on, I got into drawing up these tables for
myself, which then helped me to isolate the pattern, and to categorize the nouns by
families. And consequently when I came to the practical use of the word, I was able
to recall that it belonged to that family, and once having made that identification, it
helped me to get a grip on the whole set of forms.’
Comments
Ann, Bert and Carla described their own learning styles, and the methods that had
worked for them. In this opening segment of his interview, Derek says something
that represents a quiet breakthrough. Everyone knows that languages are different
from one another, and that some are harder than others. Derek is telling us here
that they also differ with regard to the ways in which they are hard. It would not
have worked, he says, simply to have applied more vigorously the same techniques
of learning that had worked so well in German and Russian.
So Derek did not say, ‘I did well in two other languages. Therefore my slower
progress in Finnish must be due to shortcomings of the teachers or the textbook.’
Instead, he decided that, ‘I’ll have to find a way of handling the situation - a way
that is suitable for my memory process.’ He accepts primary responsibility. Like
Bert, he recognizes that what works for his ‘memory process’ may not be suitable for
other learners.
In this segment, Derek is talking about stockpiling not words, but grammatical
An Imaginative Learner: Derek 59
forms. Moreover, this way of dealing with Finnish grammar seems to be
fundamental to his study, and not just an added optional help. For Derek, his
construction of the tables is one means of building up his mental resources for a very
important linguistic task - the task of coming up with the right endings at the right
times.
Working with the ideas
1. Where are the worst complications in the language you are studying now, or in
one you have studied?
2. How do you think Ann. Bert and Carla would have reacted to the idea of
making charts? How would you feel about undertaking such a project?


4.1 Imagination in mastering fundamentals
To me, the most striking thing about Derek’s approach to languages was his high degree of originality and imagination. This showed up first in his learning of
grammar.

4.1.1 Devising one’s own tables of forms 设计一个自己的表的模式
内容体验：
1、 What works with one language may not work with another. 一种语言的什么工作的作品，可能和另一种语言不一样
2、 Importance of learner accepting responsibility for own progress. 学习者正在接受对于自己进步意义的责任是非常重要的
3、 ‘Stockpiling’ grammatical forms. 储存语法的模式

