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By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

The seemingly infinite number of possibilities (e.g., language varieties, registers, contexts for interaction, and personalities) add to the complexity of learning language. As learners extend their own language abilities, it becomes increasingly important for them to develop the fundamental skills needed to engage in multilingual interactions on their own, extending their abilities from the “content” they find in the curricular materials they study. Learning how to learn increases their capacity to interact in unknown contexts and domains by enabling them to find what they need on their own. Take, for example, a learner who is adept at using a dictionary to find a word they need versus a learner who only feels comfortable using with words they have learned in a language classroom or a learner who is able to use models to frame their own writing without explicit instruction in a genre they have never encountered. In order to develop these critical skills, it is fundamental that learners have the opportunity to engage with these skills in a meaningful way. 

One approach is embedding skill development as part of a language curriculum, always considering the skill of language in addition to the words and structures that appear in the learning objectives of the lesson.  This month in InterCom, we focus on How to Learn a Language with this week’s focus addressing the perspective that the skills associated with human communication are fundamental to their development in the target language. As can be seen in the Activity of the Week, one critical skill learners can add to their repertoire is learning to ask for clarification when they do not understand something. Learning this strategy helps learners transition from seeing a missing word as only a gap in their repertoire and, instead, creating the ability to negotiate the meaning and gain the knowledge they need when they don’t understand. From the skills perspective, this not only builds the critical target language lexicon, but also encourages learners to keep learning and adapting as they expand their own repertoire and the contexts in which they interact. Other ideas will continue throughout the month of April.