Prof. Dr. Peter Lutzker was a high school teacher for Music and English in Waldorf Schools in Germany from 1986-2011and from 1991 on, he has been active as a teacher educator in different European countries including Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia and England. Since 2010, he has been a Professor at the Freie Hochschule Stuttgart (Waldorf Teachers College). In 2019 he was also appointed an Honorary Professor at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. He has written numerous articles and books in English and in German, including “Der Sprachsinn: Sprachwahrnehmung als Sinnesvorgang” 2 nd ed. (2017), and the “The Art of Foreign Language Teaching: Improvisation and Drama in Language Learning and Teacher Education” 2 nd ed. (2022). Email: lutzker@freie-hochschule-stuttgart.de

[In this article, I have also drawn on my other writings on some of the same themes in different contexts. This is most recently the case with respect to the current issue of the online journal Scenario hosted by University College Cork, Ireland (Lutzker 2022b)]

 

Introduction

The concepts behind Steiner/Waldorf foreign language teaching constitute the basis of both its theory and practice. They are inextricably tied to the foundations underlying all of Steiner/Waldorf education. In the context of this article, it will be impossible to examine that broader, general context; Martyn Rawson’s recent book serves as an excellent introduction to the general principles of Steiner/Waldorf education (Rawson, 2021).

This article attempts to briefly describe the leading concepts upon which Steiner/Waldorf foreign language teaching are based, including Rudolf Steiner’s understanding of a specific ‘sense for language’. These themes have been addressed in more depth in various other publications (Dahl, 1999, Kiersch et. al., 2016, Lutzker, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, Rawson, 2022).

 

The concepts underlying Steiner/Waldorf foreign language teaching

The teaching and learning of a second language in Steiner/Waldorf schools is based to a significant extent on first language acquisition. Hence, the language learner’s affective, volitional and cognitive engagement in activities and conversations that are experienced as meaningful is viewed as fundamental at all stages. This comprehensive connection to first language acquisition is the reason that Rudolf Steiner's understanding of an innate human ‘sense for language’ is considered to be relevant and fruitful with respect to foreign language learning (Steiner, 1981; Lutzker, 2017).

In Steiner/Waldorf language teacher education, the hypothesis of a specific sense of language, whose sensory ‘organ’ Steiner viewed as being the human being's innate potential for linguistic-kinesic behaviour, is discussed not only as the possible basis of first language acquisition, but also for the later learning of a foreign language. The term linguistic-kinesic refers to the entire range of language-specific movements which occur during speaking and listening. These movements include macro-kinesic behaviour, which concerns the meaningful and visible expressions of all manners of gesture, facial expression and posture. Micro-kinesic movements occur in overlapping patterns of movement involving the entire body that only become visible through the highly detailed study of films in which each second is divided into 42 frames and the precise relations between speech sounds and their accompanying unconscious movements can thus be intensively analysed.  Through studying  these films, otherwise unrecognisable movements can be perceived both when people are speaking (self-synchrony) and listening (interactional synchrony). After first detecting individual units of micro-kinesic movements, researchers were then able to identify whole and overlapping movement organisations consisting of the synchronous movements of the whole body to speech sounds and words (Birdwhistell, 1970; Condon, 1970, 1976, 1985).

The embodiment of speech is considered to be essential at both macro-kinesic and micro-kinesic levels for speech perception and utterance (Birdwhistell, 1970; Hall, 1973; Condon, 1976; Kendon, 2004; McNeill, 2005; Peveling, 2016; Lutzker, 2017; Danesi, 2021). In his seminal studies of linguistic kinesic behaviour, Ray Birdwhistell speaks of 2,500 to 5,000 and up to 10,000 "bits of information" exchanged every second between two communicating individuals, most of which occur in the area of overlapping micro-kinesic movements (Birdwhistell, 1970, pp. xi-xiv). Studies of linguistic kinesic behaviour have also indicated that an initial embodiment of language through micro-kinesic responses to speech sounds, appear to occur through interactional synchrony from infancy on (Kato et.al, 1983). The overlapping macro-kinesic 'accompaniment' of language through gestural interaction and/or imitation, is fundamental to the entire process of language acquisition (Birdwhistell, 1970). The decisive role/s which different aspects of linguistic-kinesic behaviour play in speech perception and expression have been demonstrated in different contexts (Condon & Sander, 1974; Ejiri & Masataka, 2001; Goldin-Meadow, 2010; Goldin-Meadow & Alibali, 2013; Goldin-Meadow, 2014; Iverson & Goldin-Meadow, 2005; Kato et al., 1983; Lutzker, 2017, pp. 198-266; Özçalışkan & Dimitrova, 2013; Özçalışkan & Goldin-Meadow, 2016; Rowe & Goldin-Meadow, 2009, Choi et al, 2021;).

An innate ‘sense of language’, whose "organ" is the all-encompassing domain of linguistic- kinesic behaviour, is thus considered to be part of the larger integrated sensory organisation of human perception and behaviour. From this perspective, the perception of language, - comparable to all forms of sensory perception - is dependent on the simultaneous physiological/neurological integration of stimuli processed by different senses, i.e. hearing, vision, proprioception, and a specific sense for language (Peveling, 2016; Lutzker, 1997, 2002a, 2016, 2017). The concept of a specific sense for language thus offers a theoretical perspective for an approach to foreign language learning, inextricably linking it with first language acquisition, in which the perception and acquisition of language through the senses is integrated into the whole developing human organism. Based on this understanding of the holistic nature of language acquisition, integrated and anchored in the entire sensory-motor system and rooted in bodily, affective and cognitive experience, a lexical-cognitive approach to language learning which focuses on vocabulary and grammar must be viewed as a striking reduction of the richness of actual communication, bearing no relation to first language acquisition. From the perspective advanced here, the search for age-appropriate ways to incorporate those linguistic-kinesic dimensions of first language acquisition into foreign language learning becomes an overriding priority. This also implies considering the relevance of research on the neurological/physiological embodiment of first language acquisition for foreign language learning. In the meantime, this has occurred in a number of publications (Lutzker, 2002b, 2013, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c, 2017, pp. 267-305, 2018, 2019; McCafferty & Stam, 2008; Piazzoli, 2018; Quinlisk, 2008; Sambanis, 2013, 2016a, 2016b; Sambanis & Walter, 2019; Sime, 2009; Walter, 2020).

