What Is Automatic Language Growth?
We have already introduced Automatic Language Growth or ALG in our article How to Learn Languages Like Children and we believe, through the reactions and comments we have received from the public that we have only skimmed the surface about the program.
What is ALG? ALG or Automatic Language Growth was developed by Dr. J, Marvin Brown, an American linguist who 
based his theory on a much earlier theory called the Silent Way which was later called the Natural Way. The common ground between Dr. Brown’s theory and the older theory is that they are based in listening and that they started by observing the way children learn a language. Dr. Brown has noticed that when learning a language, children tend to focus on listening and often do not speak the language for up to a year while adults tend to force themselves to speak the language immediately.
There are three myths that ALG wants to dispute: 1, adults can’t learn languages like children do; 2, practice makes perfect; and 3, languages must be studied.
- Adults can’t learn languages like children do. There are studies that say that as children grow older, they lose the ability to learn languages easily and that once children grow up into adults they will have a hard time acquiring new languages. With ALG, they believe that adults have already gained the ability to reason, to translate, to analyze and to memorize and they use these abilities as their primary conscious method of learning. Children are more open to new things and don’t “fight against” what is being exposed to them. The unconscious mind does better in learning languages and if adults just let the natural process take its course, the process of analysis will come later on.
- Practice makes perfect. Maybe almost every adult will agree with this statement however, ALG, believes that children do not practice their language! Children either know what they want to say and say it right away or that they don’t know what they want to say and just keep quiet. Young children tend to mimicry with physiological development but as they learn a second language, mimicry is largely absent. Children “know” when to speak or not speak based on their experiences in the language they are learning. Comparing the practice that adults do, they still can’t match the language abilities of children!
- Language must be “studied”. If it is obvious that adults “study” foreign languages, children do not study them but learn them through the natural way. Children live, look, listen and learn; they gather up experiences and simply try to understand what’s going on around them. ALG believes that whatever your age or language is, if there are understandable things happening around you, you learn. Language develops automatically and naturally in an understandable environment.
There was a lot of criticism to the ALG method in our previous article, such as one made by, Rosemary Lyndall Wemm said that “children learn language from parents, care-takers, school teachers and other children, all of whom interact with the child. The child is expected to respond in some way, even if this is just to nod, stand up, sit down or take out their books. They follow the lead of other children and note the supporting gesticulations and facial expressions of the person talking to them. It is all very action orientated.”
There were many readers that emphasized and agreed that babies try to talk, when learning languages, while other readers agreed that the method could be helpful when learning new languages.
The automatic language growth method was developed around the 80’s, and it has gone through a lot of modifications and improvements up until now. David Long, the head of the Thai language program at AUA Ratchadamri in Thailand studied under Dr. Brown. He stated that experience is the best teacher and that to learn something; we have to have meaningful and transportable experience.
The ALG program believes that something taught through experience is infinitely better remembered than something taught through school. Homework, tests, and dialogues are absent in the ALG program since they are all school concepts not life concepts. The program creates experience through teacher-student interactions where teachers stand at the front of the classroom, acting out stories. The teachers speak to the students so that they can be exposed only to the perfect model. If the students were permitted to speak the language even if they are not fluent yet, they and the other students will be hearing an improper model.
Hearing a word once or twice will not help a language learner to pronounce it correctly that is why ALG promotes hearing words in context and in memorable and meaningful ways many times. Children learn the words they need when they are ready to learn them and with ALG, adults learn the same way, the learner will decide when he or she learns something.
The ALG programs require thousands of hours (two thousand hours for Thai programs) before students are allowed to speak and reason with the language. This is one of the reasons why some people are skeptical about the program—it consumes quite some time. David Long was asked why are some people resistant to a method that requires them to listen without speaking, and he answered that there are pride issues involved. People want to speak and get positive reinforcement right away that is why they tend to be skeptical of the program.
ALG puts emphasis on input (through listening) and not on speech, and on understandable experiences. These methods may reduce student anxiety to zero however, the downside pointed out by most who doubt this program is the period of time to be spent on the program. Persons who are not patient to learn through ALG will definitely have a hard time however; those who can stand the test of time will most probably gain excellent results!
Sources:
http://www.algworld.com/common_myths.php
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/7910
May 18th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Excellent post. I have not doubted that the adult brain can always be retrained to learn almost anything new when the mind is directed to focus. My mum is now 80 years old; she raised 3 kids (us) not knowing any English or Hokkien. Now she is speaking to her grandkids in English. Her practice comes from having lots of contact with us, who speak and communicate a lot in English at home.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
@Annie – thank you for the comment, I’m glad you liked the article.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Thank you for this primer on the Natural Approach, Dr. Brown, and the need for an estimated 2,000 hours of listening before one picks up the flow and intonation of English.
Balance, as ever, remains essential here. I share the belief that listening to authentic discourse remains vital and adults learn best with words that reflect their experiences and perceptions. Yet millions of adult English language learners have also learned to speak English – learning by doing and direct instruction – with less than 2,000 hours of input – and often must begin to immediately speak in a new country or classroom. Let’s avoid dogmatic, one size fits all claims. Research has consistently shown that a wide variety of approaches do work – and different approaches offer different advantages. The vast , vast majority of English language learners want to speak English far quicker than Dr. Brown advocates because they want to share their experiences and must work.
Personally, I encourage adult students to speak what they can when they can as soon as they can. The goal is not to teach students to passively obey orders, but to speak and think for themselves in a new language as they join the global English speaking community.
May 25th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I’ve been looking a long time for a blog like this one, and now the questions needed answering have been dealt with. great!
September 28th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
[...] This is a very interesting method that might help you at the beginning of the language learning process. If you would like to read more about this method, read more on Automatic Language Growth. [...]