Fluency and Accuracy: Toward Balance in Language Teaching and Learning

225 Pages·1991·1 MB·English

by  Hector Hammerly

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title: Fluency and Accuracy : Toward Balance in Language Teaching
and Learning Multilingual Matters (Series) ; 73
author: Hammerly, Hector.
publisher: Multilingual Matters
isbn10 | asin: 1853591157
print isbn13: 9781853591150
ebook isbn13: 9780585259734
language: English
subject Language and languages--Study and teaching, Second language
acquisition.
publication date: 1991
lcc: P51.H315 1991eb
ddc: 418/.007
subject: Language and languages--Study and teaching, Second language
acquisition.
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Page i
Fluency and Accuracy
Toward Balance in Language Teaching and Learning

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Page ii
Multilingual Matters
About Translation
PETER NEWMARK
Age in Second Language Acquisition
BIRGIT HARLEY
The Acquisition of Irish
MAIRE OWENS
Computers in Applied Linguistics
M. C. PENNINGTON and V. STEVENS (eds)
Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Education
MICHAEL BYRAM
Current Trends in European Second Language Acquisition Research
HANS W. DECHERT (ed.)
ESL: A Handbook for Teachers and Administrators in International Schools
EDNA MURPHY (ed.)
Foreign/Second Language Pedagogy Research
R. PHILLIPSON, B. KELLERMAN, L. SELINKER, M. SHARWOOD SMITH and M. SWAIN (eds)
Individualizing the Assessment of Language Abilities
JOHN H. A. L. DE LONG and D. G. STEVENSON (eds)
Investigating Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Teaching
M. BYRAM and V. ESARTE-SARRIES
Language Acquisition: The Age Factor
D. M. SINGLETON
Language, Culture and Cognition
LILLIAM MALAVE and GEORGES DUQUETTE (eds)
Language Distribution Issues in Bilingual Schooling
R. JACOBSON and C. FALTIS (eds)
The Role of the First Language in Second Language Learning
HÅKAN RINGBOM
Second Language Acquisition Foreign Language Learning
B. VANPATTEN and J. F. LEE (eds)
Story as Vehicle
EDIE GARVIE
Teaching and Learning English Worldwide
J. BRITTON, R. E. SHAFER and K. WATSON (eds)
Variation in Second Language Acquisition Vol. I and II
S. GASS, C. MADDEN, D. PRESTON and L. SELINKER (eds)
Please contact us for the latest book information:
Multilingual Matters,
Bank House, 8a Hill Road,
Clevedon, Avon BS21 7HH,
England

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Page iii
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS 73
Series Editor: Derrick Sharp
Fluency and Accuracy
Toward Balance in Language Teaching and Learning
Hector Hammerly
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD
Clevedon Philadelphia Adelaide

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Page iv
To the memory of
Tai Whan Kim
(19331990)
friend, colleague, scholar
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hammerly, Hector.
Fluency and Accuracy: Toward Balance in Language Teaching and
Learning/Hector Hammerly.
p. cm. (Multilingual Matters: 73)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Language and languages Study and teaching. 2. Second language acquisition.
I. Title. II. Series: Multilingual Matters (Series): 73
P51.H315 1991
418´.007 dc20
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Hammerly, Hector.
Fluency and Accuracy: Toward Balance in Language Teaching and Learning.
1. Schools. Curriculum subjects: Languages. Teaching methods.
I. Title.
407.1
ISBN 1-85359-116-5
ISBN 1-85359-115-7 (pbk)
Multilingual Matters Ltd
UK: Bank House, 8a Hill Road, Clevedon, Avon BS21 7HH, England. USA: 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007,
USA. Australia: P.O. Box 6025, 83 Gilles Street, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.
Copyright © 1991 Hector Hammerly
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from
the publisher.
Index compiled by Meg Davies (Society of Indexers)
Typeset by Editorial Enterprises, Torquay.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by The Longdunn Press, Bristol.

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Page v
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Language Learning in the Classroom
1
Second Language Acquisition through Classroom
Communication/Interaction (SLACC/I) and Linguistic Accuracy 1
2
'New' and 'Old' in Language Teaching 14
3
Theories, Models and Methods 25
4
On Second Language Proficiency 41
5
Balance in Language Teaching and Learning 52
New Views on Familiar Topics
6
Language Transfer Revisited 62
7
On Preventing the Establishment of an Interlanguage 72
8
A New Way to Look at Student Errors 82
9
The Surface and Deep Correction of Errors 90
10
Language Teaching and the Students' Native Language 110
Proposals and Suggestions
11
How to Teach Languages with the Two-Cone Model: Assumptions
behind the Cumulative Mastery Method 119
12
How to Teach Languages with the Two-Cone Model: Procedures of
the Cumulative Mastery Method 136
13
Some Suggestions for English as a Remote Language and English as a
Local Language 148

