28.3692, Disc: Review of 'Language Teaching and the Older Adult'

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3692. Thu Sep 07 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.3692, Disc: Review of 'Language Teaching and the Older Adult'

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Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2017 16:20:07
From: Danya Ramirez Gómez [danyaramirezg at gmail.com]
Subject: Review of 'Language Teaching and the Older Adult'

 
Read Review: http://linguistlist.org/issues/28/28-3463.html 

The review of the book ''Language Teaching and the Older Adult: The
Significance of Experience'' contained a few mistakes. The following include a
selection of the most relevant and their clarifications:

SEGMENT: “In a citation form Birdsong (1999), she refers to native-like
reading proficiency by adults who started learning an L2 after puberty, and by
this reference she intends to claim that such a thing can happen to older
adults as well in spite of many opposing theories.” 

CORRECTION: When referring to the work by Birdsong, the book does not mention
“reading” at any point (p. 9). Also, the reviewer mentions this reference in
isolation, and fails to indicate that all this section of the book addresses
the debate on the critical period hypothesis. The claim made by the book is
not based only on Birdsong’s work.

SEGMENT: “Ramírez Gómez concludes from her study that the learners’ reliance
on the instructor and formal education were likely to produce a high level of
performance and that such studies can reveal some aspects of FL learning that
have not been discovered in other studies carried out on young FL learners.”

CORRECTION: This is not a conclusion of this book. This is the conclusion of
Arturo Escandón’s work, which is among the references and is actually
contradicted by the results of this book.

SEGMENT: “She defines education as “the art and science of teaching children;”

CORRECTION: The book does not define “education” as such. It defines
“pedagogy” as the “the art and science of teaching children” (p. 94). 

SEGMENT: “Ramírez Gómez says that when FL learners are asked to negotiate
meaning, they are taking the responsibility for decision making rather than
considering only their personal needs.”

CORRECTION: I am not sure in which part of the book this is stated,
particularly the notion of “negotiation of meaning.” The discussion on this
topic (pp. 98 - 100) points out that negotiation is positive because it may
lead learners to take responsibility for their learning, and also – among
others – because negotiation allows instructors to identify and address the
learners’ needs.

SEGMENT: “By raising this issue, she demands exploration of field dependency
and non-instrumental discipline which can help older adults reconstruct their
life after retirement.”

CORRECTION: “Field-dependency” is a construct that is mentioned briefly in
this book as one individual difference addressed in the literature that could
have an effect on learning (p. 21-23), and that has been studied in relation
to age (p.23). On page 117, the book argues that, according to “critical
foreign language geragogy” – one theoretical framework for this book, FL
education for older adults should not have only a field-dependent objective
(that is, be concerned only with linguistic performance), but it should also
attempt to improve older adults’ lives.

SEGMENT: “Chapter 5, Learner Re-training, mostly discusses older learners’
attitudes and preconceptions about the FL learning experience and remarks that
although, because of aging, older adults lose or weaken some of their skills
and abilities, if they have a positive attitude about FL learning, they
succeed in it.” 

CORRECTION: This is an oversimplification that results in a contradiction to
what the book suggests as a whole. In this book, learner re-training posits
that older learners may succeed in reaching higher FL performance levels
through the development of strategic behavior and self-acknowledgment (among
other factors). Having a positive attitude is important, but succeeding is not
the result only of a change of attitude. This is clearly stated in the book,
and it is one of its main claims.

SEGMENT: “The chapter ends with some activities intended to improve four
skills in an FL learning program, namely listening, speaking, reading and
writing.”

CORRECTION: The book does not offer any activities intended to improve the
traditional four skills. It offers mechanisms to adapt common activities
(already created and used by instructors) so they may enhance older adults’
learning process.

SEGMENT: “The author develops an FL geragogy and includes it in 3 successive
chapters namely 4,5 and 6.” 

CORRECTION: The book is clear about it not being able to develop an FL
geragogy on its own. It emphasizes that this cannot be done only through this
work.



Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Sociolinguistics



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