When reading or listening in our L1 we do not understand the meaning
of an utterance or a text just by understanding the meaning of its words.
In fact we do not understand the text at all but rather our mental representation
of it. For this representation to become meaningful and memorable we need
to make use of all the resources of our mind. We need at least to:
- achieve sensory and affective experience of the text;
- connect the text to our previous experiences of language and of life;
- fill in the gaps in the text to achieve our own continuity and completion;
- relate the text to our own interests, views and needs.
In other words we need to achieve multi-dimensional representation of
the text in order for us to give it meaning and for it to achieve a durable
impression on our minds (Masuhara, 1998, 2000).
If this is true in the L1, it is even more important when listening or
reading in the L2. In order to interact effectively with the speaker or
the writer (and to utilise the opportunity for language acquisition), we
need not only to decode the words but to represent them through sensory
imagery, inner speech and affective responses in our minds.
The role of multi-dimensional representation is just as important in
language production. Prior to, during, and immediately after speaking or
writing, we represent mentally what we want to say publicly through a combination
of sensory images, inner speech and affective impulses. The words we then
use are a means of trying to represent to others what is in our minds.
A multi-dimensional approach aims to help learners to develop the ability
to produce and process an L2 by using their mental resources in ways similar
to those they use when communicating in their L1. Doing so not only helps
learners to maximise their brain's potential for communicating in an L2
but it also maximises their brain's potential for learning. We seem to learn
things "best when we see things as part of a recognised pattern, when
our imaginations are aroused, when we make natural associations between
one idea and another, and when the information appeals to our senses."
(Berman, 1999, p. 2). In other words, using affect, mental imagery, and
inner speech is not only what we do during language use but also what we
do to learn.
The Principles of a Multi-Dimensional Approach
My Multi-Dimensional Approach is based on the following principles of
learning and communication.
Affect is the key to understanding and to learning. An "experience
with a powerful attachment to emotions or feelings is more likely to be
retained in the long-term memory" (Berman, 1999, p. 4), and so is an
experience which we have positive attitudes towards and which helps to raise
our self-esteem. Such experiences are likely to be more meaningful and more
fully understood than experiences in which affect is not involved. Affective
appeal is therefore a pre-requisite for effective communication and for
durable learning to take place.
Making connections between a new experience and previous experiences
is necessary both for communication and for learning to take place. Such
connections are made by firing neural paths in the brain and are stimulated
by sensory, motor, cognitive and affective associations.
Relevance is a key factor in the gaining and paying of attention and
in contributing to the deep processing which is essential for long term
learning to take place. Relevance is achieved through the stimulus of affective
responses and the making of multiple and salient connections.
Sensory imaging plays a vital role in the creation and understanding
of language use and is instrumental in the making of connections and the
achievement of relevance. During language use in the L1 we touch, smell,
hear and, above all, see things in our minds. If we do not experience such
images whilst learning an L2, our learning will be impoverished and our
ability to understand and produce the language will be impaired (Sadoski
and Paivio, 1994; Tomlinson, 1998a).
The inner voice is used in the L1 to prepare for and to interpret outer
voice communication. Developing an L2 inner voice not only helps learners
to understand and to make themselves understood but it helps them to make
the connections and to achieve the relevance which are crucial for learning
to take place (Tomlinson, 2000a, 2000b).
Paying attention to language use helps learners develop language awareness
and users of a language to achieve effect. This is particularly so if they
have been engaged affectively and have managed to achieve connection and
relevance.
The Objectives of a Multi-Dimensional Approach
My Multi-Dimensional Approach aims to help learners to
- make full use of their mental resources in the process of learning
to use an L2. - learn an L2 in both experiential and studial ways.
- learn an L2 by utilising the same mental processes as they use when
communicating in their L1. - develop the ability to make full use of multi-dimensional representation
when understanding or producing the L2. - become accurate, fluent, appropriate and effective users of the L2.
Some of the Procedures of a Multi-Dimensional Approach
Engaging Affect -- The three aspects of affect (i.e. emotional
involvement, positive attitudes towards the learning experience, and self-esteem)
can be engaged by
- encouraging learners to remember and recount relevant emotive experiences
in their lives prior to or after participation in an activity. - encouraging learners to think about and articulate their views about
a relevant issue prior to or after participation in an activity. - providing reading and listening experiences which have the potential
for involving the learners emotionally. "It is emotions, not logic,
that drive our attention, meaning-making and memory. This suggests the
importance of eliciting curiosity, suspense, humour, excitement, joy and
laughter. Story telling can provide an ideal means of achieving this"
(Berman, 1999, p. 2). - encouraging learners to express their views, attitudes, opinions and
emotions in writing and speaking activities. - creating an environment in which learning is a stimulating, enjoyable
and successful experience (by, for example, avoiding activities which are
mechanical, bland, trivial, or designed to trap, and by using activities
which start from what the learners understand and then help them to deepen
their understanding) . - providing activities which offer an achievable challenge.
- catering for differing preferred learning styles by providing a varied
choice of activities.
See Arnold (1999) and Tomlinson (1998c, 1999) for other suggestions.