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14
A Total Language Teaching Program (TLTP) 158
15
Linguistics and 'the Real World': Toward More Applicable Theories of
Language 174
Broader Implications
16
The Broader Meaning of the CAN/SLACC/I/'I' Experience:
Conclusions 183
Appendices
A
Results of Standardized Tests 191
B
A Plea for (Unbiased) Research on Second Language Teaching 193
References 196
Index 201

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Page vii
Preface
The worthy aim of getting language students to communicate (rather than, for example, just develop knowledge about the
language) has unfortunately often been carried to the extreme of promoting communication at the expense of language structure.
One result is that most students emerge from lengthy language programs with deeply ingrained and very faulty interlanguages.
This need not be so. Neither accuracy nor fluency has to be sacrificed for the sake of the other.
My own experience as a classroom language learner has convinced me that many methods are ineffective; others in the field of
language teaching seem to have reached the same conclusion. Yet it's not widely known that certain language programs have
been very successful in producing communicatively competent graduates without neglecting linguistic accuracy.
The purpose of this book is to outline how students can be helped to attain reasonable fluency and a high level of accuracy
within second language programs. I am sure this is the goal of most language teachers and students. Students want to learn the
language well, not just learn to 'survive' in it.
In education, we want to empower our students by giving them a solid foundation that enables them to carry on as lifelong
learners without burdening them with mislearned things to be unlearned. In language teaching specifically, empowerment means
imparting basic mastery of the language so that program graduates can learn further on their own without being handicapped by
faulty linguistic habits. Encouraging students to use the language to communicate without regard to its structure is not
empowering them it is disabling them, and likely permanently so.
How we should teach any subject in the curriculum depends largely on the nature of the subject what we teach plus our goals
about it. What language teachers need to teach is a language hard as some find to accept this. And, of course, out goal is
imparting second language competence: the ability to use a second language accurately to communicate reasonably fluently in
culturally appropriate ways. Rapid 'tourist' English, French, or Japanese are not, strictly

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Page viii
speaking, languages but pidgins, so they are not defensible goals for, or outcomes of, language programs.
Native-like use of a second language (our concept of 'perfection') is often unattainable, but excellence isn't. When excellence is
the standard, it can be attained by some, and sometimes even by many. Low expectations and no standards, on the other hand,
make excellent results either rare or impossible.
Perfection is useful as an ideal, as long as teachers and students keep in mind that that's what it is an ideal that offers a sense of
direction and a source of motivation. As idealistic as aiming for Alpha Centauri (the nearest star) may seem, it might possibly
get us there, or to Mars it has already gotten us to the moon. Students can't attain excellence if we don't even give them a chance
to attempt it and this, sad to say, is too common in language programs.
When excellence is not stressed in the field of languages, when students are simply encouraged to communicate freely without
regard to language structure, they may enjoy the immediate gratification and may even feel exhilarated about it. But when
graduates of such programs realize that their output is quite ungrammatical (and impervious to so-called 'finishing touches'),
what they feel is not self-esteem, positive attitudes, and motivation but terminal discouragement that leads them to avoid using
the language. To prevent this, and to outline a 'better way', is the primary aim of this book.
Though wide in scope, a book this size cannot cover more than a few topics in detail. I hope, however, that it says enough about
enough to generate thoughtful action.
Acknowledgments
Many of the ideas in this book have resulted from the questions, comments, and suggestions of students, colleagues and friends.
Particularly welcome were the editorial advice of Vancouver writer Ellen Schwartz and the many insights of my wife Ethel.
Any errors, omissions or redundancies are my own.
HECTOR HAMMERLY, PHD
PROFESSOR OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
VANCOUVER, CANADA

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1
Second Language Acquisition Through Classroom Communication/Interaction (SLACC/I) and Linguistic Accuracy 1
Katie is eighteen years old. She has been in a French immersion program for thirteen years. She can fluently put most of her
ideas across, in simple sentences, using mostly French words. So can her classmates. But they say such things as *Nous était
fatigué, *Paul a tombé de son bicyclette, *J'ai un classe maint'nant and *Je aller dans le ville demain. This may look and sound
like French, but one can see that something is wrong here each of these sentences contains one or more basic grammatical
errors.
Of all the approaches to language teaching used to date, the communicative approach has clearly stimulated student fluency
best.2 Students learn primarily what is stressed. Therefore when communication is emphasized throughout a language program,
it is not surprizing that students learn to convey most of their feelings and ideas. This stress on communication is commendable,
because it brought a missing element into many language classes.
Students taught by the grammar-translation method a tradition that is still alive today, in many places developed an intellectual
understanding of language structure and maybe the ability to read, but instead of gaining oral fluency they suffered from what
could be described as second language mutism. On the other hand, the structural approach, when combined with graded
communicative activities, produced good results. But in most schools it soon degenerated into a mechanical routine that turned
out linguistic parrots unable to transfer their knowledge to real communicative situations.
Second language acquisition (SLA) specialists state that students in communicative classrooms can learn the language quite
well, not just acquire the

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