The second language learning process doesn’t always make logical sense to those

who haven’t experienced it.

It is important to remember that the length of time it takes to learn a second language and the

degree of difficulty of that process for anyone are dependent on a wide variety of factors.

Some of the factors like race/ethnicity and socio-economic status are conditional in nature.

Others like prior educational experiences and the literacy level of parents in their first language can also impact the

process greatly.

IN OTHER WORDS:“Doesn’t it just make sense that the earlier and more

intensively children are placed in all-English instruction at school the better their English achievement will eventually be?”

Regardless of these, simple logic would seem to lead many monolingual people to believe that the more time I am immersed in learning a second

language, the better and faster I’m going to achieve that goal.“

The reality couldn’t be more “counterintuitive”.

It is incredibly important when thinking about second language learning to remember that our “common sense”

or “intuition” can be wrong.

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that an individual’s background in their first language has the

most impact on how fast they will learn a second language.

In other words, the better they speak, read, write and listen in their first language, the better and faster they will learn

their second language.

But the key is understanding how and

why that is true. . . .

And that’s where we’ll begin.

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Sequence Story

Sequence Story

Seven “Volunteers”

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1.

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LISTEN TO THE STORY AND CONTINUE IT WHEN IT’S YOUR TURN.

A sequence story is simply a spoken story told by a variety of people, one right after the other.

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I WILL ORCHESTRATE THE STORY

When I raise my hand and point to you, you speak.

When I pull my arm down, you stop.

ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS LISTEN INTENTLY AND FOLLOW MY DIRECTIONS.

When I point to someone else, he/she picks up the story

exactly where it was left off.

About our story. . . A setting, two characters and a conflict

A husband and wife named Johnny and Sally

At the Mall

Sally drags Johnny to the mall to shop when he’d

rather be home watching a pivotal basketball playoff

game.

LET’S BEGIN………….

First, let’s look at the story itself.

We’ll look at the emotions involved in a minute.

COMPARE

What happened to the story as we moved from the first telling to the second and then the third?

Be as specific as you can.

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How did it feel?

STORYTELLERS: How did it feel as we moved from the first telling to the

second and then the third? Be as specific as you can.

Listeners ---

• What was going on emotionally for those of you listening to the story?

• As the process got harder, what were you feeling?

• What role did effort play in the telling?

• How much longer would it have taken for the process to lose its humor and become tedious?

Associativevs.Cognitive

Storytellers: Which version of the process would you choose to use, the first, the second or the third?

WHY?20

What did the facilitator do wrong? How could the

facilitator have aided the storytellers? What specific

strategies could have been used to make this

cognitive process as associative as possible? Who had the power to make the storytellers

more successful? If the modification doesn’t

happen, could the storytellers have

succeeded?