‘I arrived expecting Finnish to be difficult,’ he began, ‘and I’d say at the end of 4½ months that the claims were not exaggerated. It’s quite difficult in comparison to German, or even to Russian.’ ‘Those were the languages you had studied previously?’ ‘Yes. And I soon realized I’d have to find some way of handling certain aspects of Finnish grammar. I don’t recall such a thought in regard to either German or Russian. I was able to just take those languages as they were resented.’
我要想达到芬兰语的预期是困难的，他开始说，并且我将要说，在最后结束的4个半月所得到的补偿也不是夸张的。它与德语和俄语比较来说，是很困难的。这些语言你过去已经学习了吗？是的，我很快意识到，我必须发现一种方法，能够掌握某一方面的芬兰语的语法。我不记得比如通过这种方法，有一起去学习德语或者俄语的想法。我也能够只是制作一些语言，作为他们所不满意的。
‘You discovered that this time, you’d have to find a way for yourself.’ ‘Yes. For example, I can cite one technique that I don’t recall having used in either German or Russian. It was to devise tables which would present to me all of the significant inflections of the nouns and the verbs.’
你发现这时，如果要学会一种语言，你将必须找到自己的一种方法。是的，举例来说，我可以举一个技术的例子，我不记得曾经在德语或者俄语中使用过，这是设计一个表，那个表，可能现在对于我来说，所有具有重大意义的单词形状的变化，就在名词和动词上。
‘Devise tables?’ I thought. ‘Carla could never have done this! And there’s no evidence that Ann or Bert did, either. ’ ‘Inflections,’ I repeated. ‘You mean the basic
form of a noun or verb with all its endings and combinations of endings.’ ‘That’s right. And these tables let me see on one sheet of paper what was happening in the structure.’ 设计一张表吗？我想，卡拉可能从来没有这样做过！这里也没有证据表明安或者伯特做过。单词形状的变化。我重复道，你的意思是名词和动词最基础的形式，在所有连接它们的结尾或者结尾的字母组合？对的。并且这些表让我们看到在一张纸上，它或发生了什么样的结构性变化。
‘You got a bird’s-eye view,’ I said. ‘Yes. And by so doing I was able to isolate what, for my memory process at least, were key distinctive features.’ ‘That is, the features that you had to notice if you were going to keep track of what was going on.’ 你得到了一个鸟瞰，用鸟的眼睛居高临下俯视全文。我说，是的，通过这样做，我能够孤立做出什么语法来，至少在我的记忆过程中是这样，这个问题的关键就是不同特征。那是，这个特征，你不得不去关注，如果你将要沿着这个足迹的轨道连续不同持续地将要得到什么的话。
‘Exactly. I found that taking say, the declensions of the noun, I had to deal with them one at a time. There are so many of them in Finnish - there are so many types of endings depending on what sort of stem you have. And an additional complication of Finnish is that the whole word can be transformed depending on the ending. The visual shapes of the inflected forms may bear very little resemblance to the nominative form that you find in the dictionary.’
  太棒了！我发现了那个说话的措施，这个名词的变格，相联系的单词形状而词性的变化，我不得不一个单词处理他们一次。这里有这么多的芬兰语的单词，这里有这么多的词尾类型，依赖于你所拥有的这个单词的样式，并且是额外增加的全部的芬兰语，那个所有的单词都能转化，都依赖于词尾。这个视觉所看到的样子，单词形状的变化的模式，是很少的一点相似之处的主格的形状，你可以在字典里面找到。
‘That does sound complicated,’ I agreed. ‘Yes. So at that point, quite early on, I got into drawing up these tables for myself, which then helped me to isolate the pattern, and to categorize the nouns by families. And consequently when I came to the practical use of the word, I was able to recall that it belonged to that family, and once having made that identification, it helped me to get a grip on the whole set of forms.’
那个听起来好复杂啊！我回答道。是的，这这一点上，很早我就发现了，我得到进入芬兰语里面，自己画出来这些表，它帮助我独立完成了这个样式，通过一个单词族群进行名词的分类，得到一个结果，当我去使用这个单词实践练习的时候，我能够回忆出来，他们属于哪个家族，并且曾经制作了一个鉴定语法正误的的一张表，一旦拥有了它，她就帮助我得到一组完全设置的语法图标的样式。
Comments 评论
Ann, Bert and Carla described their own learning styles, and the methods that had worked for them. In this opening segment of his interview, Derek says something that represents a quiet breakthrough. Everyone knows that languages are different from one another, and that some are harder than others. Derek is telling us here that they also differ with regard to the ways in which they are hard. It would not have worked, he says, simply to have applied more vigorously the same techniques of learning that had worked so well in German and Russian.
安、伯特和卡拉描述他们的学习方式的风格，并为这些他们的工作方法，对于他们来说，在这个开放的面试采访的环节，德里克说了一些事情，代表了一个非常重大的突破。大家都知道，一种语言对于其他语言来说是不同的，有些语言比其他的语言更难。德里克告诉我们，他们也能听到，也是一起的共同点方法是不同的，他们都努力地去学习。它不愿意这样做，他说，简单地提供更多、更大量的具有优势的同样的学习技术，那个在德育和法语学习中也会做得这么好。
So Derek did not say, ‘I did well in two other languages. Therefore my slower progress in Finnish must be due to shortcomings of the teachers or the textbook.’
Instead, he decided that, ‘I’ll have to find a way of handling the situation - a way that is suitable for my memory process.’ He accepts primary responsibility. Like
Bert, he recognizes that what works for his ‘memory process’ may not be suitable for other learners.
所以，德里克没有这样说，我在其他两种语言中也做得这么好。因此，我在芬兰语中进步很慢，必须去消除老师和教科书的缺点。另外，他决定那样做，我必须找到掌握这种情况的方法，一个适应我自己记忆过程的方法。他接受的主要责任，就像伯特，他认识到，怎样工作对于他的记忆过程，可能不一定适应于其他的学习者。
In this segment, Derek is talking about stockpiling not words, but grammatical forms. Moreover, this way of dealing with Finnish grammar seems to be fundamental to his study, and not just an added optional help. For Derek, his construction of the tables is one means of building up his mental resources for a very important linguistic task - the task of coming up with the right endings at the right times.
在这一部分，德里克告诉的储存没有单词，而是语法形式，更多的，这个处理芬兰语语法的方法，好像是他的学习的基础，并不只是增加了一个帮助的选项，对于德里克来说，他的表的结构，一个意思是建立起来了他的精神资源，对于一个非常重要的语言的任务。这个任务的到来，伴随着正确的词尾在正确的时间里。
Working with the ideas 工作与思考
1. Where are the worst complications in the language you are studying now, or in one you have studied?  什么地方是在语言学习中完全的最坏的方法，在你现在的学习中，或者在你曾经的学习过的方法？
2. How do you think Ann. Bert and Carla would have reacted to the idea of making charts? How would you feel about undertaking such a project? 你怎样认为安、伯特和卡拉，对于这个制作图标的想法将会有怎样的反应？你将会怎样感受，理解这么一个工程？

