Marija Liudvika Drazdauskiene received her MA degree in 1967, from Vilnius University, in English language, literature and EFL teaching; Dr, 1970, from Moscow University, English style; Dr habilitatus, 1994, from Vilnius University, English style and functional linguistics; has over forty years of teaching experience. Employment: Dr docent at the University of Vilnius, Vilnius, Lithuania, 1970-2002; Professor at the Wszechnica Polska, Academy of Applied Sciences in Warsaw, Poland, 2008-the present. Research interests: English style, the phatic use of English, uses of language and the potential meaning of  language. Wazechnica Polska, Academy of Applied Sciences in Warsaw.   Email: liudvika@dradauskiene.lt

 

Abstract

This publication familiarizes the reader with an experimental idea of an individual learning of a new language outside and beyond school. The verbal world today is demanding and motley around us. It may not be the best of contexts for children acquiring literacy but it can be gainfully exploited by determined adults. Many a person tries to learn some rudiments of English as a foreign language without enrolling in regular schools or courses. Employers are encouraged to train their employees as part of The National Learning at Work Day (BBC WS, 26 June 2006). Occasions for learning and commitments are many.

Foreign language teaching has for years been founded on the structured use of language in its standardized form. There is no harm in the orderliness and rigour of standard language. Discipline in whatever form is a productive factor in learning when it takes place. But there is a difference between spontaneous spoken language and its structured written variant, which was noticed in the twentieth century when courses of conversational English from Cambridge University Press, Courses in Realistic English (Abbs, 1968/2022), Courses based on listening comprehension (Underwood, 1971/1977) and others appeared and were applied in teaching. Such elementary Courses as Target (Alexander, 1972), which may have continued with the classic Harold E. Palmer’s (1917) book, Everyday Sentences in Spoken English, were produced, were popular and productive. Although some of the influential authors today happen to joke about the kind of English that was registered in textbooks a century or so ago, these Courses were an advancement in teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Yet, the focus was on one language with some reference to the learners’ native tongue in classes. Teachers in Eastern Europe had even great difficulties in obtaining authentic English texts for teaching in the middle of the twentieth century. The currency of English as a foreign language was limited and this language was a mystery to its learners. Some methodological insights from the Courses mentioned above may well be used but the verbal environment is not what it used to be. English is no longer a mystery to modern learners psychologically, although this may not be as positive as it is often thought.

 

1 This is the verbal context any speaker faces these days:

Given an interest in language learning, a verbally conscious person should first sort out this motley. If a person chooses one new language from the many around, in need and curiosity, he can learn to communicate tolerably in it, given the knowledge of the alphabet and the basic phonetics for a start. When determined, he is likely to remember words, phrases, sayings and quotations on the walls and screens. Stretching his attention a little, he can exploit the memorised or recorded units as models and mini contexts of use to go on building a mental corpus, which will grow and stay if the focus and effort do not deteriorate. Regular contacts with the exteriorly visible language turn it into a fixed partner in contact. Looking up words and using a textbook becomes naturally indispensable. With some immersion this way, the place starts speaking to the person and the language involving him. The person used to this way of perception would find himself at home at the first flash of a comprehensible line in front of him in an advertisement, for instance, as he steps down from the platform on one of his regular arrivals to the place.

 

2 Languages appear in snatches, fragments, mixed and messed up, yet these are languages in their realistic fragments

It is interesting to observe that some languages, such as French or Arabic languages, are rare in Eastern Europe in such visual exposure, but English words and phrases are glaring everywhere – in advertisements and on screens, on walls, vehicles and garments, on caps and bags. An academic may wonder what the use of such an exposure may be. This may not be a favourable environment for young children acquiring literacy, but it may be engaging to an interested adult. Relaxed attention, effort and noticing become productive subconsciously, while these factors are also methodologically motivated conditions highlighted in modern teaching.

 

3 The currency of the language in need satisfied, its improvement would require company or a machine.

If and when a teacher steps in, he will take along face-to-face exchanges and exercises. Rough individual immersion in the country of the language will train elementary reading and communication skills. Miracles don’t happen, though. Yet the focus, effort and memory work are never lost. At some point, the person will inevitably turn to reading printed texts. This would be a consecutive step because noticing inscriptions on the screens and walls is the very inception of reading.

