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NATURAL
LANGUAGE TRAINING Spokane, Washington USA 99202 |
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OVERVIEW OF
LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING PHILOSOPHY RATIONALE FOR A LANGUAGE TRAINING SYSTEM HOW IS NATURAL LANGUAGE TRAINING DIFFERENT FROM OTHER LANGUAGE PROGRAMS? NATURAL LANGUAGE ACQUISITION SYSTEM™ PERCIBA Incorporated -History -Scope -Progress -Application Procedure for our Natural English Training Instructor Training Program -Training -Employment BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION -Eric W. Anderson -Marta C. Reyes Spokane International Translation |
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interactive language learning and teaching program is based on the
following definition of language: Language is the systematic association of sound to image. It is not the systematic association of sound to written word, as all textbooks would have us believe. Although reading and writing are important skills to be learned eventually by those who need them, a reader will be successful only after having learned the sound-to-image association first. We have always questioned why there is the universal reliance upon textbooks to learn a second language. Educators of English to speakers of other languages even have a dual approach: there is ‘English as a second language’ and ‘English as a foreign language’. Both use textbooks, in some cases the very same one, and both manage to confound their learners equally, thereby delaying the learners’ ability to move on in their lives by effectively speaking and understanding English. All textbooks, without exception and by their very definition, rely on the written word to learn another language, and many people who learn English, for example, do not know how to read and write in their own language. No scientific evidence exists anywhere that supports the textbook idea that we learn to speak and understand by way of reading and writing. The same argument can be applied to learners of Spanish, French, German, Japanese, or whatever language is taught in the schools. We are genetically programmed to learn a language in order that the brain be mapped for our survival. Everyone on the planet learns a language, which is to say everyone learns to understand and speak at least one language; however, not everyone learns or needs to learn to read and write it. We can safely assume that there is one universal language acquisition process that all people in all languages undergo. That process happens to be our definition of language: it is the systematic association of sound to image. Our curriculum and methodology is the same regardless of the language being learned and taught, and the results have been phenomenal. Why should language be taught differently from how we naturally learn it? Our theory of language is on solid scientific ground, and from that theory flows a solid sequential curriculum and interactive methodology that reflect the natural language acquisition process. There is even an evaluation system that is a natural extension of the learning experience, and which is in no way artificial or contrived. It allows the instructor to track an individual student’s acquisition and to focus on the four areas of error: sound discriminations, grammar, perceptual translation from one’s own language into the target language, and comprehension of the spoken language. The tests quantify how well a student is understanding the association of the sounds to the images they represent. This system is so successful and innovative that we are applying for a patent on it. What is the source of language? Perception. We encode our environment linguistically in twelve perceptual categories. All of the grammar of every language fits into these categories, and it is these categories of perception that form the basis of our interactive curriculum. These are not the grammatical categories of the Part-of-Speech Paradigm, which is the structure and organization of all language courses taught worldwide. The Greek astronomer Aristarchus around 200 B.C. was the first to isolate the eight parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. During the Renaissance in Europe, there developed a yearning to learn the classical languages Latin and Greek. Courses taught in the universities at that time used the Part-of-Speech Paradigm to teach them, and all languages taught worldwide today use the Latin language as the format to teach language, within the parameters of the Part-of-Speech Paradigm. Textbooks today even talk about the conjugations of English verbs, when in fact there are no such conjugations. The traditional grammar approach relies on knowing the syntactic relationship of words to each other to derive the “proper” order and structure and tense that are independent of any perceptual source. From this syntactic relationship, the Part-of-Speech Paradigm, the learner is supposed to infer the semantic content, which is the ultimate purpose of any textbook. In short, knowing the structure will give rise to the meaning, instead of the meaning or content giving rise to the structure. To decode the spoken, and more often the written word, the listener/reader must decode the structure completely before beginning to understand the communication of the speaker/author. He must rely upon translation as a strategy for trying to simultaneously understand the input of the new language. In order to speak, he must first encode the perception into his native language and then translate it to the target language, all the while making the syntactic adjustments that separate the two languages. This is slow, cumbersome, and faulty, because an accurate translation or interpretation is accomplished only by competent bilinguals, which the language learner is not. All of the grammar of all languages can be taught by using perception as the medium of instruction. Currently, we are providing Natural Language Training in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian and Japanese with this curriculum and methodology. In just ten contact hours of instruction, thirteen middle school students in Spokane, Washington can understand and speak much more Japanese than second semester college students who have undergone over one hundred hours of textbook instruction. In our program, we systematically develop listening comprehension and slowly work