What do we know about individuals who reach near-native levels in a foreign language?

 

Achieving Native-Like Second Language Proficiency (Speaking) by Betty Lou Leaver is a research-based catalogue of factors that would seem to predict ability to reach the highest level of foreign language proficiency and is based on common characteristics shared by more than 200 near-native speakers, identified by self-report, survey, and interviews by master testers.

Some surprises in the data arose when the researchers compared how successful learners approached one language differently from another. This was the case not only with different learners but also the same learner studying different languages. The brought into question the one-size-fits-all teaching methodology that tends to be bandied about today, particularly at low levels of proficiency.

Taking Russian for example, the data provided by the Level 4 language users showed that students studying Russian differed in very specific ways from those studying English or Romance languages, i.e. as Russian professors often argue, learning Russian is different from learning non-Slavic languages. The differences were demographic, motivational, and strategic.

Demographic 

The average Russian student who ultimately attained near-native skills in the language began his or her study of Russian at age 10. However, Russian was rarely the first language studied by the learner. Many had studied two, three, four, or more languages prior to beginning Russian.

 Another demographic difference was in the venue of study. Students of languages other than Russian, pointed to their foreign degrees as a major contributing factor to their reaching Level 4 proficiency. Russian learners, on the other hand and for the most part, did not have the opportunity in the past (this has now changed somewhat and is continuing to change as Russia itself changes and the relationships between Russia and the West change) to enroll in Russian schools and universities alongside their foreign peers. Instead, they found alternatives at home and in study-abroad programs. Half of the Russian-speaking respondents had participated in study-abroad programs. None of the learners of other languages had participated in study-abroad programs but, instead, had enrolled in foreign schools.

Both the Russian and non-Russian groups had experience in a related area—working abroad. Again, however, the Russian and non-Russian groups had differing amounts of and access to working experiences abroad. Specifically, 79% of the non-Russian group were able to find work positions in countries where their language of study was spoken, whereas only 67% of the Russian students were able to or chose to do the same. (Of course, this difference may disappear with the current international changes and changes in Russian society and rules and regulations.)

Travel abroad can sometimes take the place of working and studying abroad—albeit teachers, probably quite rightly, would argue that travel can never take the place of studying or working. It was likely the restricted access to Russian institutions and places of work that resulted in 69% of the students of Russian (as opposed to 43% of the non-Russians) stating that they had traveled abroad as tourists in the hopes of experiencing some linguistic authenticity.

Motivation

Motivational factors turned out to be quite a surprise to the interviewers—not at all validating the original hypotheses of that part of the study. First, Russian learners were exceptionally instrumentally motivated in comparison to their peers in other foreign languages. Second, Russian students were also more apt to report multiple motivations than were other students. Third, a number of interviewees who grew up during the coldest days of the Cold War were wary of identifying with representatives of the Russian culture.

Learning Strategy

Russian students preferred somewhat different instruction than did their peers in other foreign languages. For example, although all language learners considered direct instruction to be essential in early foreign-language study, as well as important at the 3+/4 threshold (75% of all interviewees and 72% of Russian speakers), there were significant differences between what kinds of activities the Russian students wanted and those that other students wanted (see Chapter 7 for more details about direct instruction). The kinds of instruction that the Russian students requested reflected strong ectenic/analytic traits, i.e. the need for details, comfort with decontextualization, and the like.

One might argue that these preferences are the result of teaching practices and textbook orientations. That is, however, not the case. There are a great many communicative language courses in Russian, a number of teachers who use Total Physical Response, and even students who acquire their initial language in-country and not in the classroom. Nonetheless, the tendencies were to want a more structured approach to language learning.

One might argue that these preferences are a result of the kind of student who elects to study Russian. That could be the case. Without some specifically targeted demographic research, it is difficult to argue that Russian students are just like all other students. In reality, they probably are not. Those of us who have advised freshmen and sophomores know, at least subjectively, that linguistically stronger students are more likely to be interested in Russian. Students who have a poor handle on their own language, little linguistic understanding, and limited intrinsic motivation (in the form of a love of languages) tend not to take the languages that are generally through to be more “difficult.”

(We will report on other characteristics in future Thursday blog posts.)

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MSI Press publishes the only journal dedicated to the topic of teaching and learning to near-native levels of foreign language proficiency: the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies (JDLS). 

We have available for individual purchase each of the feature articles from issue 8 of the JDLS at a very accessible price and will make the feature articles available from other issues as time goes on. Check our webstore to see what we have at any given time. We will announce and link each of these individually in upcoming blog posts.

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Amazon is selling issues 7 and 8.

For more posts about the JDLS, click HERE.

For more posts about near-native language acquisition, click HERE.

If you have a post to contribute to the Thursday high-level-language-proficiency topic, we would love to see it. Please send it to editor@msipress.com.

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