The most important question, and that is, how do we acquire language?

最重要的問題是，我們是如何習得語言的？

And I'd like to begin this discussion, this presentation, with an outrageous statement.

我想以一個令人震驚的聲明開始這次討論和發言。

In my opinion, we all acquire language the same way.

在我看來，我們習得語言的方式都是一樣的。

The reason this is an outrageous thing to say is that these days in education, we're living in an age of individual variation.

之所以說這番話很離譜，是因為如今在教育領域，我們生活在一個因人而異的時代。

We're very concerned about how our students are different, not how our students are the same.

我們非常關注學生的不同之處，而不是學生的相同之處。

Those of you who have been around in the field for a while remember, oh, about 15, 20 years ago, people were very concerned about something called field-dependent learners and field-independent learners.

在這一領域工作過一段時間的人都記得，大約在 15 年或 20 年前，人們非常關注一種叫做 "現場依賴型學習者 "和 "現場獨立型學習者 "的東西。

You give people a certain test, and one group gets this treatment, one group gets the other.

你給人們做某種測試，一組人得到這種治療，一組人得到另一種治療。

Then about 15 years ago, it was left side of the brain, right side of the brain.

大約 15 年前，我的左腦和右腦都出現了問題。

Some people are left-hemisphere thinkers.

有些人是左腦思考者。

Some people are right-hemisphere.

有些人屬於右半球。

Then about 10 years ago, cognitive style.

大約 10 年前，認知風格開始出現。

The cognitive style of the home culture differs from the cognitive style of the school culture.

家庭文化的認知風格不同於學校文化的認知風格。

We have a clash, et cetera.

我們發生了衝突，等等。

Well, each of the examples I gave you is probably correct.

我舉的每個例子都可能是正確的。

There is individual variation, and there is quite a bit of it.

個體差異是存在的，而且差異很大。

Nevertheless, there are some things we all do the same.

儘管如此，有些事情我們做起來還是一樣的。

Let me give you some examples.

讓我舉幾個例子。

Digestion.

消化

We all digest food the same.

我們對食物的消化都是一樣的。

No significant individual variation.

個體差異不大。

First you put it in your mouth, then you chew it up, then it goes down your throat, then into your stomach.

首先，你把它放進嘴裡，然後嚼碎，接著進入喉嚨，最後進入胃裡。

That's how it's done everywhere.

各地都是這麼做的。

That's how it's done in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa.

北美、南美、歐洲、亞洲和非洲都是這樣做的。

That's how it's done everywhere in the world.

世界各地都是這樣做的。

The visual system is the same everywhere.

視覺系統在任何地方都是一樣的。

It's always the occipital lobe in the back of the brain.

總是大腦後部的枕葉。

It's never in the side of the brain.

它從來不在大腦的一側。

It's never in the front of the brain.

它永遠不會出現在大腦的前部。

It's never in the elbow.

它從來不在肘部。

It's done exactly the same everywhere you go.

到哪裡都是一樣的。

By the way, I used to use sex as an example of things everyone does the same, but some counterexamples have been pointed out to me recently.

順便說一句，我曾經把性作為每個人都會做的事情的例子，但最近有人向我指出了一些反例。

Actually, I saw this movie, if you really want to know the truth.

事實上，我看過這部電影，如果你真想知道真相的話。

Anyway, we all acquire language the same, and rather than just talk about it, I'd like to show you.

總之，我們掌握語言的方法都是一樣的，與其光說不練，不如做給你們看。

I'd like to take just a couple of minutes and give you some sample language lessons.

我想用幾分鐘時間給大家上幾節語言課。

I'll use a language that I'm sure you've heard before, and maybe some of you speak, and you can tell me which of these two very brief lessons you like better.

我將使用一種語言，我相信你們以前聽過這種語言，也許你們中有人會說，你們可以告訴我，在這兩節非常簡短的課程中，你們更喜歡哪一節。

Here's lesson number one.

這是第一課。

What do you think?

你怎麼看？

Good lesson so far?

目前這堂課上得怎麼樣？

Do you think if I kept talking to you like that, you'd pick up German?

你覺得如果我一直這樣跟你說話，你會學會德語嗎？

Not very likely.

不太可能。

How about if I repeated it?

我重複一遍怎麼樣？

Would that help?

有幫助嗎？

Probably not.

可能不會。

How about if I said it louder?

我說大聲點怎麼樣？

Would that help?

有幫助嗎？

Probably not.

可能不會。

How about if I said it and you repeated it back?

如果我說了，你再重複一遍，怎麼樣？

Again, I don't think that would help.

我還是那句話，我不認為那會有什麼幫助。

How about if I wrote it out for you and you could see it on your television screen?