into developing verbal fluency. There is absolutely no reading or writing taking place in the classroom, and translation from the native language to the target language does not become an issue. Students do not get to see how a word is spelled because that knowledge has no place in the acquisition of sound-to-image. If a word is written out or found in a textbook, the student will learn to pronounce it using the only sound system available, which is the native language. At this early stage of learning, the ear has not been sufficiently trained so that the mouth can properly articulate the word. Our teachers use a variety of physical props that reflect the common objects that students use on a daily basis but that also enable the student to distinguish minor variances in sound that separates one object from another, e.g Spanish la bandeja ~ la bandera [tray ~ flag]. Students will carry out commands to do a specific action with a specific object that might involve one or two other students. Question forms are introduced that are based on this perception that just occurred. This classroom interactivity involves all three basic learning styles: audio, visual, and kinesthetic. Since there is a limit to the number of props that can be brought to class, we also rely on graphics that are grouped into various perceptual categories. For example, each teacher has a binder of graphics depicting common locations, each on a full sheet of cardstock. Once a student learns the sound in Spanish for each location, then the word for ‘forward movement’ /ir/ is introduced in the present and then later in the past. This action is also used with other action graphics to form the ‘future’ in Spanish. This unit easily combines with the knowledge of locations, e.g. Voy a jugar en el parque, to which can be added additional information: con Juan este sábado. Sentence building becomes a process of adding acquired images for which the sounds have already been learned. We have been teaching English and Spanish this way for over 25 years. Of course, mainstream language education wants no part of a system that uses no textbook and that requires teacher accountability for the outcomes and the quality of instruction. Language teaching is the wild west of education: anything goes, and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” After having been in language teaching for 35 years, we have yet to find a textbook that works. Textbooks teach the grammar of a language through reading and writing and the homework that such an approach generates. We, on the other hand, teach all of the grammar of a language through the systematic development of listening comprehension and verbal fluency skills, which is exactly how we acquired our first language.  RATIONALE FOR A LANGUAGE TRAINING SYSTEM Have you ever noticed that everyone on the planet can understand and speak at least one language, but not everyone can read or write one? Steven Pinker was one of the first to publish the idea that we humans are genetically programmed for language. In fact, language is used to establish and map the neurological pathways of the brain so that thinking and reasoning can occur. These are two necessary components to our survival as a species. It would make sense that there is a universal language acquisition process that every human undergoes regardless of the language the person ends up speaking. If we can identify that process, then can we successfully transfer it to a language training classroom? The answer is simply yes! The process as we define it is as follows: Language is the systematic association of sound to image. This definition would make Perception as the source of all language, which indeed it is. Perception can occur independent of language, but language cannot occur independent of Perception. The visual input is associated with a specific aural input, and as acquisition occurs, the aural input then gives rise to the image that has been previously associated with it. In other words, a string of sounds spoken from one person gives rise to a perception in another, which is the essence of listening comprehension. Conversely, in order to verbalize, a person must have the perception already in mind, along with a specific focus related to that perception, possess the structure and order of the string of sounds, and be able to utter them; this is the essence of verbal fluency. The development of reading and writing skills have absolutely no place in the process of developing comprehension and verbal skills. If they did, then everyone would be able to read and write naturally as well as understand and speak. The perception-language association is a cognitive competence that is complete and inseparable in a native speaker. In order to create a learning system based on this model, our task is first to unravel the language from the perception and then to reintegrate them in the learner through a systematic process that leads to language competency in the target language. Our natural language learning system called Natural Language Training™ is the program through which a learner rebuilds the perception-language association in this language. The grammar represents the mapping instructions that make the association of sounds to image systematic and specific to the target language. Grammar rules are not discussed nor manipulated in mindless homework or classroom exercises; they are gradually acquired and internalized through active participation in situations created in the classroom. Using the twelve perceptual-language categories in a designed sequence, the participant gradually builds competency in understanding the language as new information is learned and integrated with that which has been previously acquired. In the classroom, the systematic association of the sounds of the language to the images they represent is a process that mimics the natural language acquisition process. It is faster, more efficient, and more focused than if an individual just went to live in the target country in order to learn the language. Any formal learning system must have an assessment tool to measure and track an individual’s progress. The development of listening comprehension is the fundamental skill upon which the other three language skills are built. Our assessment system focuses on this skill, and can measure and track acquisition as well as focus on each individual’s strengths and weaknesses and strategies for