See Slow-release erammar Scott Thornbury explores emergent language. creer Ce speech = 7 Sela) i [he Serbian-born poet Charles imie recalled his Grst ‘experiences as a non-English speaker in New York with these words “The astonishment and embarrassment of speaking and not being able 10 communicate are deeply humbling. Every day in America, I realized, Iwould have afresh opportunity 10 make a complete fool of myself. Quickly, earned t0 keep ‘my mouth shut except when absolutely necessary. In the meantime, I read the ‘movie marquees, Tried to foliow the TV and radio programs, In secrecy I repeated words and phrases I overkeand: Her, smart aleck! Crackerjack. Okeydokey. Chase butterflies. Hogwash, Hold the hone. Go 10 the dogs ‘These strategies served him in good stead, it appears Simic weat on to ‘become an acclaimed poet, writing ‘uently and expressively in English, and ‘becoming the Ith poet laureate of the United States. ‘The strategy of avoiding communication while atthe same time building up a stock of useful phrases well attested in the iterarure oa naturalistic (je non-classroom-based) second language acquisition. It is not always as successful as in the case of Simic. Many leamers never graduate beyond the stage of simply stringing 'memorised phrases together, while displaying litle or no ability to deploy an evolving grammatical system in order to create navel utterances. Children are quite different, Whether (2. enue 61 March 2000 + ENGLISH TERCHING professional + wurotprotessional.com + Jearning ther first ora second language, children very quickly amass a battery of phrasal chuaks, especially those that have an obvious pragmatic function, such as go any; i's my tun; see you tomorrow; you shut up. Foreulaic Tanguage of this type not only speeds up the processes of speech production (i's cesierto join chunks together than to generate novel utterances from seratch), ‘but it also marks you out as a member of the group. And, significantly there is evidence to suggest that a lot of this ormulaic language i subsequently segmented into its components, which are in turn re-combined to forms novel utterances. That is to say, out of “the slimy mud! of phraseology, the child’ grammar emerges. Emergence in nature ‘The notion of emergence is a relative newcomer to the study of language acquisition. Inthe natural sciences, ‘emergence describes the phenomenon ‘whereby certain natural systems exhibit behaviours that are more than the sum of ther parts, such that, as John Holland | puts it, ‘a small muber of rules or laws can generate systems of surprising complexity’. A system is said to have‘emergent properties when it displays complexity ata global level that is not specified at a local level. For example, the capacity of an ant colony to react in unison to a threat, or a flock of birds to swoop as if it were a single organism, is the aggregate effect of relatively simple interactions between individual members ‘that are not co-ordinated in any centralised way: As Holland says, "Somehow the simple lavs of the agents generate an emergent behaviour far beyond their individual capacities” Because there js no ‘central executive’ determining the ‘emergent organisation of the system, the patterns and regularities that result have been characterised 2s onder for free. In Roger Lewin’ words, 4 fundamental property of complex adaptive systems is ‘the counterintuitive crystallisation of corder = ander for free” Emergence in language Some applied linguists ~ notably Diane Larsen-Preeman, Lyan Cameron and Nick Els ~ have found some suggestive parallels between language and other Complex systems, both inthe way that languages evolve overtime, and inthe sway that language develops in an individual. ey feature that language shares with other complex systems is that it exhibits emergent properties. As Diane Larsen-Freeman expresses i, “Language i not sed. but is rather a dynanic system Language evolves and changes [lt grows and organises tae {from th bortom up nan organi way, as do other complex systems “The prooeses by which language “grows and organises ite” are thought ¢o be process that rather than being Jnnguagespeite~are basic to human cognition and hence to al leasing. One of thesis our capacity to detect and remember fequent-oceuring Sequences in the sensory data we are exposed to. In language terms, thee Sequences typically take the form of ‘hans alto know as formulaic expressions or lexical phrase). Another Snmate capability is the capacity to ‘pack the relates within these eh, and to se these patterns as templates for the later development of a mote systematic grammar. As Nick Ellis puts it, ‘The acquisition of grammar is the piecemeal earning of many thousands of consimaction and the JSrequeney-bised abstraction of regulars within thm Tsasif he ‘chunks ~ memorised initially as tunanalysed wholes - slowly ‘release’ their internal structure like slow-release pain-killes release aspirin. Language emerges as ‘grammar for fre’ Emergence in learning Somewhat independently of these developmen in pycholinguistic comps linguist have been coming 10 Similar concusions Michasl Hoey, for xampis has looked at corpus evidence and noted how particular words and chunks reoccur in the same patteros “These pattems include collocitions, such as good morting: good elean fun: on @ good day fed phrases, sich as one good turn deserves another; the good. ‘the bad and the ugly; and the word's associated grammatical patterns (its colligations), asin t's no good + -ing. Hoey argues that, through repeated use tnd association, words are ‘primed’ to ‘occur in predictable combinations and contexts He concludes that ‘wha we think of as grammar the product of the accumulation of all the lexi! primings ofan inva’ etme. As we collect and associate collocational priings, ne create semante associations and colligaions.. These nest and combine land give rise fo an neomplete, inconsistent and leaky, but nererteless workable, grammatical system” This at least, is what sem to happen in first language acquisition, or when a second language is acquired stan early age, The fact that young children are cocooned in a relatively stable and narrowly delimited social environment, which they unabashedly attemp to manipulate for their own selish purposes, and in which they jointly engage in many kinds of highly contextualised and riualised activites, makes childhood an ideal time for