4.1.2 A contribution of ‘learning’ to ‘acquisition’
. Active search for abstractions.
H Apparent contribution of ‘learning’ to ‘acquisition’.
H Feeling of things ‘slipping into place’.
n DONNA: Benefit from organizing and memorizing.
‘You’ve apparently had very practical results from the intellectual activity of putting
the tables together,’ I observed.
‘Oh, yes! For instance, in one of the cases of Finnish, it helped me that I noted
mentally that if you had a double vowel in the ending of the singular, you had a
different double vowel in the plural.’
‘An abstract observation, but you found it useful.’
‘Yes. Or with the verbs it became absolutely essential for me to know that the key
to the whole thing was the simple past tense. If I memorized that and the infinitive, I
would not have any difficulty, usually, with any other part of the verb.’
‘Simple. but you would have been lost without it.’
‘That’s right. What I’m trying to illustrate is that there was a certain mental search
process - a search for mental crutches. But I think it went beyond that. The crutches
weren’t just arbitrary. They do have something to do with the way the language
behaves.’
‘You made them up, but you had to check them against reality.’
‘Yes, and it turns out that Finnish seems to have underlying it a type of
mathematical structure, so that by writing the words out, and lining them up in the
correct way, I got visual patterns.’
‘This must have taken a certain amount of experimentation, followed by a bit of
insight. ’
60 Success with Foreign Languages
‘True. But what I found was that I had to line them up in a vertical column, with
the last letter of each form under the last letter of the form above it.’
‘What in typing is called “right justification”?’
‘Yes, that’s it. And it seemed to me that once I had done this, it was like inputting
into my own mind. It wasn’t something that I visually recalled when I was trying to
decline a word. It was a way of putting the information in - into my mind. I had a
feeling - almost a physical feeling - that “OK, that was enough, the information had
gone in and it was there.“’
‘A physical feeling of . .’
‘Of having absorbed it. Yes.’
‘Sort of slipping into place?’
‘Something like that, yes.’
Comments
Derek’s ‘active search process’ fits the second of Omaggio’s characteristics of
successful language learners (see 1.2.6). This search leads him to notice and keep
track of some rather abstract linguistic matters. For example, he talks about
‘declensions’ and ‘conjugations,’ and the doubling of vowel sounds. Some learners
would find this a bit formidable. It is certainly ‘learning’ rather than ‘acquisition’
(see 1.1.2)!
Donna’s story is similar to Derek’s. She had had a relatively successful experience
with French, which she studied in school for three years beginning at age twelve.
When she was twenty-four. she found that her French was still serviceable during a
week-long vacation in a French-speaking area. The method used in her classes
involved the memorization of dialogs, but it also included a great deal of explicit
grammar study. The pupils were required to keep notebooks that were both
extensive and neat. Donna felt that the experience had made her into a betterorganized
person overall. It left her, she said, ‘with a sort of filing system in my
brain. As a result, the mention .. . of the infinitive form of a verb would instantly
awaken in my mind every form of that verb in its present-tense conjugation with
various subjects, and in its past and future tense conjugations as well. In fact, I recall
making little study sheets prior to a test so as to have everything neatly organized. By
the time I had written these drills all out, I no longer needed to study. My memory
was fixed, and it was just a matter of regurgitating it back onto paper the next day.’
‘But didn’t the information evaporate within forty-eight hours after the test?’ I
asked Donna. ‘No,’ she replied, ‘I had it available as long as I continued to use the
language.’ From what Donna said about herself, she sounds like a relatively
successful ‘stockpiler’ (see 1.2.5)!
Ann found the stockpiling of words to be distasteful and prohibitively difficult.
Bert, in his work on Chinese, was stockpiling mostly sentences. Now Derek and
Donna are talking about stockpiling not words and not sentences, but grammatical
forms. For them, their construction of the charts is one means of building up their
mental resources for a very important linguistic task - the task of coming up with the
right endings at the right times.
An Imaginative Learner: Derek 61
Working with the ideas
1.
2.
In this segment of his interview, Derek begins to tell us about his work with
charts. Which part of the process do you think would be most difficult for
Carla? Why?
Whether in learning language or in learning some other skill, have you ever
had Derek’s experience of feeling that a new component of the skill had at a
certain moment almost physically ‘slipped into place’?


4.1.2 A contribution of ‘learning’ to ‘acquisition’
. Active search for abstractions.
内容提要：
1、 Apparent contribution of ‘learning’ to ‘acquisition’.
2、 Feeling of things ‘slipping into place’.
3、 DONNA: Benefit from organizing and memorizing.

‘You’ve apparently had very practical results from the intellectual activity of putting the tables together,’ I observed.
‘Oh, yes! For instance, in one of the cases of Finnish, it helped me that I noted mentally that if you had a double vowel in the ending of the singular, you had a
different double vowel in the plural.’ ‘An abstract observation, but you found it useful.’
‘Yes. Or with the verbs it became absolutely essential for me to know that the key to the whole thing was the simple past tense. If I memorized that and the infinitive, I would not have any difficulty, usually, with any other part of the verb.’ ‘Simple. but you would have been lost without it.’
‘That’s right. What I’m trying to illustrate is that there was a certain mental search process - a search for mental crutches. But I think it went beyond that. The crutches weren’t just arbitrary. They do have something to do with the way the language behaves.’
‘You made them up, but you had to check them against reality.’  ‘Yes, and it turns out that Finnish seems to have underlying it a type of mathematical structure, so that by writing the words out, and lining them up in the correct way, I got visual patterns.’
‘This must have taken a certain amount of experimentation, followed by a bit of insight. ’‘True. But what I found was that I had to line them up in a vertical column, with the last letter of each form under the last letter of the form above it.’ ‘What in typing is called “right justification”?’
‘Yes, that’s it. And it seemed to me that once I had done this, it was like inputting into my own mind. It wasn’t something that I visually recalled when I was trying to decline a word. It was a way of putting the information in - into my mind. I had a feeling - almost a physical feeling - that “OK, that was enough, the information had gone in and it was there.“’
‘A physical feeling of . .’ ‘Of having absorbed it. Yes.’ ‘Sort of slipping into place?’ ‘Something like that, yes.’