 

Sensory development in and through foreign language learning

In Steiner/Waldorf schools, the attempt to integrate sensory, emotional and cognitive dimensions of experience into foreign language learning is considered to be essential. The potential for the further development and refinement of innate human sensory abilities can be seen as inherent to all forms of sensory perception. The development of a particular sense depends on the range and richness of sensory-specific forms of experience. It is apparent that a differentiated perception of colours for a painter, of nuances of tone and pitch for a musician, of smell and taste for a cook are inextricably linked to the manner and extent of their use. Considering a sense for language as the basis for the perception and understanding of words and speech thus opens up fundamentally new perspectives for understanding the common processes underlying first language acquisition and foreign language learning, as well as for the further development of this sense through the experiencing and learning a new language.

Foreign language learning from this perspective becomes both a means of expanding experience and knowledge of the world and of oneself.  At the same time, it is intrinsically connected to the further development and refinement of sensory capabilities. Erhard Dahl writes:

“Alongside this goal, which could be described as the "expansion of world and self-knowledge", opens up a second goal, namely the "refinement of the perceptive faculty". What applies to cognition also applies to a human being's perceptive faculty. The perceptions experienced through the mother tongue create a certain ability to perceive, but one that still needs to be expanded (Dahl, 1999, p. 15). [All translations from German, unless otherwise noted, are my own].

Considering foreign language learning in the context of an "extended perceptual

capacity", calls for a methodology in which the direct experience of the 'otherness' of the foreign language becomes an essential element of the learning process. This means a constant openness to the foreign sounds, words, structures and thoughts expressed through another language. It requires the acceptance of what is unknown and ‘foreign’, while resisting the temptation to constantly re-translate the 'other' back into the familiar meanings and structures of the mother tongue. Dahl writes:

“If the foreign language is merely conveyed as a system that has different regularities of arrangement and a different pronunciation, but not other meanings and sensations, then the learner's experience of the foreign language will shrink to recognition. If, however, it can be experienced in class that there is a different way of seeing and feeling, the perceptive faculty…is expanded, enriched and refined” (Ibid.)

When a foreign language is experienced and learned in this way, it can lead to a richer and more varied perception of the language and thereby provide the basis for a more active connection to the world:

“. . . already through getting to know, taking in, a greater agility, suppleness slowly develops,

flexibility, which in turn allows my reception of the world to be more varied, more active. The more it can penetrate to my soul, the more alert, brighter, more attentive is my perception. At the same time, I become more perceptive; I am ready to face the impressions of the world more actively (Ibid.).

The aims which Dahl has elucidated regarding the enhancement of perceptual faculties through language learning as a basis for a more attentive, flexible and active engagement with the world can be considered as a fundamental principle underlying all  Steiner/Waldorf language teaching and learning from first grade on.

 

Holistic learning: engaging the student in the Steiner/Waldorf approach 

The emotional, physical and cognitive engagement of students in various activities can be seen as a further leitmotif running throughout the Waldorf foreign language curriculum, providing students with multiple forms of experiencing "knowledge in action" (van Manen 1985). From this perspective, different forms of performative approaches to learning can be considered particularly effective, as they are closely linked to the integrated sensory and embodied processes that underlie first language acquisition. These elements can be found in the various games in the lower school, in smaller and larger theatre performances in the middle and upper school, in the regular recitation of poetry or in the singing of songs at all age levels. However, they can also be present in creative writing projects, as well as in extensive reading and media projects, in which the pupils are given opportunities to engage intensively and actively with topics in which the target language is extensively used, but in which the activity itself, and not foreign language learning, is the primary focus of the work. Although these activities naturally also require different forms of intellectual engagement, they differ from much traditional language learning in that the emphasis is on the emotional, imaginative and physical involvement of the learners. The intellectual processes required generally focus not on conscious language learning, but on what the activity itself requires.

Last, but not least, the fundamental importance of choosing age-appropriate and meaningful, authentic learning materials which can fully engage the learner, affectively and cognitively, becomes a paramount consideration at every stage of Steiner/Waldorf language learning. This begins with the choice of songs, poems and games which are practiced exclusively orally in the first three grades, continues with first readers and young people’s literature in the middle years and ends with the exploration of an ever expanding fictional and non-fictional canon in the upper school. It is for this reason, that traditional course books are not generally used insofar as their focus on the structured and progressive learning of vocabulary and grammar do not offer comparable possibilities of affective, cognitive and volitional engagement which, for example, authentic literature uniquely provides.

Insofar as both the contents and methodology of the Steiner/Waldorf approach to teaching literature aim to achieve these levels of engagement, they differ from many traditional approaches to teaching literature in a foreign language. In a second article in this issue, I will discuss some of the different ways of working with literature which are practiced in many Steiner/Waldorf schools throughout the world.

 

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