如果我幫你寫出來，你可以在電視屏幕上看到，怎麼樣？

That wouldn't help either.

這也無濟於事。

How about if I wrote it out for you and you copied it down?

我幫你寫出來，你抄下來怎麼樣？

How about if I wrote it out for you and deleted every fifth word and you tried to guess what the word is?

如果我給你寫出來，刪掉每五個字，你來猜是什麼字，怎麼樣？

The truth is that none of these things help.

事實上，這些都無濟於事。

None of these things mean anything, and I hope you can see that now.

這些事情都沒有任何意義，我希望你現在能明白這一點。

Here's lesson number two.

這是第二課。

And for this, you have to watch me carefully.

為此，你必須仔細觀察我。

Everyone say, ja, I can hear you, even though it's a TV audience. And here I'll draw a picture now.

每個人都說，呀，我能聽到你，儘管這是電視觀眾。 我現在要在這裡畫一幅畫。

It's good, ja? This is Mr. Spock, ja?

很好，是嗎？ 這是斯波克先生 對吧

Mr. Spock has two ears.

斯波克先生有兩隻耳朵。

Ears.

耳朵

Do you understand ears?

耳朵聽得懂嗎？

He has two ears.

他有兩隻耳朵。

Okay, Mr. Spock, ja?

好吧，斯波克先生，是嗎？

Ah, no.

啊，不

Sorry.

對不起。

Eyes.

眼睛

Do you understand eyes?

你瞭解眼睛嗎？

Eyes.

眼睛

How many eyes?

有幾隻眼睛？

One, two, three eyes.

一隻、兩隻、三隻眼睛

Three eyes.

三隻眼睛

Is that right?

是這樣嗎？

Three eyes?

三隻眼睛？

No.

不

We only have two eyes.

我們只有兩隻眼睛。

Mouth.

嘴巴

Do you understand mouth?

你聽得懂嗎？

And here's a cigarette, ja?

給你一支菸，好嗎？

No.

不

Cigarettes are not good.

香菸不是好東西。

I did everything necessary to teach you German.

為了教你德語，我做了一切必要的工作。

And now I'm going to share with you the most important thing I have learned about language.

現在，我要與你們分享我在語言方面學到的最重要的東西。

Probably the best kept secret in the profession.

這可能是本行業最隱祕的祕密。

We acquire language in one way, and only one way.

我們習得語言的方式只有一種，而且只有一種。

When we understand messages.

當我們理解資訊時

We call this comprehensible input.

我們稱之為可理解輸入。

We acquire language when we understand what people tell us.

當我們理解別人告訴我們的話時，我們就掌握了語言。

Not how they say it, but what they say.

不是他們怎麼說，而是他們說了什麼。

Or when we understand what we read.

或者，當我們讀懂我們所讀的內容時。

Comprehensible input, in my opinion, has been the last resort of the language teaching profession.

在我看來，可理解性輸入一直是語言教學專業的最後手段。

We've tried everything else.

我們已經嘗試了所有其他方法。

We've tried grammar teaching, drills and exercises, computers, etc.

我們嘗試過文法教學、操練和練習、電腦等。

But the only thing that seems to count is getting messages you understand, comprehensible input.

但似乎唯一重要的是得到你能理解的資訊和可理解的輸入。

Now one of the reasons lesson number two was better than lesson number one is we had Mr. Spock to help us out.

第二課比第一課好的原因之一是我們有斯波克先生幫忙。

So anything that helps make input comprehensible.

是以，只要能讓輸入的內容變得易懂，我們就能做任何事情。

Pictures, knowledge of the world, realia, etc. helps language acquisition.

圖片、世界知識、實物等有助於語言學習。

If comprehensible input is true, what we call the input hypothesis is true, other things follow from it.

如果可理解的輸入為真，我們所說的輸入假設為真，那麼其他事情也會隨之而來。

And a very important corollary of the input hypothesis is this.

輸入假設的一個非常重要的推論是

And this may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you.

這可能會讓你們中的一些人感到驚訝。

Certainly came as a surprise to me.

這確實讓我大吃一驚。

Talking is not practicing.

空談不是實踐。

Talking is not practicing.

空談不是實踐。

What does this mean?

這意味著什麼？

It means if you want to improve your Spanish, it will not help you to speak Spanish out loud in the car as you drive to work in the morning.

這意味著，如果你想提高西班牙語水準，早上開車上班時在車裡大聲說西班牙語是沒有用的。

It will not help you to go to the bathroom, close the door and speak Spanish to the mirror.

去洗手間，關上門，對著鏡子說西班牙語，是無濟於事的。

I used to think those things help.

我曾經認為這些東西有幫助。

Now I think they don't.

