Pedagogical grammar as the framework of tefl research. part 9. the role of consciousness in the foreign language acquisition

Abstract

The relevance of the paper is accounted for by the need of establishing a common framework to integrate the research in teaching foreign languages, specifically in the development of grammar competence, into a single area with uniform approaches, terminology, and criteria. Its aim is to look for the ways of promoting the efficiency of grammar subskills development by taking into consideration its key features, specifically, the role of consciousness in this process. Basing on the analysis of the native (NLA) and foreign (FLA) language acquisition, the author concludes that one of the main distinctions between the two processes is the degree of actual language awareness on the part of the learners. In the NLA, this process takes place predominantly at the subconscious level (without any actual awareness of the learned material structure and the actions required to use it in communication) with the parallel development of the learners’ thinking. In the FLA, under the conditions of formal learning in the classroom, the probability of the said actual awareness on the part of the learners, due to their higher intellectual development, substantially increases, even disregarding the teaching approach. It does affect the acquisition strategies. In the NLA, children are believed to regard speech as a form of behaviour trying to acquire it through assimilation, accommodation, and adaptation to the rules of this activity. In the FLA, in formal settings, learners are believed to regard it as an intellectual task, trying to reach the aim by appropriate solution methods, i.e. by grasping the structure of the activity, looking for the rules it is based on. The difference between these approaches gives grounds to the learning models based on the opposition of acquisition and learning. According to these models, acquisition is an implicit process, essentially identical to the NLA, generally void of any forms of the target language structure awareness, while learning is an explicit process involving some kind of awareness of the target language rules. The analysis of the available data on the comparative efficiency of acquisition and learning in teaching the foreign language proved their inconsistency and led to the conclusion concerning the need for further study of the problem, which constitutes the prospect of further research.