One thing that has always fasincated me about language acquisition is the difference with which younger and older learners absorb and then "take ownership" of language based on input. Having taught learners aged 3 right through to students in their 50s, one of the starkest contrasts I've noticed as a teacher is the ability (or propensity?) for younger students to take in whole "chunks" of language and very quickly begin to use and adapt them for their own communication. In my experience, this hasn't quite been the case for older learners.
I first became interested in this as a teacher of kindergarten-aged students, and the observations became more poignant as my little son began to read and develop his speech. You can see a charming example here of when Jamie decided to make the step from being a "listener of stories" to a "teller of stories."
Jamie began to take whole chunks from the stories he was reading and use them in his everyday communication. It usually began with extended sequences pretty much exactly matching what he'd heard (and usually understood) in the stories. Hence, the day we arrived home to our apartment from shopping and Jamie stood outside our front door and said:
"Uh-oh, a door!
a big... white... door!
We can't go OVER it.
We can't go UNDER it.
We can't go AROUND it.
We have to go THROUGH it!
We're NOT scared...
What a BEEEEEEAUTIFUL day!"
An interesting adaptation of the regularly repeated sequence from the classic We're Going on a Bear Hunt (for those interested!), but he also began to use smaller parts of this large overall chunk in his spontaneous speaking around the house.
I noticed a similar willingness to take on "whole chunks" from reading input with my elementary school-aged students, up to about grades 4/5, and then actually use them in their own output. In particular, I remember switching a curriculum for elementary/primary kids away from leveled readers and the simple topical/expository texts (that were the norm at that time) to "real" books for kids (like The Magic Treehouse and The Secrets of Droon series).
Once I'd gone through the laborious process of convincing a school owner and a gang of sceptical teachers that such books weren't necessarily beyond the kids' reading level, and could be read in class just for enjoyment and discussion rather than laborious study and analysis, I found they were a huge hit. More interestingly (for this post), the learners began to use a lot of the expressions and "chunks" from the text in their own writing and dialogue creation, and then - eventually - even in their spoken interactions in class. And most beautifully of all, this adoption of whole language chunks happened almost completely without prompting from the teacher: it somehow seemed to happen naturally for younger learners.
I noticed that this appetite for "chunks" (both consuming and then using them) began to disappear for the Middle School grades, and by High School and University levels, it was almost entirely absent. These learners had a thirst for vocabulary in isolated pieces, but never much longer than a phrasal or prepositional verb.
I'm sure this has a lot to do with input selection and application, but for now I'm more interested in getting your impressions...
Do older learners somehow lose the ability to notice, absorb and then take ownership of larger chunks of language? How much does it have to do with teaching approaches and the materials used for older age groups?
Put another way... Are older learners so busy chewing on their Chunky Language Soup that they don't even notice (and can't taste) the chunks anymore? Or, are we as teachers and curriculum/teaching approach designers inadvertently forcing them to chew too much? Perhaps we don't even serve them up soup with chunks in it - or soup with chunks that don't really grab them... Last but not least, is it actually more appropriate for older learners to really chew on (or avoid) their chunks, to avoid some sort of choking risk?
What do you think?
:-)