learning. Each assessment exercise flows from the classroom instruction and participation, and each is purely quantitative in nature. There is no subjective input into how well a student is progressing through the program. The outcome for each participant in the Natural English Training program is the same: to be able to function on the job in English in terms of being able to understand the spoken language and to speak it. Anything less than this is simply unacceptable. It is up to the teaching and learning system to make this outcome successful, and this is what our system has been providing for over 20 years in English language training. HOW IS NATURAL LANGUAGE TRAINING DIFFERENT FROM OTHER LANGUAGE PROGRAMS? Language instruction has not changed in its approach to teaching and learning since it was first introduced in the classroom. No one has ever questioned the methodology, the textbook, or the learning outcomes of this archaic and unnatural process of learning this language. We are calling this paradigm the “Traditional approach to Language” learning and teaching. English has its counterpart known as ESL, “English as a Second Language,” and it is no different. We are replacing it with Natural Language Training, or NLT, because there are certain connotations associated with the Traditional Language Approach, or TLA for short, which do not fit our paradigm and from which we would rather distance ourselves. TLA is associated with textbooks, placement tests, levels of learning, the integration of the four language skills from the first class, well-intentioned teachers who do not have the proper tools, nor in many cases the proper training, and substandard outcomes which do not meet the standards that are required for an individual to perform satisfactorily in the target language for business or any other purposes. All language programs have levels of learning, and to initiate one’s study of that language, a placement test must be taken to determine in which level one is qualified to enroll. Levels seek a homogeneity of grammar knowledge, and we have found no test that can accurately determine the student’s actual knowledge of the foreign language to be studied. The criteria for establishing the levels are not standardized, and vary from school to school. Levels of instruction also assume that learning target language’s grammar progresses from “easy” grammar to “difficult” grammar. What criteria determine which grammar point is fundamentally more difficult or easier than another? There are no such criteria. The same argument can be applied to the learning programs of any language taught in schools. The Traditional Language Approach relies on teaching the grammar through reading and writing skills. In TLA theory, the grammar acquired in this way is transferred to listening and speaking skills, but the TLA cannot establish how that is done. No scientific evidence exists anywhere that supports the textbook idea that we learn to speak and understand by way of reading and writing. Most TLA students of English, for example, do not achieve a level of comprehension and verbal skill development that enable them to perform successfully in the workplace. In this respect, the grammar instruction paradigm of English-as-a-second language (ESL) is a failure. In order to speak with ESL instruction, the student must first encode the perception into the native language and then translate it into English, all the while making the syntactic adjustments that separate the two languages. This process is slow, cumbersome, and faulty. Students of ESL take classes for years and do not acquire English well enough to use it on the job, and there is just no excuse for that kind of outcome. If we claim to teach ESL, then we bring ourselves down to this level of reputation and performance and outcomes. We do not teach ESL; we train the individual to map the sounds of English to the images they represent without translating and without reading or writing. This concept of training to learn English naturally goes beyond the scope of what ESL attempts to do. We apply this same training approach to all languages. Our interactive language training program is based on the definition that Language is the systematic association of sound to image. This definition would make Perception as the source of all language, which indeed it is. The visual input is associated with a specific aural input, and as acquisition occurs, the aural input then gives rise to the image that has been previously associated with it. In other words, a string of sounds spoken from one person gives rise to a perception in another, which is the essence of listening comprehension. Conversely, in order to verbalize, a person must have the perception already in mind, along with a specific focus related to that perception, possess the structure and order of the string of sounds, and be able to utter them; this is the essence of verbal fluency. The development of reading and writing skills has absolutely no place in this process of developing comprehension and verbal skills. Our Natural Language Training programs train the student to learn another language without a textbook, without integrating the four language skills from Day One, without tedious homework that has nothing to do with natural language acquisition, without translating, without having to learn a whole dictionary of vocabulary just to explain what the grammar is all about, and without talking about the language instead of talking in the language. All of the grammar of the target language is learned through the development of listening comprehension and verbal fluency skills. Natural Language Training will be the worldwide standard of language training that all of the other language programs will have to measure themselves by. NATURAL LANGUAGE ACQUISITION SYSTEM™ Here is why we provide language training this way: 1. You cannot speak more than you can comprehend. 2. Listening comprehension development must precede verbal fluency development. 3. Understanding and Speaking is one linguistic system, and Reading and Writing is another. 4. All of the grammar of the language is taught through listening comprehension and verbal fluency development, not through reading and writing. 5. You cannot read until you are able to successfully associate the sounds to the images they represent. 6. You cannot learn to naturally understand and speak another language from a textbook or other device. 