Two Metaphors for the Second Language Learner

I'd like to consider two models of the second language learner for a moment, to highlight some of the conceptual differences between popular and academic portrayals of language acquisition. I love the movie The Matrix, it was one of my favorite movies as a kid, but one part in particular has really bothered me after studying linguistics.


"I know kung fu."

When Neo wakes up from the Matrix and finds himself in the post-apocalyptic real world, he learns that since he was a "farm-raised" human, he has a jack in the back of his head and can plug in to new realities. Not only that, he has the ability to learn new skills simply by "downloading" them into his brain. Though he doesn't actually learn any new languages in this manner in the films, this portrayal of knowledge as quantifiably downloadable is also apparent in such expressions as "my brain is full".

In language acquisition and in learning in general, this metaphor couldn't be farther from the truth. True learning comes through making connections with things that we already know, and by building skills slowly through experience. One conception of learning that has resonated with me recently is Lev Vygotsky's concept of learning as apprenticeship.


Lev Vygotsky

In Vygotsky's view, learning arises from social interaction between a "master" and "apprentice". The learner is paired with a more knowledgable person (a teacher, coach, or a higher level student) and together the pair work at a task, for instance, a communicative linguistic task. It is the "master's" job to ascertain the student's level and to find what Vygotsky (1978) calls the "Zone of Proximal Development" (ZPD). The ZPD is defined as what the student cannot do alone, but could accomplish with the help of a skilled teacher. For example, I could easily describe on my own what I did yesterday in Korean, but I'm fairly certain I would struggle and fail to describe my political opinions regarding corporate taxation. However, with a teacher who scaffolded necessary vocabulary and linguistic structures for expressing opinions, a conversation like this is within my reach that I might be able to accomplish it with a little help from the teacher.

After sufficient scaffolding, the language student would need less and less help and finally be able to accomplish the task on his/her own. Of course, there are many linguistic tasks far beyond a learner's grasp, even with the help of a teacher - if I wanted to suavely charm a high-society Seoulite at cocktail party, I'm sure not even the best scaffolding from the best teacher could help me. Finding that ZPD "zone", then, becomes an important task for the educator, since time could be inefficiently spent on linguistic tasks already within a student's ability to accomplish on his/her own, or on skills so far beyond the student's grasp that any scaffolding will fail to "stick" in individual practice.

To reiterate, the crux of Vygotsky's theory is that learning is a social process, an interaction and an exchange of information, a series of tasks that apprentice a learner into a new skill. It is an active process - so unfortunately for those learners as lazy as me, if you want to learn kung fu, you're going to have to at least move your legs.

For more information, try reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_apprenticeship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.