現在我認為他們不會了。

On the other hand, if we were a German class and we could hang together for a couple of weeks, say an hour a day of German, and I could keep the input light and lively as in the second example, you'd start to acquire German.

另一方面，如果我們是一個德語班，我們可以在一起學習幾個星期，比如每天學習一小時德語，我可以像第二個例子那樣保持輕鬆活潑的輸入，你們就會開始掌握德語了。

It would come on its own.

它會自己來的。

And eventually, you'd start to talk.

最後，你們開始交談。

Your speaking ability would emerge gradually.

你的口語能力會逐漸顯現出來。

Now, we have a lot of evidence that this is true.

現在，我們有很多證據證明這是真的。

And the evidence is in the professional literature and books and journal papers, etc.

而證據就在專業文獻、書籍和期刊論文等中。

And if you're an insomniac, you're welcome to look at all that.

如果你是個失眠症患者，歡迎你來看看這一切。

But rather than go through that, I'd like instead to tell you a story that illustrates the same point.

不過，與其說這些，我倒不如給你們講一個故事，來說明同樣的道理。

I've used this story for a long time.

這個故事我用了很久。

So those of you who have heard it before, I've been using this for about 15 years.

我已經用了 15 年了。

And the reason I stay with it is that it makes the point very well.

我之所以保留它，是因為它能很好地說明問題。

And I've discovered it's just about a universal experience.

我發現這是一種普遍的體驗。

What has happened to me has certainly happened to you.

發生在我身上的事情肯定也會發生在你身上。

And bear in mind, if you've heard it before and you're tired of hearing it, think how I feel.

請記住，如果你以前聽過，而且聽膩了，請想想我的感受。

My experience took place in 1974 when I was briefly living in exile from California, working at the City University of New York at Queens College as Director of English as a Second Language.

我的經歷發生在 1974 年，當時我短暫流亡加利福尼亞，在紐約市立大學皇后學院擔任英語作為第二語言的主任。

And like everyone else in New York, we lived in a big apartment building.

和紐約的其他人一樣，我們住在一棟大公寓樓裡。

And the apartment next door to us was owned by a Japanese company.

我們隔壁的公寓屬於一家日本公司。

And every year, there'd be a new family in the apartment.

每年，公寓裡都會住進一個新家庭。

And every year, there were the children who couldn't speak English.

每年都有不會說英語的孩子。

And there I was, Director of English as a Second Language.

我就這樣成了英語作為第二語言的主任。

I will teach English to these children and brag about it to my friends.

我會教這些孩子們英語，並向我的朋友們炫耀。

So I remember going up to the little girl next door.

所以我記得我去找隔壁的小女孩。

She was four years old.

她當時四歲。

Her name was Itomi.

她的名字叫 Itomi。

And I didn't know about this material on language acquisition then.

那時我還不知道這些關於語言習得的材料。

Nobody did.

沒人這麼做。

And I thought then the way you get people to acquire a language is you get them to practice talking.

我想，讓人們掌握語言的方法就是讓他們練習說話。

So I tried to get her to talk.

於是我試著讓她開口。

I'd say, Itomi, talk to me.

我會說，伊藤美，跟我說話。

Say good morning.

說早安

Say hi.

打個招呼吧

No response.

沒有迴應。

Well, clearly, I decided I've got to make this more concrete.

很顯然，我決定要把這個問題具體化。

Itomi, say ball.

伊藤美，說球。

No response.

沒有迴應。

Well, obviously, I've got to break it down into its component parts.

顯然，我得把它分解成各個組成部分。

Let's work on initial consonants.

讓我們來學習首輔音。

Say buh.

說 "布"。

Look at my lips.

看看我的嘴脣

Again, no response.

還是沒有迴應。

There's a theory going around then that a lot of people still believe that children don't really want to acquire language.

當時有一種說法是，很多人仍然認為兒童並不是真的想要學習語言。

You have to kind of force it out of them.

你必須逼他們說出來。

So I tried that.

所以我試了一下。

I won't give you the ball until you say ball.

你不說球，我就不給你。

That didn't work either.

這招也不管用。

No matter what I said, Itomi wouldn't speak.

無論我說什麼，伊藤美都不說話。

She didn't say anything the first week.

第一個星期，她什麼也沒說。

She didn't say anything the second week.

第二個星期，她什麼也沒說。

The first month.

第一個月

The second month.

第二個月

Five months until she started to speak.

五個月後，她才開始說話。

Actually, that's not entirely true.

事實上，這並不完全正確。

Children during this stage do pick up certain expressions from the other children in the neighborhood.

這個階段的孩子會從周圍的其他孩子那裡學到一些表達方式。

It's not real language.