7. Language learning is achieved by experiencing it. You learn to swim only by getting into the water first. Speech is an unbroken string of sounds that recreate the speaker's perceptions in the mind of the listener. In written language, these sounds are clustered into visually separated words, to which we still have to associate an image. The examples below have no spaces between the words because they attempt to show what the ear is perceiving. You can easily read Sentences 1, 2, & 3 because you know the sounds of English and the images they represent; this perceptual connection allows you to know where one word ends and where the next one begins. If you do not know Spanish for example, then Sentences 4, 5, & 6 are incomprehensible because you do not know the sound-to-image relationship, nor where one word ends and the next one begins. ENGLISH 1. therewasasevereearthquakeinjapanthatcausedwidespreadpanicanddevastation. 2. itiseasytoreadthissentencebecauseyouknowwhereawrittenwordbeginsandends. 3. whenyouhearaforeignlanguageyoustruggletoknowwherethewordsbeginandend. SPANISH 4. haceunosminutosenriquellegodesuviajeaasiaynosdijoquehabiaaprendidomuchochino.. 5. esmuyfacilcomprenderloqueleecuandocomprendelaasociaciondelsonidoalaimagen. 6. sientiendeelespanolentoncessabedondeiniciaydondeterminalapalabrahablada. With the Natural Language Acquisition System™, you are immersed in the target language from the first day of class. By employing Perception as the medium of instruction, you learn the word boundaries aurally by systematically associating the sounds of the language to the images they represent. All of the sounds and grammar of the language are taught through practical situation role play. PERCIBA Incorporated History. Perciba was incorporated in Washington State in July 2002 to meet the growing language needs of clients in Asia and Latin America and throughout the United States. Our business is language training, and we have a proprietary system that has been in existence since 1982. The name Perciba comes from the Spanish word percibir, which means to know or learn something through perceptions which reach us from the external environment; this is precisely how we teach all of our languages. Perciba is in the imperative or command form of the word, which literally means "Learn Through Your Senses". Scope. Perciba Incorporated is dedicated to developing and implementing the best language instruction available anywhere. We design workplace specific programs for government agencies, educational institutions and private businesses regarding Spanish, English, and French language training programs. We offer before- and after-school intensive immersion language classes to public and private schools in the Spokane area in Spanish, French, Japanese, and German. Perciba Incorporated recruits, trains, and certifies instructors in the Natural Language Training program to teach at our facilities and on site for corporations and other entities worldwide. We are fast becoming the standard by which all other language programs will be measured. Progress. We have already developed 100-hour intensive immersion Natural Language Training programs for Spanish, French, Russian, German, Italian, and Japanese. We are presently developing programs for Chinese and Arabic. We have a complete, 300-hour program of Natural English Training which we are planning to launch worldwide in 2006. We successfully completed our NET program in November 2002 in the People’s Republic of China, delivering 200 hours of instruction in 25 days. The participants were oil rig engineers and workers, and four instructors were required to complete the contract. All of the students successfully passed the course, and moved on to a four-month technical training program for oil production workers that was conducted entirely in English by British trainers. Application Procedure for our Natural English Training Instructor Training Program. The first step is to submit a resume by mail or e-mail that includes an employment history and at least three personal and three professional references. The applicant must have at least a Bachelor of Arts degree from an accredited university, be a native speaker of the language that the applicant wishes to teach, be fluent in the English language, be willing and able to teach, and be in very good physical health without any impairments of physical movement. The applicant cannot have any felony or misdemeanor convictions anywhere. Each applicant to the program must undergo an in-person screening interview in Spokane, Washington. At the same time, the applicant will be presented with an Introduction to the Natural Language Training System so that the applicant can decide if he or she is compatible with our system. This is not a competitive selection process because we select applicants based upon individual achievement and merit and potential. Training. Our Natural English Training instructor training program is 240 hours long, which includes 180 hours of classroom instruction and 60 hours of practical teaching experience. If the applicant has been selected to participate in the program, then the applicant must decide whether or not to attend a scheduled training program in Spokane. The program runs eight hours a day, five days a week for six weeks. We train you in how to teach all of the grammar of English through listening comprehension and verbal fluency development. Imagine teaching English this way to a group of participants in China who have absolutely no previous English language training. Imagine also teaching to a group of participants who represent nine different language and culture groups, whose formal education experience ranges from zero to a Master’s degree, and fully half of the group is illiterate. We will train you successfully to teach any such group that you may encounter in your career because we have already done so repeatedly. Once a participant has successfully completed the training program, he or she will be a certified Natural Language Training Instructor. For those applicants who desire to teach a language other than English, this training program will provide you with all of the necessary tools with which to teach that language successfully. Employment. Training and employment work together. Training sessions will open as markets for our service become developed. We will not train you unless there is an opportunity to work for