Comments
Derek’s ‘active search process’ fits the second of Omaggio’s characteristics of successful language learners (see 1.2.6). This search leads him to notice and keep track of some rather abstract linguistic matters. For example, he talks about ‘declensions’ and ‘conjugations,’ and the doubling of vowel sounds. Some learners would find this a bit formidable. It is certainly ‘learning’ rather than ‘acquisition’ (see 1.1.2)!
Donna’s story is similar to Derek’s. She had had a relatively successful experience with French, which she studied in school for three years beginning at age twelve. When she was twenty-four. she found that her French was still serviceable during a week-long vacation in a French-speaking area. The method used in her classes involved the memorization of dialogs, but it also included a great deal of explicit grammar study. The pupils were required to keep notebooks that were both extensive and neat. Donna felt that the experience had made her into a betterorganized person overall. It left her, she said, ‘with a sort of filing system in my brain. As a result, the mention .. . of the infinitive form of a verb would instantly awaken in my mind every form of that verb in its present-tense conjugation with various subjects, and in its past and future tense conjugations as well. In fact, I recall making little study sheets prior to a test so as to have everything neatly organized. By the time I had written these drills all out, I no longer needed to study. My memory was fixed, and it was just a matter of regurgitating it back onto paper the next day.’
‘But didn’t the information evaporate within forty-eight hours after the test?’ I asked Donna. ‘No,’ she replied, ‘I had it available as long as I continued to use the
language.’ From what Donna said about herself, she sounds like a relatively successful ‘stockpiler’ (see 1.2.5)!
Ann found the stockpiling of words to be distasteful and prohibitively difficult. Bert, in his work on Chinese, was stockpiling mostly sentences. Now Derek and
Donna are talking about stockpiling not words and not sentences, but grammatical forms. For them, their construction of the charts is one means of building up their mental resources for a very important linguistic task - the task of coming up with the right endings at the right times.
An Imaginative Learner: Derek 61

Working with the ideas
1.In this segment of his interview, Derek begins to tell us about his work with charts. Which part of the process do you think would be most difficult for Carla? Why?

2. Whether in learning language or in learning some other skill, have you ever had Derek’s experience of feeling that a new component of the skill had at a
certain moment almost physically ‘slipped into place’?

4.1.3 A TECHNIQUE: Learning grammar with cuisenaire rods
A technique from Derek and Donna
Here is a technique that takes advantage of the value of visualizing grammatical
forms and of manipulating them physically. I have found it to be particularly
effective with students who have a little trouble dealing with grammatical
abstractions in the usual academic ways. The technique works best if you have access
to a set of cuisenaire rods (sometimes called math rods or Algebricks), which are
available in many educational supply stores.
w Take one of the longer rods (a blue one or an orange one) and set it on the
table in front of you. This rod will stand for the stem of the noun or verb whose
forms you are trying to learn.
n If the grammatical forms you are studying involve suffixes, place a different
color of rod to the right of that rod, to stand for each grammatical category you
are working with. For example, if you are trying to learn genitive, dative,
accusative and ablative cases for nouns or adjectives, one 1 cm (white) rod
might stand for genitive singular, and two 1 cm rods would stand for genitive
plural. Similarly one 2 cm (red) rod could stand for dative singular, and so on.
When you have all the rods set up, they will look something like those in the
diagrams:
Singular Plural
Nominative
I II Genitive
Dative
etc.
w Point to a combination of rods. and try to give the correct form. Pointing to the
single white rod means ‘genitive singular,’ pointing to the two 2 cm rods means
‘dative plural,’ and so forth. Pointing to the long rod on the left means ‘choose
a new noun.’ Check yourself, or better yet, have a partner check you.
This technique commonly starts out fairly slow and careful, but then
becomes quite lively after a few minutes.
62 Success with Foreign Languages

