What We May Have Not Learned in our Method Class About Second Language Acquisition with Elicia Cárdenas

In episode 80 of Growing with Proficiency The Podcast, I sat down with Elicia Cárdenas, the Director of Training at the Comprehensible Classroom, to talk about the essential principles of language acquisition that we should all know.

Elicia talked about the fundamental nature of language, the complexities of teaching grammar in second language acquisition, and the significance of providing students with comprehensible input.

During our conversation, Elicia shared her journey of implementing acquisition-driven instruction in her class, leading to remarkable transformations in her students’ language proficiency and engagement. 

This post highlights our conversation, but to hear all of the details of understanding the essential foundations of second language acquisition, the importance of comprehensible input in language learning, and navigating the complexities of teaching grammar in second language acquisition, listen to episode 80 here.

Journey of Second Language Acquisition Teachers

Every teacher embarks on a unique journey when they start teaching language classes. Elicia was a certified elementary teacher with a strong background in literacy instruction and experience working with multilingual learners.

With this background, Elicia felt well-prepared when she stepped into a world language class.

However, as many language teachers experience, after a few months, Elicia noticed that even though her students had learned some vocabulary and were able to complete fill-in-the-blank exercises, they couldn’t put three words together. Something was missing.

That’s when Elicia decided to delve deeper into Second Language Acquisition, and what she discovered transformed many of her teaching practices in her Spanish class

Principles of Second Language Acquisition

1. The Nature of Language

Language is not what we think it is. It is not a series of facts, nor is it a set of rules or vocabulary lists.

Therefore, we cannot develop language proficiency simply by teaching rules and vocabulary lists, practicing them, and expecting students to produce them.

What we need to do to develop proficiency in language is vastly different from what a math teacher does to develop math proficiency.

Why? Because language is incredibly complex and we will not acquired a language by learning explicitly those rules. 

2. How Do We Teach Language?

To answer that question, we need to consider how language developed for us as children.

We don’t learn about grammar until we’re in school, and by then, we’ve already had thousands of hours of exposure to language data. We’ve spent countless hours listening to language that the adults in our lives made comprehensible to us.

There is no argument among researchers about the crucial role of communicatively embedded input in language learning.

Therefore, the conclusion is clear. If we are teaching for acquisition, we need to provide a ton of comprehensible input embedded in communicative events.

3. Language Acquisition Struggles

Despite the undisputed role of comprehensible input in language acquisition, teachers who want to shift to a comprehensible-input based instruction face many challenges.

One such challenge is the expectation of accuracy. 

The belief that we can teach something and then expect students to produce it accurately is a fallacy. Language acquisition is a slow process that requires many hours, so expecting accuracy after a specific amount of hours or native-like language is not realistic.

Furthermore, If we examine our national proficiency descriptors, they don’t emphasize accuracy. Instead, they focus on comprehensibility and complexity. 

Assessing how comprehensible and complex the language produced by students is can be a more realistic way to monitor their progress rather than focusing on accuracy.

Another challenge is the expectations of the next teacher in terms of grammar knowledge or specific thematic vocabulary. 

While collaboration within departments and being a team player are important, it’s equally crucial to engage in discussions throughout our school communities. 

Ultimately, it’s not about who is right or wrong, but about gaining a deeper understanding of best practices and identifying what will most effectively help our students develop proficiency.

Elicia points out, “We are hopefully making instructional choices that are rational, backed by research, and backed by experience. We can stand behind those (choices).”

Additionally, teachers may feel frustrated when they don’t see the progress in their students that they want. 

In those moments, it’s important to remember Elicia’s words, “When they (students) are ready, they will be able to produce it.”

The time between students listening to a structure repeatedly and the time they produce it can be years. 

Therefore, what we can do is to keep using frequent structures in different contexts and trust the process. Humans are wired for communication.

Researchers point out that language is acquired in stages, which are very ordered. As Elicia explained, stages can’t be skipped, and external forces will not change the stages of language development. 

As teachers, what we can do is to continue facilitating comprehensible language in communicative events in class.

Click here to listen to our conversation as we navigate through the intricacies of language acquisition, explore the importance of empowering teachers, and uncover the need for proactive communication in education.