這不是真正的語言。

They understand approximately what they mean.

他們大致明白其中的含義。

Again, it's not real language.

再說一遍，這不是真正的語言。

They have a rough idea what it means.

他們大致知道這意味著什麼。

They use it in roughly appropriate situations.

他們在大致適當的情況下使用。

Things like leave me alone, get out of here.

比如讓我一個人待著，離開這裡。

In fact, one child I knew, the only thing he could say was I kick your ass.

事實上，我認識的一個孩子只會說 "我踢你屁股"。

Said it everywhere.

到處都這麼說。

Wasn't quite sure what it meant.

不太確定是什麼意思。

After about five months, Itomi started to speak.

大約五個月後，伊藤美開始說話了。

And several things were interesting about her language.

她的語言中有幾處很有意思。

First, it looked a lot like first language acquisition.

首先，它看起來很像第一語言的學習。

The same process our children went through.

我們的孩子也經歷了同樣的過程。

One word, two words, gradually getting more complicated.

一個詞，兩個詞，逐漸變得越來越複雜。

Second, it came quickly.

第二，來得快。

By the time Itomi and her family went back to Japan at the end of the year, her English was closing in on the way the other children in the neighborhood were talking.

當 Itomi 和她的家人在年底回到日本時，她的英語水平已經接近鄰居家其他孩子的水準了。

The question is this.

問題是

What was going on during those five months?

這五個月裡發生了什麼？

She was listening.

她在聽

She was picking out comprehensible input.

她在挑選可以理解的輸入。

When she started to speak, it was not the beginning of her language acquisition.

當她開始說話時，這並不是她語言學習的開始。

Let me repeat that.

讓我再說一遍。

When she started to speak, it was not the beginning of her language acquisition.

當她開始說話時，這並不是她語言學習的開始。

It was the result of all the comprehensible input she had gotten over those five months.

這是她在這五個月裡得到的所有可理解輸入的結果。

Now, a silent period for a child in a situation like this is not pathological.

在這種情況下，孩子的沉默期並不是病態的。

It's normal.

這很正常。

It's what you expect.

這是你所期望的。

You'd like to have a silent period, wouldn't you?

你想有一個安靜的時期，不是嗎？

How would it be if you had to study another language, but you went to a class where you didn't have to say anything?

如果你必須學習另一種語言，但你上的是一門什麼都不用說的課，那會怎麼樣？

Doesn't that sound wonderful?

聽起來是不是很棒？

You can talk all you want.

你想怎麼說都行。

You can raise your hand.

請舉手。

You can volunteer.

您可以成為志願者。

But no one's going to call on you.

但沒人會找你。

No one's going to put you on the spot.

沒人會把你放在眼裡。

Also, in this perfect class, if the input is incomprehensible, it's the teacher's fault, not yours.

此外，在這個完美的課堂上，如果輸入的內容無法理解，那是老師的錯，而不是你的錯。

That's how we're doing it now.

我們現在就是這麼做的。

And the results we're getting aren't a little better than other methods.

我們得到的結果並不比其他方法好多少。

They're actually much, much better.

實際上，它們要好得多。

Before I leave this topic, let me put in a brief commercial message for speaking.

在我離開這個話題之前，請允許我為發言做一個簡短的商業提示。

I'm not opposed to speaking.

我不反對發言。

I think when students speak, it's fine.

我認為，學生們發言就可以了。

But what counts in speaking is not what you say, but what the other person says to you.

但說話最重要的不是你說了什麼，而是對方對你說了什麼。

In other words, when you get involved in conversation, what counts is the input that you can stimulate from other people.

換句話說，當你參與談話時，最重要的是你能從其他人那裡獲得啟發。

So I'm in favor of students speaking, but we have to understand it makes a helpful but indirect contribution to language acquisition.

是以，我贊成學生髮言，但我們必須明白，發言對語言習得有幫助，但只是間接的貢獻。

I'd like to discuss one more hypothesis before we move on to literacy, and this is a very important one called the affective filter hypothesis.

在我們繼續討論掃盲之前，我想再討論一個假設，這是一個非常重要的假設，叫做情感過濾假設。

Research in language acquisition has concluded that there are several factors that relate to success in language acquisition, and I'm going to list them here on your screen.

語言習得研究認為，有幾個因素與語言習得的成功有關，我將在螢幕上列出這些因素。

One factor is motivation.

其中一個因素是動機。

Students who are more motivated do better in language acquisition.

學習動機強的學生在語言學習方面表現更好。

Those of you who study this know that it's a little more complicated than this, but this is a good approximation.

研究這個問題的人都知道，情況要比這複雜一些，但這是一個很好的近似值。