4.1.4 Sometimes working from chaos to order
n Awareness of specific gaps in one’s own
m How to ask and answer questions about grammar.
Derek’s doughty forays into the thickets of Finnish grammar fascinated me. ‘And
were most of these observations, these generalizations, already in the textbook,’ I
asked, ‘or were they mainly things that you worked out for yourself?’
‘Well, it was a combination of both. I would say that the instructional approach in
this course is very much concerned with not frightening the student, and
consequently it seems to me there is a reluctance to bring grammatical questions to
the forefront.’
‘For fear of overwhelming the student?’
‘Yes. But later on in a dictionary I discovered that the Finns themselves group
them into fifty-three families.’
‘You mean the Finns have been doing this all along, but you discovered it for
yourself!’
‘Well, of course my own groupings were a little different. I grouped them the way
I wanted to. The Finnish dictionary was much more comprehensive, and it took note
of changes that were so obscure that they would be uninteresting for the ordinary
individual.’
‘So if they had been presented to you, they might not have been quite as helpful
as the ones that you worked out for yourself?’
‘Yes, I think that’s right. If someone had thrown it at me - and they could have -
it’s in one of the books - if someone had started with that, I think it would have
turned me off, because you’re asked to look at things that are very detailed and very
subtle, and it would be an awkward way to start. To immerse you in it and let you
find your way out - that’s the way to go.’
‘Pretty much what happened in your case,’ I observed, ‘in that you were
immersed in it, and people almost withheld the type of information which you later
found so useful for yourself. But if they hadn’t withheld it - if they had given it to
you in their own form and in their own time - it might have been just as undesirable
as they seemed to fear it might be.’
‘Yes. I think their intuition on this matter has been correct. But on the other
hand, it does raise a problem for a person who is so immersed that he doesn’t find
his way out.’
‘A person who doesn’t find it the way you did.’
‘Of course in my case, whenever I get to the point where I need an explanation,
or want to be sure one of my formulations is not going to create more exceptions
An Imaginative Learner: Derek 63
than it accounts for, the teachers have been very able and willing to go over it and
explain it or correct it.’
‘You did need the teachers at those times.’
Comments
Derek makes up his own charts and generalizations. He says he gets more value
from doing so than from having the same material presented to him by a teacher or a
textbook. This is the same principle we found at work with Ann (1.1.3). A teacher
would be able to find many gaps in the resources that Derek has available for
producing Finnish nouns and verbs. But only Derek knows which of these gaps he
feels ready to work on right now.
In my own learning, I have observed something that I suspect is related to this
principle. Sometimes I ask questions of a teacher, or of someone else, about how a
language works. When I do so, I usually find that most of the value in the answer
comes in the first five seconds. In asking my question, I am trying to find a missing
piece in a jigsaw puzzle that I was putting together in my head. If the ‘answer’ goes
on much longer, it often begins to get into matters that are no longer adjacent to
that missing piece, so it is no longer an answer. When that happens, I begin to get
lost. The antidote seems to be to keep control of the conversation by asking very
specific questions of my own. Many of my students have seemed to react in the same
way to my long explanations.
Working with the ideas
1. How would you go about explaining the irregular verbs of English
(sing-sang-sung, see-saw-seen, etc.) to someone who asked you about them?
2. Derek recommends that students be immersed in a problem, and then allowed
to try to find their own way out of it. How would you react to being treated in
this way?

4.1.5 Mental files and indexes
H Learners differ in what works and doesn’t work for
them.
n The Cognitive Audio-Oral Bilingual Approach.
‘Oh, yes, of course,’ Derek replied. ‘And I used the same technique - chart-making
- not just with the noun declensions and the verb conjugations, but also with some
of the horribly complicated parts of Finnish vocabulary. And I found no published
materials that even touched these problems in the vocabulary.’
64 Success with Foreign Languages
‘You were exploring new territory, then.’
‘As far as 1 knew, 1 was. But 1 think that both student and teacher have to be
willing to face these things.’
‘To face them and deal with them,’ 1 said.
‘Absolutely. 1 think it would be good to set aside a day or two for each of these
topics, and just announce that “today we’re going to concentrate on thus-and-so.”
This is unlike the approach that is taken in our present course, which is to learn
these things by using them. The idea seems to be that you will pick them up by
repetition. by using certain phrases, without being terribly conscious of all the
changes. But 1 prefer to see the changes. 1 think once 1 see them I’m better able to
retain them.’
‘You’re much more comfortable when you can see such things in the open, and
work with them consciously.’
‘Oh, yes. Now, I’m not trying to say that I’m against the conversational approach
to language learning, or that 1 want to turn us all back to just grammar.’
‘You do feel that the conversational approach has its place.’
‘Oh, sure! 1 think it must continue to be the main vehicle - 90 per cent of the
course - because it obviously works. But at least in Finnish, because of the
exceptional intricacies of the grammar .’
‘You feel a little more aggressiveness is needed on the part of the teacher?’
‘Yes. Neither student nor teacher should be afraid to face the difficulties. Some
people seem to think we should learn a foreign language as adults the same way we
learned our native language when we were children. But we have to learn languages
more in the way we learn other things as adults, and there is more method and more
system. We do have mental files and we do have indexes. Why deprive a person of
these skills? Let them use them in learning language!’
Comments
At the beginning of the interview, Derek recognized that his ‘memory process’ might
be different from some other people’s, Now, however, he is saying that ‘we’ have
mental files and indexes. In effect, he is assuming that everyone is like him in this
respect. Successful people often slip into this way of talking, whether about language
study, or about learning some other kind of skill. When the successful language
learner is also a teacher who is writing a textbook or planning a lesson, such an
assumption often leads to disappointment.
And if the successful learner is a student, he or she may become impatient with
other students who seem not to be making proper use of those supposedly universal
mental faculties! Some of this may have been going on in Carla’s German class. At
least she seemed to fear it was.
In 1.1.4, 1 listed the steps that an adult language student should go through
according to the ‘Natural Approach.’ What Derek has just said is in many ways
inconsistent with that list. In fact, Derek’s preferences are much more closely in line
with another approach, called the ‘Cognitive Audio-Oral Bilingual (CA-OB)
An Imaginative Learner: Derek 65
method.” According to this approach, the five steps in classroom learning of a new
language are as follows:
H Identification of the new item: what it is, how it sounds and looks, etc.
H Reproduction of the new item, either silently or aloud.
m Understanding of what the new item does, and how it relates to other items in
the language.
w Manipulation of the new item, first (and often briefly) in a mechanical way, and
then in connection with appropriate meanings.
n Application of the new knowledge (putting the new item to real or realistic
use).
Working with the ideas
1. Pick out the places in this segment where Derek seems to be working by the
CA-OB method rather than by the Natural Approach.
2. Some learners need very little help in developing their own understanding of
how a new language works. Others need much more. For you, does the
difference between these two groups carry any connotation of moral qualities
such as ‘strength of character,’ or ‘self-reliance’?

