Four Strands of Language-Learning
In the last post, we talked about productive and receptive language skills, but there are more skills involved in language learning than these four. Paul Nation talks about “four strands” of language learning. He labels them: meaning-focused input (receptive skills), meaning-focused output (productive skills), language-focused learning, and fluency development. We have already talked about input and output here. This post, then, will focus on what Nation calls language-focused learning and fluency development.
Language Focused Learning
Language-focused learning, Nation explains, “involves the deliberate learning of language features such as pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and discourse” (Four Strands, 5). Essentially, this is the deliberate learning of language details and principles. It emphasizes deductive learning. Language-focused learning explains some feature of the language. Once you have learned that feature, you begin seeing it in different applications.* This strand of learning makes sense of features that have been observed during input and output exercises. Additionally, it supplies a framework for features of the language that may have gone unnoted when studying. Practicing language-focused learning can include working through a grammar. Even if you have previously worked through a beginning grammar, a different grammar can emphasize different features of the language. You can also work through a more advanced grammar or syntax textbook to push yourself.
Fluency Development
Fluency development does not necessarily include any new skill, but includes honing the input and output skills. This is not a time to add new vocabulary to your input or output, or to learn new grammatical rules. This is the time where you take what you know and apply it so that you are able to process everything more quickly. While speed is the most immediate metric for fluency, the desire is actually to increase automaticity. Essentially, we want to make the deliberate, conscious decisions during language learning more automatic. These conscious decisions take up a lot of mental resources that can be used for other tasks. The more automatic lower level tasks like decoding a word’s meaning or pronunciation become, the more time you can spend on higher level questions about the meaning and progression of the discourse. Several exercises can aid in building language fluency. These exercises should not solely focus on morphological details like conjugations and declensions (those have their place, just not here). One example could like like this: read through a text and time yourself. Then, reread it, but this time try to read it in 15 seconds less. The text should not have any new grammar or vocabulary in it. It is important that you remember to focus on meaning during these exercises. You can check your comprehension by summarizing what you have read.
Conclusion
When you consider taking on learning a language, it can feel overwhelming, but breaking them down into these four categories helps make them more manageable. Nation suggests giving about a quarter of your time to each of the fours strands. If you are like me, you have a tendency to focus on some strands (language-focused learning and input) over the others (output and fluency practice). Having a checklist like the four strands reminds me to use my study time in a well-rounded manner. This can go a long way in increasing motivation. Being able to identify how I can best spend my time in the language makes me feel more productive, and the variety in exercises makes learning feel less tedious.
*By contrast, input and output are largely inductive. That is, through isolated instances of the language, you observe a broad language feature.
- You can read Nation’s article on the Four Strands of language learning here.
- For further reading about fluency and automaticity, see: Noonan, A Handbook of Second Language Acquisition for Biblical Studies, (Wilmore, Kentucky: GlossaHouse, 2022), 119-137.