The Common European Framework in its political and educational context What is the Common European Framework?

partial
competence (see the comments made on the relativisation of what may be understood by
partial knowledge of a language).
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment
138

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6.2
The processes of language learning
6.2.1
Acquisition or learning?
The terms ‘language acquisition’ and ‘language learning’ are currently used in a number
of different ways. Many use them interchangeably. Others use one or the other as the
general term, using the other in a more restricted sense. Thus ‘language acquisition’ may
be used either as the general term or confined:
a)
to interpretations of the language of non-native speakers in terms of current
theories of universal grammar (e.g. parameter setting). This work is almost
always a branch of theoretical psycholinguistics of little or no direct concern
to practitioners, especially since grammar is considered to be far removed
from accessibility to consciousness.
b)
to untutored knowledge and ability to use a non-native language resulting
either from direct exposure to text or from direct participation in communi-
cative events.
‘Language learning’ may be used as the general term, or confined to the process whereby
language ability is gained as the result of a planned process, especially by formal study
in an institutional setting.
At the present time it does not seem possible to impose a standardised terminology,
especially since there is no obvious super-ordinate term covering ‘learning’ and ‘acqui-
sition’ in their restricted senses.
6.2.2
How do learners learn?
6.2.2.1
There is at present no sufficiently strong research-based consensus on how lea-
rners learn for the Framework to base itself on any one learning theory. Some theorists
believe that the human information-processing abilities are strong enough for it to be suf-
ficient for a human being to be exposed to sufficient understandable language for him/her
to acquire the language and be able to use it both for understanding and for production.
They believe the ‘acquisition’ process to be inaccessible to observation or intuition and
that it cannot be facilitated by conscious manipulation, whether by teaching or by study
methods. For them, the most important thing a teacher can do is provide the richest pos-
sible linguistic environment in which learning can take place without formal teaching.
Users of the Framework are asked to consider and if possible state in which sense they use the
terms and to avoid using them in ways counter to current specific usage.
They may also wish to consider and where appropriate state:
•
how opportunities for language acquisition in the sense of (b) above can be provided and
exploited.
Language learning and teaching
139

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6.2.2.2
Others believe that in addition to exposure to comprehensible input, active par-
ticipation in communicative interaction is a necessary and sufficient condition for lan-
guage development. They, too, consider that explicit teaching or study of the language
is irrelevant. At the other extreme, some believe that students who have learnt the nec-
essary rules of grammar and learnt a vocabulary will be able to understand and use the
language in the light of their previous experience and common sense without any need
to rehearse. Between these polar extremes, most ‘mainstream’ learners, teachers and
their support services will follow more eclectic practices, recognising that learners do
not necessarily learn what teachers teach and that they require substantial contextual-
ised and intelligible language input as well as opportunities to use the language interac-
tively, but that learning is facilitated, especially under artificial classroom conditions, by
a combination of conscious learning and sufficient practice to reduce or eliminate the
conscious attention paid to low-level physical skills of speaking and writing as well as to
morphological and syntactic accuracy, thus freeing the mind for higher-level strategies
of communication. Some (many fewer than previously) believe that this aim may be
achieved by drilling to the point of over learning.
6.2.2.3
There is of course considerable variation among learners of different ages, types
and backgrounds as to which of these elements they respond to most fruitfully, and
among teachers, course-writers, etc. as to the balance of elements provided in courses
according to the importance they attach to production vs. reception, accuracy vs. fluency,
etc.