Technology can well be exploited in this way of learning and modern learners need no advice on how easy and useful it is to choose a course online and login to it from time to time for a few minutes of aural-oral practice. Modern learners can and do exploit their mobile phones in learning and this is only a new form of the classic audio-visual method.

 

4 Whether in individual learning or with a teacher’s guidance the learner will end up reading:

Whether in individual practice or with a teacher’s participation, reading would be productive if short texts, such as proverbs, sayings, quotations and maxims, haikus, jokes and the shortest stories were chosen. The initial focus on such short texts makes reading a consecutive process taking one from texts in visual exposure to printed pages.

Alan Maley (1994) recommends, for instance, even twelve classroom procedures, (expansion, reduction, media transfer, matching, selection ranking, comparison/contrast, reconstruction and others), which can lead “from minimum input to maximum output” through an engagement with the shortest and longer texts by the students who are mature in their own language. 

John Povey (1984) warns not to get fixed on venerable classics. Modern stories are simpler to read, in which he guides mature learners educated in their own language. He recommends reading a story twice, quickly and, on familiarizing oneself with the vocabulary, a second time. Thinking of individual reactions, it is good to think of the cultural context depicted and of the identity of and identification with the characters, to think further by what means the reader identified the place, the characters, the conflict and culture. The teacher’s assistance is required at this level of reading, but it is beyond the practice of learning a language on the run. There is a difference between reading inscriptions around and reading for discussion, but reading is indispensable for fluency, general advancement and cultural awareness. Learning a language on the run was productive in second language learning and less successful in the case of a foreign language because the learner’s exterior exposure to the second language is greater. People with higher education and some familiarity with more than one language can also be more successful in this way of learning.

Learning a language on the run is not a study of language and literature for an MA degree, but this way of learning can open up an entry into a new language and develop its moderate skills. This way of learning can also be a test of the learner’s philological aptitude. Apart from familiarity with a language and its elementary skills, this way of learning may be considered as a task in projects and aptitude tests.  Thinking of the methodological placement of this way of learning a language, such methods as text-based approach, cumulative memorization of sets of sentences, borrowed from ’Orientalists’, Sir Richerd Burton, Thomas Prendergast and others,  and methods devised by individual practitioners (Thornbury, 2017, 101-113 ) would be the closest reference. The general methodological background may be sought in  any book on methods within the last one hundred years because methods depend on individual choices and preferences rather than on their official approval by institutions in individual learning of a new language. To be really supportive, a teacher who would take up his duty in learning a language on the run could gain from very new courses (Innovative teaching methods…, 2025; The humanistic teacher, 2025, and others) available from Pilgrims whose dedication to humanistic teaching is exactly what would be required in the practice described here.

Learning a language on the run may be productive given the learner’s interest, alertness and dedication as the basic conditions inherent in any learning and in the learner’s motivation. Raising the learner’s motivation is an ephemeral pursuit in modern classrooms while it is the incentive and a driving force in learning a language on the run. Insights from known methodologies and discipline in learning can shape this way of learning and may be productive, but it is the learner and his choices that are decisive in learning a language on the run. This is an entirely individual and independent language learning in need and simulated by interest.  It is also eclectic, but eclecticism is methodologically acceptable. 

 

References

Abbs, Brian (1968). Realistic English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Alexander, L.G. (1962). Target. An Audio-Visual English Course for Secondary Schools. London: Longman.

Innovative teaching methods…, 2025 – Innovative teaching methods through Drama and Improvisation. DOI: www.pilgrims.co.uk/teacher-training-courses/pilgrims-in-segovia - 13 January 2025.

Maley, Alan (1994). Short and Sweet. Short Texts and How to Use Them. Penguin Books.

Palmer, Harold E. (1917). Everyday Sentences in Spoken English. Cambridge: Heffer & Sons Ltd.

Povey, John (1984). Literature for Discussion. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

The humanistic teacher, 2025. DOI: www.pilgrims.co.uk/teacher-training-courses/pilgrims-in-segovia  - 13 January 2025.

Thornbury, Scott (2017). 30 Language Teaching Methods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Underwood, Mary (1971/1977). Listen To This! Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Please check the Pilgrims in Segovia Teacher Training courses 2025 at Pilgrims website.

Please check the Pilgrims f2f courses at Pilgrims website.