Washington Academy of Languages

Split Water

Originally uploaded by klattu01

I am often asked, “What is the best way to teach a language?” The only answer that I can give is that I have noticed that effective teaching and learning occurs when students balance meaningful communications with direct teaching. The history of second language teaching is marked with periods where people believe more in one approach, e.g. meaningful communication, than the other way of teaching, direct language teaching for accuracy. Then there are periods when the reverse happens. So it goes in language teaching methodology. There are many methods that have come over the dam and down the stream. But in the end the stream flows in one of these two directions.

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Presidential debate John McCain Barack Obama Black and white 08

Originally uploaded by Haneybabe

There is a great thing that can be done with language in our culture, that is, the rules of politeness are suspended during presidential elections. We are allowed to call presidential candidates names, tell lies, and alter the pragmatics of the language. This is an old practice and we take great pride in it. Our parents should teach us never to use vulgar language except during presidential elections. Cindy McCain, for example, said, “Barack Obama is conducting the dirtiest campaign in history.” Historian Kathleen Hall Jamison tells us that our founding fathers intended our elections to be dignified. Elections were to be a dignified, deliberative activity, carried out by a few wealthy men. In 1796 Benjamin Franklin’s grandson wrote of Washington: “If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by Washington.” Things didn’t begin well.

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Sarah Palin

Originally uploaded by Celeste Van Kirk

It is ironic that we are celebrating Noah Webster’s birthday – the founder of American English would be 250 years old this week. It should be recalled, but seldom is, that when his dictionary of American English appeared, only about 60% of Americans spoke English. This was in 1800 I believe. Webster was concerned about our spelling mostly; he wanted to make it easier. He removed the “u” from the British “colour” and the redundant “k” in “musick.” Unlike the French, he thought “centre” should be spelled “center” as it sounds. We all know many other examples.

But speaking and spelling are two entirely different areas. Sarah Palin’s accent has produced renewed interests in the variety of our accents. Recently the comedian Robin Williams said Palin’s accent is “like Tina Fey meets Fargo.” This bit of humor caused an angry editorial in Anchorage. Nevertheless one can argue she makes an “o” sound like the Scandinavians and Germans in the areas around Fargo, North Dakota. But on the other hand, dropping the “g” is a language phenomenon found in Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. Then again, to count the word “terrorist” as having only two syllables can be found in parts of Mississippi.

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Hilary Clinton speaks in Elyria, Oh

Originally uploaded by bridget commisso-caswell
In this political year, we are particularly sensitive to gender-specific language which may brand one as a sexist. There are certain speech patterns that are followed by gender and they have been known for a long time. Here are a few patterns which we hardly notice are even gender specific.

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The Force of Silence

Originally uploaded by amaroak - quite a life

Our mission at WAL is to facilitate cross-cultural communication. But is all communication achieved through speech? No, people communicate through silence as well as spoken language. It is a way to express oneself non-verbally and it can be very powerful.

Different cultures understand silence in different ways. In Western and Middle Eastern cultures, people tend to be uncomfortable with longer silences and may even view extended silence as asocial or anti-social.

Contrarily, in many eastern and Native American cultures, longer silences are the norm and carry positive connotations of respectfulness, discretion or truthfulness. Negative connotations such as embarrassment or defiance are also possible. I once had a Japanese student who found her employer to be demeaning. At the time, she could not quit work, so she handled the situation by refusing to speak at all until she was able to leave the job six months later.

While a Westerner starts to feel discomfort after 6 or 7 seconds of silence, a Japanese speaker may be quite comfortable after 20 seconds. As a result, the length of silent periods may cause someone outside of the culture to misinterpret what is occurring. For example, a Western teacher may infer that their Asian student doesn’t know the answer or is not willing to speak. A Japanese speaker, on the other hand, may find a western speaker rude or foolish when they jump into commenting without much pause.

Silence can speak volumes, so they say…

Close up of The Thinker

Originally uploaded by marttj

What have I learned about second language acquisition?

1. That it is systematic, rule-governed and yet it is a creative process of discovery.
2. It involves acting on received language input by trying to make responses and by making plenty of mistakes in the new language.
3. It involves interacting with others and using language as a tool for differing purposes.
4. Learning is accomplished by people with different personalities and different learning styles.
5. It takes time.

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When I moved from Paris to Seattle five years ago, it wasn’t a totally joie de vivre decision but more a comme ci comme ca change of life. I didn’t expect much from Seattle because, as all snobbish Parisians think, Paris was my raison d’etre. Seattle, in my mind, was an industrial rainy city lost in the far reaches of the Northwestern US. What could I expect of Seattle coming from Paris?

First, I didn’t expect such a gourmet city. Seattle is an avant-garde scene par excellence of French Northwest Asian organic fusion/local food which is certainly the longest noun phrase you can ever imagine. Seattle must claim the invention of complex noun phrase.

To give you an idea, for ESL students it is a tour de force to order a coffee. First you have to understand the concept of a noun phrase; second you need to guess the order of the words:

Should I say “Grande non fat double shot vanilla no whip café au lait?” or should I say “Grande double shot vanilla non fat no whip café au lait?”

You tell me. Or maybe both of them are wrong, who knows…Touché. The responsible party for this grammatical issue: Starbucks (www.starbucks.com) of course!

Second, I didn’t expect this je ne sais quoi that Seattle produces on Seattleites. The only certainty is that French people have a hard time returning to France after a few years in Seattle.

Why really? I don’t know but c’est la vie isn’t it?!

Cecile Casanova