Given the various methods of language learning that have been devised over time, I’m curious if the specific method used by SSi has a particular technical name within linguistics? It seems related to la méthode Ollendorff, but this area isn’t one of my expertise. Any linguists know? What other methods are there?
I believe Aran calls it ‘high intensity language training’. He wrote a slim e-volume about it which you can get for free on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00PISI0EM?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
This question is actually part of the Cardiff University English language and linguistics degree course, in the final year - we don’t fit neatly into any of the existing theories of language acquisition, but the undergrads are meant to work that out for themselves. It’s on my mind at the moment, because I’m lecturing there on Friday!
The main theories are summarised well on Wikipedia:
I think we fit most closely into the (largely ignored) school of comprehensible output, coupled with some of the work on complex adaptive systems (and emergent properties thereof), and I also see comprehensible input as being a key driver of intermediate confidence…
Diolch @aran! I come at things from an information theoretic perspective and have a bit of background in linguistics, but not this particular area. I’ve seen various methods over the years and presumed that there were likely more delineated/categorized names for the various approaches I’ve seen over the years, even if they were only those of the people selling a product (Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, et. al.) Of course, as usual, there’s a major disconnect between the commercial side and the academic research with respect to applied pedagogies. (I remember seeing something on the Pimsleur site that suggested he discovered spaced repetition as if Ebbinghaus’s research and centuries of indigenous teachers’ experience before him never existed.)
Having even an overview page like the one you’ve suggested is an excellent entryway into some references and literature. Some of the complexity theory pieces and emergence are right up my alley. Thanks again.
Sounds as though you do some interesting stuff
Yeah, Pimsleur had some interesting thoughts on identifying the correct time to repeat (on which I disagree with him) - but the ‘father of spaced rep’ is very much, er, commercially driven.
All the complex adaptive systems research I’ve found so far has been on L1 acquisition rather than L2. I think it’s interesting for L2 because if grammar is essentially an emergent property, then we’re doing the right thing in not teaching it explicitly.