Quotes About Language

Stupid gringos, Pico says. Letting Indians tell them what to call them in English. The gringos say "Mexican," not "Mexicano," right? They say "Spanish," not "Español," don't they? So why let the Indians tell them to call them Toohohoo Odohoo or whatever the fuck instead of Papago.

scholars tell us that there was no word in ancient Latin or Greek for "self" as it is understood in contemporary usage.

in which great difficulties are found to the present day by Englishmen, whose language presents no certain laws for rendering any given sound into a fixed combination of letters.

Scaffolding is applied in this context, not to engage students through authentic and meaningful activities, but to transmit a designated set of skills and knowledge. It becomes simply another way to exert control over a lesson, to prevent any deviation from language and content objectives. A more accurate term would be "straitjacketing.

Yet SIOP, without advancing any explanation, puts "language objectives" on a par with "content objectives" and teaches both explicitly.

Krashen's insistence that a sheltered classroom consists of second language learners only.

sheltered classes are for intermediate [language learners], not beginners." The reason should be obvious: "It is extremely difficult to teach subject matter to those who have acquired none or little of the language. Beginners should be in regular ESL, where they are assured of comprehensible input."63 Unrealistic language demands create, in effect, a sink-or-swim situation, in which academic learning is minimal.

the Comprehension Hypothesis,12 elaborated by Stephen Krashen in the early 1980s. It holds that one factor above all is responsible for second language acquisition: comprehensible input in that language.

The more children focused on messages with a real-life purpose, rather than on, say, repetitive grammar drills or artificial dialogues, the more French they understood.

SIOP Feature 21 requires activities that integrate all language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking)—that is, forced output in English for all students, beginning at the earliest stages of acquiring the language.

Immersion teachers adjusted their use of French to make it accessible to students. They did this through careful choice of vocabulary, syntax, pacing, and intonation, and by avoiding needless complexity, making points directly rather than elliptically, and adding redundancy. Other techniques included contextual cues such as gestures, facial expressions, and body language.

Teachers needed to emphasize the message, not the medium. Ideally, the curriculum should be so engaging that students would forget which language the teacher was using!

It is unnecessary, he added, to pressure students to produce speech or writing in the second language before they are ready, because "output" contributes nothing. It is the result of second language acquisition, not the cause. In fact, putting pressure on children to speak or write can be counterproductive, increasing stress and raising the affective filter.

not focusing on language turns out to be an effective way to teach language in sheltered classrooms, especially the kind of academic language that students need for school.

skill-building" approaches, which feature explicit instruction in the formal aspects of language, have a poor record of success. Hence the dismal results of most foreign language programs.

conscious learning remains the method and goal of skill-building models. To the extent that students acquire any language at all in such classes, Krashen argues, comprehensible input—provided haphazardly rather than purposefully—is responsible.

we are unaware of any convincing evidence that languages are acquired through "practice." On the other hand, studies have shown that students can reach high levels of proficiency through input alone—that is, with little or no production of the language through speech or writing.

Noam Chomsky pointed out, the number of possible sentences is infinite in any language; there is no limit to the grammatical combination of words. Behaviorism cannot explain how, after relatively limited exposure to a mother tongue, young children acquire complex syntactic structures and begin to produce "correct" utterances never heard before, by themselves or by others. What's more, they accomplish these amazing intellectual feats without being explicitly taught.

Although it permits the use of students' native language "to clarify key concepts," this weak form of bilingual instruction has no support in educational research.

educators of English learners should be well-versed in theories of second language acquisition and in methodologies such as sheltering and scaffolding. Their work should be informed by professional development and coaching from experienced colleagues on effective techniques in the classroom. But is there no room for diversity in teaching styles and techniques? Is there really just one way to shelter instruction?

In addition to the research, I enjoyed learning French and assimilating the culture of another country.

Its Ninety Nine percent word play how you phrase your words determines how hands on you need to be

Mastering the art of words takes place when you establish your first heartbeat

legal concepts as "avowal" and "distraint" that have now all but vanished.