4.1.6 Forming and testing hypotheses
I
n Active search leads to better retention.
n The process may be more important than the written
product.
H The learner as author and protagonist.
I 1
I wondered what I would have done with such charts. ‘And once you had made the
charts. did you sit down and contemplate them?’ I asked. ‘Did you read them aloud
to yourself. . . ?’
‘It was more like contemplating them. I never tried to memorize a chart as such.’
‘Or even read it aloud very much’?’
‘No. The learning was 90 per cent accomplished, I think, just in the doing. If I
could get it into chart form, it meant to me that I had learned it.’
‘The making of the chart even more than the contemplating of the chart?’
‘Yes.’
‘You would probably make a draft of the chart, and look at that and see if you
couldn’t improve it. but it was exactly this sort of cognitive labor that caused things
to, as you put it, kind of click into place, and almost physically become a part of
you.’
66 Success with Foreign Languages
‘Mhm. That is exactly the feeling I would have on those occasions, because it
would be like establishing a hypothesis, and then I would try it out in various
situations, and when it didn’t fit. I’d learn something. So I became conscious of what
was going on.’
‘That was where the learning was. It was in the guessing, testing, revising,
guessing, testing, revising.’
‘Mhm. As a matter of fact, I would seldom refer to the charts after I had finished
making them.’
‘You had no need to.’
‘That’s right. It soon becomes more like a mental possession. But I should
emphasize that it all depended on having compatible, encouraging, interested
teachers.’
Comments
Derek’s ‘active mental search’ (4.1.2) leads him to form hypotheses - guesses -
about how the language works. He then tests his hypotheses by seeing whether they
hold up when he meets new words and phrases in Finnish. When they do not work,
he happily changes them or discards them altogether. In these respects he fits
Carroll’s and Omaggio’s descriptions of successful language learners (see 1.1.1 and
1.2.6). If Derek’s study of Finnish were a drama, he would see himself as both the
protagonist and the author, with the teachers as directors and supporting players.
When he had perfected a chart as much as he was able, Derek did not study it.
He simply put it aside. In this respect he is again like Donna (4.1.2).
Working with the ideas
1. Not everyone is like Derek and Donna, who are willing to discard the charts
they have put together with so much effort. Would that kind of behavior be
right for you?
2. Go back and look at your explanation of English irregular verbs (4.1.4). Try to
improve it.

4.1.7 Vigorous mechanical drill
n The metaphor of ‘cards in one’s deck.’
n DONNA: Organization and memorization again.
What Derek had said about charts made me wonder how he felt about some of the
more mechanical styles of language study. ‘What about drill-type materials?’ I
asked.
An Imaginative Learner: Derek 67
‘Both in Finnish and in other languages, have you found these to be very helpful, or
not very helpful, or . .?’
His answer surprised me. ‘I’d rank them at the very top of anything that has
helped me to learn languages,’ was Derek’s immediate reply. ‘In particular, I rank
teachers in terms of how exhausted and limp they leave me. I see a correlation in my
own learning process. I learn more on the days when I’m really tired and beat down.
Personally, I am left much more limp by these drills than by anything else.’
‘Limp, but very much helped?’
‘Helped in the way major surgery helps. It’s unpleasant . . .’
‘Like vigorous calisthenics, but a few days later. you’re stronger,’ I suggested.
Derek seemed to accept my comparison. ‘I know it’s good for you,’ he went on. ‘I
actually feel myself learning. At the beginning, I was conscious of myself searching
out the right ending from among all the possibilities.’
‘A lot of mental activity!’
‘But then toward the end of the drill period, you’re too tired to think, and if you
get it right, you get it right only because you had learned it. The path has been
formed, and once formed correctly. it will never be forgotten.’
‘It has put another card into your Finnish deck.’
‘Yes. It’s there and will always be there, and you’ll reach for it. and you’re going
to come up with it, or at least most of the time. But the worst thing for me is if it’s
confused when it goes in - if I misunderstand an explanation, for example. Once I
put anything in, it’s hard to get it out. But if you get it right the first time, you don’t
need a lot of review.’
Comments
Physically exhausting drill was a key element in the Audio-Lingual Method, which
was most widely used between about 1955 and 1965 (see 2.1.1) but is still widely
practiced today. Audio-Lingual drill was based on the belief that repetition ‘forms
paths.’ For example, if what was repeated was a sentence, then that same sentence
would be easier to say after the repetition than it had been before the repetition. Or
a drill might require students to change a series of affirmative sentences into
negative sentences. It was expected that after such a drill, the student would find it
easier to produce negative sentences than before it.
John Rassias is a highly regarded program director, who has on occasion jokingly
referred to his method as ‘Dynamic Intimidation’, Rassias used to warn his teachers
that if they and their students were not exhausted at the end of a drill session, he
would not consider that they had done a good job.’ Many students disliked that sort
of activity, though many others seemed to thrive on it. Derek, like Bert, not only
can tolerate it, but actually seems to profit greatly from it. And Donna, whom we
met in 4.1.2, provided a series of recommendations for teachers, based on her own
experience as a learner. The last three items in her list were:
H Have students record in writing, in an organized fashion, all structures being
used.
68 Success with Foreign Languages
n Emphasize contrastive analysis.
n Drill, drill, drill!
Working with the ideas
1. Do you think Derek would agree with the slogan ‘No pain, no gain’? What
evidence can you find in this segment of his interview?
2. Derek and Donna seem quite emphatic about the value that they found in
mechanical drills. How easy is this for you to believe? What in your past
experiences influences your answer?

