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The Silent Period of Second Language Acquisition: Know This Before Frustration Takes Over!

There are five different stages in the second language acquisition process:

1) The Silent Period

2) The early production period

3) The Period of Speech Emergence

4) The Intermediate Production Period

5) Advanced production period

Although there is a great deal of research on these different stages, of these five periods, probably the most misunderstood, ignored or even unknown by both teachers and students is the first, the Silent Period, which will be the focus of our article today. . .

What is the Period of Silence?

The first stage of the language acquisition process is called “The Quiet Period” simply because students don’t speak much yet. For some students, this period can be shorter or longer, ranging from 2 to 6 months, although it can also take much longer, depending on the student’s exposure to the foreign language.

For example, a foreigner who lives abroad and is surrounded by a new language all day may have a shorter period of silence than a student in his or her home country who attends a bilingual school where a second language is taught. for four or five hours a day. In turn, this student’s silent period may be considerably shorter than that of a student studying a second language for only two hours a week. So it is clear that generalizing how long this period can last is almost impossible because it depends on many personal and individual variables that come into play.

The main characteristic of this stage is that after an initial exposure to the language, the student can understand much more than he can produce. You can easily see this in two year olds too! You can talk to them normally and they can definitely understand what you say. However, even if they wanted to say exactly what you said, they couldn’t. They may use some of your words, but it would be impossible for them to express their ideas in a similar organized way, even though they can understand every single word we said.

This goes hand in hand with the fact that understanding preceded production. We will always be able to understand much more than we can produce. For example, despite knowing little or nothing about economics, accounting, and marketing, when I see or read reports in those fields, I can get a pretty good and precise idea of ​​what those reports are about. However, if someone asked me to explain what the reports say, I would surely resort to general language and simpler explanations to describe what the experts claimed using specific jargon and technical analysis.

In other words, at the comprehension level, I might get to understand everything, but at the production level, I might not be able to express everything I heard in exactly the same way. However, with more exposure on those topics, and if they become meaningful to me and part of my everyday reality, after a while I might start to use that specific slang as part of my everyday vocabulary. In this example, the time lapse between my initial exposure to the topic, perhaps the first time I heard a report on those topics, and the moment when I was able to talk about it freely without jargon or language issues could be considered my silence. period in the field.

I want to emphasize here that I am stretching the definition of the linguists of this period a bit by saying this. Linguists refer specifically to the time when a person begins to acquire the language through exposure to it, understands a lot but cannot yet express the ideas of it. When they speak of the “Quiet Period” they do not imply that they refer to language acquisition at any stage of the second language acquisition process as I do. This is my humble opinion after several years of working with second language learners. Again, this is something I have personally noticed and I think could be perfectly applied to language learners at any stage of their learning, as shown in the example above.

As we have just seen, when it comes to the first contact between a language learner with a second language, this takes on a new dimension, of course. They may not be able to pronounce a single word for a long time and that is perfectly fine and an integral part of the language acquisition process. What is so peculiar about this period is that it has the special ability to make adult students anxious and drive teachers completely crazy! This is by far the most difficult period for both teachers and students.

One of the main reasons I decided to write this article was to remind teachers of this crucial stage in second language acquisition and to make students aware of its existence so that they do not put a heavy burden on themselves. By knowing this simple fact, teachers and students alike can share in the joy of teaching and learning without the stress associated with feeling like they’re falling short.

Sometimes, the lack of knowledge of the teacher on these types of issues can produce unintended disastrous results in the self-esteem of their students. How common it is for those of us who specialize in teaching methodologies to come across disappointed or even angry teachers who complain about their students’ lack of progress.

“We’ve been working on Present Tense for over two months. We’ve been doing exercises, lots of repetition, creating real-life situations to bring the language to life, and yet they can produce little or nothing.” any!”

“How come they don’t learn after doing this for over three weeks!”

My response in most cases is the same: “Give them more time.”

Over time, as long as our students are in a truly communicative environment, they will begin to produce what they cannot now.

The widespread ignorance of this stage in the language acquisition process can generate very unwanted situations. As a Colombian saying goes: “ignorance is daring”.
In the absence of an exact English language, or at least without knowing one, I will proceed to explain its meaning. The saying basically says that “ignorance is rude and leads us to do stupid things”.

On one occasion, while working at a pretty nice school in the US teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) to a kid from Mexico, I got a call from my supervisor. She was extremely concerned because the principal of the school she worked at had called her to complain about my teaching skills as my student had “not progressed at all” since she started receiving my services. Although this same principal had sat in on one of my classes and even written a report saying my work was “above average,” she seriously doubted that my approach to teaching would actually work. After all, although the lesson had been fun and provided many communicative opportunities for students to put language to use, she had not seen any drills, repetitions, fill-in-the-blank exercises, and grammar rules that had never been presented to my class. “seven”. -years older”. So, in his opinion, it was natural that this student couldn’t do or say much in English. The funny thing was… this student has been in the US for less than two months and had been receiving ESL services for less than a month and a half!

What’s more, contrary to this director’s idea, she had made HUGE progress. She could already understand most of the basic classroom greetings and directions; She could understand various types of questions on different everyday topics. She Even she could understand a lot of things that people told her to do and basic facts! However, when it came to speaking, she could only say one or two greetings and produce “yes” or “no” responses. Does this mean that she hadn’t made any progress? Does this mean that she had not learned anything? No way! Rather, she was well into her initial stage of second language acquisition and very soon she entered the early production period. Plain and simple, she was going through her silent period.

When I spoke to the headmistress and explained, as kindly as possible, what the quiet period was and how far this child had come, she couldn’t help but blush and sigh with relief that “we hadn’t been wasting time.” weather!”

Once again, by knowing this simple fact we can relax, enjoy what we are doing without the frustrating feeling that we are getting nowhere. Students can also enjoy the freedom of knowing that sooner or later they will be able to put into practice what they are learning now, given the correct language settings (for more information on the correct language settings, read my other articles: “Are you in a Really Communicative Second Language Classroom?” How to Get the Most Out of Your Second Language Acquisition Program” and “Second Language Acquisition in Adult Learners – Parts 1 and 2”).

If we are “teachers and commanders” of our class, as can happen if you have your own language school or if you have the freedom to do whatever you want, just knowing this simple fact can give you a completely different perspective on your job. . However, if you work for someone who demands quick and immediate results, the best advice I can give you is to do your own research on this topic; read as much as you can and be prepared to report on what you do with your students. Talk to your supervisor, peers, students, or anyone demanding results now and simply explain to them what the wealth of research on this topic shows. Most of the time, the light that knowledge projects will dispel the darkness that surrounds ignorance. Not only will they understand what you mean, but they will also appreciate your efforts to make their classes more enjoyable and stress-free.

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