Learning the language of loved ones: on the generative principle and the technique of mirroring

Abstract

Practising communication is an important classroom activity, but communication is not everything. Learners must also learn to divide messages into their component parts, otherwise each new message would have to be taken over from others and memorized, in which case there would never be any really new messages. Language only comes into its own when the learner discovers its sequential combinatorial system. Intuitively, parents have always taken pains to assist their children in this task. In language learning and teaching, the generative principle is just as important as the communicative principle. The two should be seen as companions rather than opposites: techniques are available to breathe communicative life into structural exercises.

Own-language use in language teaching and learning

“…Littlewood & Yu (2011) similarly draw upon Kim & Elder's (2008) distinction between ‘core goals’ (teaching the target language), ‘framework goals’ (managing the classroom situation) and ‘social goals’ (expressing personal concern and sympathy) to explore a number of ways in which teachers strategically employ learners’ own languages in class. Citing a number of illustrative works, they focus upon the role of the learner's own language during the presentation, practice and production of new language, such as Dodson's (1967/1972) and Butzkamm's (2003) ‘bilingual sandwich’ technique, Butzkamm's (2001) ‘mirror translation’ exercises and Duff's (1989) and Deller & Rinvolucri's (2002) bilingual learning materials.…”

Translation and Bilingual Practice for German Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

“…The mirroring technique not only prepares learners for morphological asymmetries, but also lends itself for highlighting contrastive grammar on multiple levels. The L1 as a conscious choice for vocabulary building allows the learner to discover these asymmetries and explore the productive morphology, syntactic constraints or socio‐pragmatic information related to all types of lexemes (Butzkamm, 2001, p. 149; G. Cook, 2010, p. 140).…”

A thing of the future: translation in language learning

“…Yet very little attention has been given to the role of translation as either a means or an end of learning English. Though there have been eminent voices raised from time to time in its defence (Widdowson 1979, 2003: 149–64; Stern 1992: 279–301; Kramsch 1993: 163–9; Canagarajah 1999: 129–32) and some recent discussion of specific issues relating to its use (Butzkamm 2001), it has remained only marginal in mainstream applied linguistic and English language teaching theory: both in that devoted to the empirical study of language acquisitional processes, and in that concerned with the sociology and politics of teaching English in the contemporary globalised world.…”