4.2 Imagination in using the language
Derek also showed great imagination in how he managed to put the language into
use, and in the ways in which he ensured that he attached meanings to forms.
4.2.1 ‘Starter words'
H Ways of maintaining momentum when conversation
with native speakers lags.
n DENISE: Social reasons for trying to minimize
foreign accent.
n DAOUDI: The importance of getting rhythm as well
as vowels and consonants.
Derek switched to a new topic. ‘It seems to me there are such things as what you
might call “starter words,” ’ he said. ‘I’ve noticed these in all languages. They seem
to trigger words and phrases that unleash thought. I find that once I get a few of
them, it’s a lot easier to talk. For example in Finnish, one that I’ve picked up is the
phrase that means “That is to say. ” What it does for me is that it lets me be brief and
simple, and get out quickly what I want to say. It may not even be comprehensible,
but I get enough of it across to the other person, that he’s at least got something to
hold on to. Then I signal with this phrase that more’s coming, don’t interrupt, don’t
ask me questions yet.’
‘It’s a way of holding the floor. It buys you some time.’
‘More than that. These phrases seem to help give form to my thoughts. Part of
the process lies in being something like an actor. If I can get someone else’s lines,
lines that seem to work for a native speaker in a native situation, and if I can see
An Imaginative Learner: Derek 69
how he is using his lines, I’ll find a way to use them repeatedly in my own
conversation. Of course, they’ll be a little hackneyed . . .’
‘You mean that in a conversation, you not only pick out sounds and say, “Ah,
that’s the way to pronounce it,” but you also notice words and phrases that might
come in handy later on and then, a minute or an hour or a day later, you have access
to this. And this is easier to do when you use those little “starter phrases” like the
one you just mentioned.’
‘Yes, I find myself needing them, asking for them, asking “Where are they?” in a
language. They help in the transition from my thoughts to words that others can
understand.’
‘It’s almost like in a railroad train. If you didn’t couple the cars together and just
pushed them down the track, they might bang into each other or drift apart, whereas
with these little phrases it makes your conversation into real language-use, rather
than being just a verbal performance.’
‘Exactly! And it seems to have this effect on my interlocutors also. As you go
from one language to another, the sheer exhaustion that follows the first time you
use the language in a social evening is hard to describe! And it works in the other
direction also. I think we leave the native speakers as worn out as we are.’
‘If in fact they don’t walk off and leave us first!’ I added. We both laughed..
‘So I have decided the more help we can give the native speakers by adapting our
speech patterns to theirs, the more at home they feel,’ Derek concluded.
‘We learn from them, but if we want them to stay with us, we ought to do what
we can to help them to endure us!’
‘Yes!’
Comments
Other ‘starter phrases’ in English might be ‘as you said a moment ago,’ or ‘at least
from one point of view,’ or ‘be that as it may.’ They help to give shape to the
conversation without contributing to its actual content. From what Derek said,
‘buying time’ is only one of their uses. I suspect that they also help to bring back
associations with previous occasions when the language has been used. In any case,
I’ve talked with other people who use such phrases in very much the same as Derek
did, though they call them something other than ‘starters.’
Trying to speak a new language can bring discouragement and fatigue. Learners
and teachers alike are aware that this is true for the person who is trying to speak.
Derek reminds us that native speakers can suffer from it too. Here is how this sort of
exchange looks to Denise, a native speaker of French:
When I am learning a new language, I try to have just as little foreign accent as possible.
There are two reasons for this. One comes from my contacts with foreigners who were
speaking French. I sometimes found their pronunciation very comical. I wouldn’t actually
laugh out loud at them, but I felt as though I was doing them a favor by taking the time to
let them struggle with the language. I would usually become quite impatient and ‘tune
them out,’ or I’d try to finish the sentence so that we could get on with the conversation.
The other reason why I’m so concerned with pronunciation was that in dealing with
70 Success with Foreign Languages
foreigners, I found that their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary didn’t make a big
difference. The heavier their accent, the less they were understood. So I have concluded
that for me, learning pronunciation is just as important as learning grammar. if not more
so.
Daoudi, a South Asian, seems to have used this principle to good advantage:
I learned Farsi in Iran. In my early attempts to get the pronunciation, I was making (or at
least thought I was making) the same sounds as they were, but I was totally
incomprehensible to them. Then I decided to use my ears to pick up the rhythm of their
language. Once I started speaking Farsi in their rhythm, I was comprehensible to them
even though sometimes my vowels and consonants were a little different from theirs.
I also found that. though my Farsi vocabulary was not very extensive, my speech
appeared to be more acceptable to them than the speech of several other people from my
part of the world. This was true even though those other people had better vocabularies
than I did. I don’t think I would have tried as hard as I did to improve my Farsi if I hadn’t
had frequent need to communicate with Iranians.
While I was writing this book, I showed the interviews with Ann, Bert and the rest
to a number of language teachers. I had expected that they would find Derek’s
rather earnest, systematic approach to language learning dull in comparison with the
others. I was therefore surprised to find that many of them very strongly identified
with Derek with regard to their own experiences as learners. In any case, as we shall
see in the next segment of this interview, he was not just a mechanic. He also had
quite a fertile imagination.
Working with the ideas
1.
2.
In your experience, how do most speakers of your native language react to
strong ‘accents’ in the speech of foreigners ? Why do you think they react in
this way?
What are some ‘starter phrases’ in a language you have studied, or are
studying?