Imaging
An "overwhelming amount of empirical evidence seems to show that
imagery is a remarkably effective mediator of cognitive performance, ranging
from short-term memory to creativity." (Kaufman, 1996, p. 77). It is
also a means of stimulating and responding to affect, of connecting with
prior experience, of predicting the development of a text, of achieving
mental representation and of "accessing the right side of the brain,
where creativity, intuition, spontaneity, and even healing capacities are
said to reside." (Berman, 1999:3)
Learners can be encouraged to create mental images through
- imaging activities in which the teacher guides the learners to see,
smell, hear or touch things in their minds. - imaging instructions for language activities (e.g. "As you read
the article try to imagine what the Maldives look like now and what they
might look like if the seas continue to rise."; "Try to see your
ideal house in your mind. Then describe what it looks like to your partner."). - activities which involve imaging as an initiating move (e.g. drawing
what happens in a story, miming the actions in a story you are listening
to, following a recipe, following instructions in order to play a new game).
See Tomlinson (1998a) for other suggestions.
Using the Inner Voice
Knowledge of a language is the ability to use that language; and the
primary use of language is in thought. Knowing a language is being able
to think in it. Learning an outer language involves the incorporation of
that language into one's inner language. (Harman, 1981, p. 38)
On many language courses learners never really develop an inner voice
in the L2 because they are constantly being urged to produce in the outer
voice, because they are rarely given the time or the incentive to think
in the L2, because many of the activities they take part in require little
mental preparation or response, and because they often focus all their processing
energy on perfecting their utterances in their outer voice.
Learners can be helped to develop an L2 inner voice by
- postponing language production activities until the learners have had
the opportunity to start to develop an inner voice through comprehension
activities which require mental and physical responses. - providing activities which require learners to talk to themselves before
talking to others. - providing activities which require learners to talk to themselves whilst
listening or reading. - encouraging learners to talk to themselves in the L2 for "homework."
See Tomlinson 2000a and 2000b for other suggestions.
Kinesthetic Activities -- Early stages of my Multi-Dimensional
Approach use Total Physical Response (TPR) to provide learners with meaningful
experience of the language in use. The learners follow spoken instructions
to perform actions, play games, mime stories, make models, make meals etc.
That way they do not have to worry about producing correct language before
they are ready and they begin the process of multi-dimensional representation
as they represent the instructions in their minds before trying to carry
them out.
Once the learners are ready to start producing language in the L2, TPR
Plus activities are introduced in which the first phase of some lessons
consists of a physical response activity, and the subsequent activities
build on from it. Thus, a lesson might start with the miming of the first
scene in a story from the teacher's reading of it. Then the learners might
develop their second scene and write or act it. And finally the learners
might read the story.
See Asher 1994 and Tomlinson 1994b for other suggestions.
Connection Activities
These are simply (but usefully) activities which ask students to think
of connections between a topic, theme or text and their own direct and vicarious
experience of life. They can be done as pre-, whilst- or post-reading/listening
activities and can be private mental activities or pair or group discussions.
Process Activities
Instead of being given a text to read or listen to carefully in order
to answer questions on it, the learners are helped to create a version of
the text themselves. Some of the procedures which can help them are:
- Shouting out the next word when the teacher stops whilst reading a
story. - Writing the next word of a text as the teacher builds it up word by
word on the board or OHP. - Filling in blanks in a text by choosing from a number of acceptable
alternatives. - Writing a text as a dictation and then writing the next line in a group
whenever the reader stops. - Reading a story page by page and drawing a picture to illustrate their
predictions for each next page. - Miming a scene from a text as the teacher reads it and then in groups
preparing and miming the next scene.
All the activities above are designed to activate the minds of the learners
and to ensure that their eventual experience of the original text will be
multi-dimensional rather than decoding focused.
Inferencing Activities -- These are activities in which learners are
presented with a gap which has been left by a writer or speaker for the
receiver(s) to fill in. The gap can initially be filled in through sensory
imaging and inner speech and then articulated through discussion or writing.
Awareness Activities -- These are activities in which learners
are helped to experience a text through multi-dimensional representation
and are then asked to discover things about how the language has been used
to achieve accuracy, appropriacy or effect. Such activities can involve
investigating features of grammar, vocabulary, pragmatics, discourse, style,
genre or text type. These are cognitive, studial activities but they succeed
best if they have been preceded by activities which stimulate affective,
experiential responses to the text.
See Tomlinson (1994a) for a discussion and an example of this approach.
Conclusion
A multi-dimensional approach does not need any special materials or techniques.
It can be used very effectively by collecting a bank of potentially engaging
reading and listening materials (perhaps selected from a coursebook) and
then designing activities which involve multi-dimensional responses to them.
The following flexible framework has been used to develop a principled and
connected series of multi-dimensional responses to a text:
- Readiness Activities (i.e. imaging, inner speech and connection activities
aiming at activating the mind in readiness for experiencing the text). - Experiential Activities (i.e. experiencing the text through visualising,
inner speech, affective associations etc. - Intake Response Activities (i.e. expressing affective responses to
what has been taken in from the text; sharing mental representations with
other learners). - Development Activities (i.e. language production activities which use
the text as a base -- and thus also deepen understanding of it). - Input Response Activities (i.e. interpreting the intentions of the
speaker/writer). - Awareness Activities (i.e. making discoveries about salient linguistic,
pragmatic or stylistic features of the text).
For other discussions of aspects of a multi-dimensional approach see
Masuhara, 2000; Tomlinson, 2000c, in press.
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