Stage four of language learning

In Stage Four the learner learns most from normal native-to-native speech as it occurs in the whole range of life experiences. The learner will understand most input, provided she attends to it. For example, native speakers may talk about the learner right in her presence, intending to tease her and get a reaction. She will certainly hear that they are talking, but may not in the deeper sense “hear” a thing they say, unless she is attending to it. Had she been attending to it, she would have understood it well. But as she was not attending to it, it was just unprocessed sound.

In Stage Four, the learner has increasing facility in abstract and hypothetical discussions (as in the ACTFL Superior stage).

Greg Thomson, personal communication

• Fact module: Stage four of language learning
• In overview module: Stages of language learning
• In overview module: Introduction to guidelines for a language and cult...
• In modular book: Guidelines for a Language and Culture Learning Program, by Carol J. Orwig
• In document collection: Other Resources
• In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 21 March 1999

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