4.2.2 An imaginary brother
n ‘Liveliness,’ ‘ meaning’ and ‘communication.’
H Difference between ‘talking about’ and ‘assuming
the role of.’
‘Here’s another technique you might be interested in,’ Derek said. ‘In class, on a
daily basis, it’s often hard simply to think of things to say. In the beginning, it’s
something like stage fright, and then you’re just plain bored. There’s a tedium to the
An Imaginative Learner: Derek 71
conversation-practice sessions which afflicts the teachers as well as the students.’
From my experiences both as a learner of languages and as a teacher, I thought I
recognized exactly what he was talking about. “‘Now it’s time for conversation.
What shall we say?“’
‘Mhm! It goes against our natural grain to talk when we don’t have anything to
say. But what I found myself doing was that I created a fictitious brother, and made
his character rather colorful and flamboyant. He would get into difficulties, and say
crazy things, which relieved me of the onus of responsibility for anything I said or
thought.’
‘You spoke as if you were your brother?’
‘No, I would begin my conversation time by telling something about my brother.
Then we might go on and talk about something else, but it gave us a start.’
‘It gave you a release from the tedium and unnaturalness.’
‘Yes, and it let me find ways to use words better. Suppose I had just been taught a
set of words and phrases about riding a bus. If I hadn’t been on a bus recently, it was
hard for me to use them in speaking for myself. But by transferring all this to an
admittedly fictitious situation, I could use whatever words or phrases had been
taught to me.’
‘Kind of a surrogate reality - a surrogate identity.’
‘Exactly!’
‘It’s fictional, but it still has enough continuity so that your imagination can be
freed from being tied to the ground.’
‘Yes. I notice great differences in my speaking ability depending on whether I’m
interested in what I’m trying to say.’
‘Or whether it’s just time to make some more sentences.’
‘Exactly! When it’s the latter, everything just goes downhill.’
Comments
A question may serve to make a conversation livelier if the person who is questioned
has something interesting to say on the topic, or the person questioned thinks the
questioner is really interested in the answer, or (preferably) both. Some people need
both these conditions if they are to converse freely. Others find it easy to talk if what
they are saying interests them, even when the questioner is obviously not interested
in the answer. But a question that meets neither of these two conditions slows a
conversation down. One such question is the language teacher’s old standby Monday
gambit, ‘What did you do over the weekend ?’ This question seldom meets both the
conditions I have just mentioned. Derek’s ‘brother’ released him from actual fact,
which is often dull. This device also allowed Derek to express sides of himself that
his age and professional status would have required him to suppress. In both these
ways, the ‘brother’ opened up new possibilities in regard to the first condition.
But if a conversation is about a fictitious brother, is it really communicative (see
2.2.6)? I think it can be. ‘Communication’ means the accurate transfer of an image
from one mind to another. The source of the original image - whether history or
72 Success with Foreign Languages
fiction - is relatively unimportant. What is more important is to check and verify that
what has been received is consistent with what was sent.
Working with the ideas
1. Derek might also have assumed the role of another person, instead of just
talking about him. Which do you think would be easier for you? Why?
2. What conditions make it easier or more difficult for you to engage in small talk
in your native language? Can you think of any specific occasions that illustrate
your answer?
3. In your opinion, did Derek’s talk about his ‘brother’ contribute more toward
his ‘interactive competence,’ or toward his ‘linguistic competence’ (see 3.1.2)?