us. Our certified instructors will be available to teach anywhere in the world where we have established a Natural English Training program. In Spokane, Washington where our headquarters is located, we will begin teaching English to the non-English speaking residents of the area through the Spokane World Culture and Language Center, which has agreed to use only Perciba-trained English instructors and the Natural English Training program developed by Perciba. We will begin to address the overseas markets for English instruction by 2006. No one will be sent to a place where the instructor does not want to go. A 100-hour program lasts a maximum of 10 weeks, which means every three months the instructor could rotate to another site, or simply remain in place as long as he or she wishes. Each teaching assignment to another country, and we will use China as an example, offers the following benefits at no cost to our instructors: 4. Round-trip coach class airfare from Spokane to China. 5. Visa for the People’s Republic of China. 6. All ground transportation related to the assignment. 7. All hotels and lodging related to the assignment. 8. Access to a computer for Internet connection in China. 9. Local contact in China who is bilingual in English and Chinese to help out whenever necessary. 10. Teach at least three 100-hour classes within a 12-week period at US$30 per hour. An instructor may teach up to five classes. All salaries are paid in US dollars, and are electronically deposited. Once our Natural Language Training becomes more widely known and we can offer many courses in different places, we plan to open other job opportunities within the corporation as soon as we have expanded. These include: 1. Master Trainer of teachers 2. Program Manager to manage our program in a region. 3. Site Manager to manage our program in a specific city. 4. Project Manager to open markets in the US and in other countries 5. Provide Natural English Training in Spokane 6. Provide Natural English Training in other cities in the United States. 7. Provide Natural Language Training in Spokane and in other cities for Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, German, Italian and any other language using our system. When a teacher returns, he or she will have the opportunity to provide Natural English Training at our learning center in Spokane. After teaching successfully with us for at least two years, you may be invited to become a Master Trainer, which involves training future teachers. If you have expertise in another language, you may be invited to open a market in another country or even within the United States. If you have management skills, you may be asked to become a Program Manager who manages our staff and programs in a specific area. All of these positions will be open only to personnel who are certified to teach our system and who have had significant field experience. If an instructor wants to open a market somewhere in the United States or elsewhere in the world, then Perciba Incorporated will assist the instructor in getting that market established. Currently, we are looking at establishing Natural English Training programs in Miami, Seattle, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Panama. We are going to be growing, and only the dedication and commitment of our trained and certified language training personnel will determine how fast and where. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Eric W. Anderson is the founder and President of Perciba Incorporated. He has a BA in Spanish Literature, an MA in Romance Linguistics, and a Ph.C. in Romance Linguistics, all from the University of Washington. He is a native bilingual of English and Spanish, having spent part of his childhood in Venezuela and more recently 12 years living and teaching in Panama. His graduate specialty focused on the application of current linguistic theories to Spanish and to other Romance languages, as well as on the historical development and current characteristics of Spanish dialects in the Western Hemisphere. He created the interactive language learning and training paradigm that forms the core of the Natural Language Training system. Eric has been a language teacher for over 36 years, and has taught English and Spanish and Linguistics at the university level for 20 years, 9 of which were in Panama. He was a full-time Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish for Whitworth College in Spokane from 2000-02 where he taught fourth-year literature and intensive writing. He has been a professional translator since 1968, and he and his wife Marta Reyes also own and operate Spokane International Translation. Marta C. Reyes is the founder and Vice-President of Perciba Incorporated and the owner of Spokane International Translation. She is a native bilingual of Spanish and English, and holds a BA in Spanish Literature from Eastern Washington University, where she was an honor student. Although born in Spokane and a US citizen, she spent most of her life in Colombia. While Marta raised her family in Colombia, she was actively involved in public relations for the diplomatic corps through the US Embassy, the International Red Cross, President of the American Women’s Club of Bogotá, Vice President of the American Society of Bogotá, and managed a small business. After returning to Spokane in 1989, she became actively involved in the community as Executive Director of the Cheney Chamber of Commerce, Vice President of the Hispanic Business and Professional Association, which she helped to establish, Board Member of the United Way of Spokane County, Success by 6 Leadership Task Force, Leadership Spokane, and the Spokane Chamber of Commerce. Marta has been a professional translator and interpreter since 1989. Spokane International Translation was established in 1995 by Marta C. Reyes, and is an affiliate of Perciba Incorporated. It provides fast, error-free, mirror-image translations and interpreting services in 49 languages through over 250 independently contracted translators and interpreters, all of whom are carefully screened and tested. Spokane International Translation serves the business, legal, and medical communities, including local high tech companies, social service agencies, the courts, law firms, hospitals and clinics, as well as the general public in need of translation and interpreting services. |
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