appropriating and trying (out forma language. ‘Adult learners on the other ban, show greater variability in their capaci ‘ erurss.etprofessionat.com + ENGLISH TEACKING professional «eve 61 March 2008+ 5 5 SGOT TTT board, and to re-analyse them for the ‘grammatical information that they encapsulate. The failure to construct a ‘mental ‘phrase book’ has a negative effect both on fluency and on idiomatciy, ‘One possible reason for the relatively poor tate of chunk acquisition in older earners compared to childven is that . Iiterate adults are more disposed to i think of language 2s being composed of k I th ote meh L | individual words and of sentences, thereby underexploiting the functionality of phraseology. This ‘phrase-myopia" may also be exacerbated by teaching ‘materials and methods, which tend to separate vocabulary and grammar into two independent categories, and consign phraseology to an indeterminate no- rman'sland in between, Emergence in the classroom More significantly, in classroom situations adults rarely use language for authentic social purposes Yet a great deal of the formulaic language that native speakers have at their disposal is socially-morivated: tis used both 0 influence the behaviour of others, and to ‘earn acceptance by others as members of their group. Adult learners in classroom situation, on the other han, have few, if any, social needs thatthe eissroom can be expected to satis. According to Alison Wray, ‘Classroom ieamners are rarely aining to communicate a gemtine message with a beneficial outcome to ‘heir physical, inellectual or emotional state, 50 there isn drive to use formulaic Sequences for manipulative purposes: ‘And even when adult learners do internalse chunks of language, they are often incapable of unpacking the ‘grammar latent within them. This may partly be due to the fact that many chunks, aswell as being highly idiomatic, are not infact grammatical at all, by normal standards Expresions Ike f Twere you: you'd better not by ‘and larg; come what may, ee, yield little oF no generalisable grammar. Buta more significant block to phrase re- analysis may simply be a failure in noticing: if you don't seit, you won't lear it In the opinion of Nick Elis ‘e {allure of noticing must clearly Be one ‘cause of eases in which, despite kigh : frequency in the input, second language 3 learners fal o acquire a particular pattern or feature: eeSlow-release grammar Finally and importantly, the much reduced input and opportunities for practice available to most learners mean ‘that —for a system whose emergence depends primarily on usage ~ progress, if any, wll be siow Emergence in the syllabus If the productive potential of formulaic language is to be optimised, then, at Jeast four conditions need to prevail © Exposure ~10 a rich diet of formulaic language © Focus on form 0 promote noticing and pattern extraction, © A positive social dymamie~t0 ‘encourage pragmatic and interpersonal language use © Opportunites for use ~ to increase automaticity, and to stimulate storage in long-term memory, and rece. Exposure toa rich diot of chunks assumes that learners have aooess 10 plenty of authentic texts, and that ‘classroom time is programmed (0 ‘explore them. This is more likely to happen if phraseology occupies its own place in the curriculum, with its own freestanding syllabus, What would a ‘phrase syllabus" consist of, and how would it be organised? Obviously, factors like frequency and usefulness would be important criteria, although the frequency of a sequence in a corpus is nota reliable guide to its perceived status as a learnable chunk. Nevertheless, the criteria of frequeney and usefulness suggest some kind of notional or situational organisation, not unlike a traditional phrasebook. Given the interpersonal funetion that many ‘chunks have, a functional organisation, using categories lke getting things done, ‘obtaining service, managing @ ‘conversation, would also be helpful. On the other hand, if learners are going to be able to infer productive patterns from chunks, some kind of structural organisation would also be desirable, ‘That i all the chunks containing a sequence like have you Beon (See box below) or inthe {noun of could be ‘grouped together. hhow long have you been 2.4) hhave you bean able to # (1.8) have you been in (0.8) have you been to # (08) how pave you been (0.7) were have you bean 0.7) ‘what have you been doing (0.6) ‘what have you been up to (0.2) ‘Chunks with have you been: frequency per million words in spoken English Source: Corpus of Contemporary ‘American Engish (COCA) How do you say ..? How do you say ..? What do you mean, ‘How do you say?" How do you say ¥en sé”? 4 n't know! | don't know! How do you say ..? How do you say 2 nat do you mean, How do you say"? How do you say “.Come se dee 7°? How do you say? How do you say? How do you say ..? How do you say 2 What co you mean, “How do you say?"? ‘How do you say 'zQué quieres deci?” ‘What do you moan? What ao you mean? A jazz chant for Spanish-speaking learners of English, embodying ‘number of formulaic expressions, A focus on the form of chunks, with 4 View to unlocking their generalisable ‘grammar, can be engineered in many of the ways that teachers customarily employ when dealing with traditional syntax. These include: classifying and matching, labelling (of word classes), substitution (of elements within the chunk), re-ordering, and cross-lingustie ‘comparison. Even techniques such as pattern-practice drills and substitution lables might usefully be disinterred in order to draw attention to the formulaic nature of many chunks. Michael Lewis's book implementing the Lexical Approach is 4 good source of activity types for dealing with chuaks and collocations Creating a classroom dynamic in whieh learners use language interpersonally as much as referentially assumes that learners identify with, and fully participate in, the classroom enlture. A basic precondition for such a ‘culture is one where the quality of communication is high, where in ‘Herbert Puchta and Michael Schratz’s terms) ‘the participants are being both Frank and considerate, independent yet cooperative, and are speaking wilingly and comprohenstly to particular listeners about things that mater to them bot. Finally, an approach that offers plentiful ‘opportunities for use is also one where authentic communication is both valued and prioritised, But authenticity need not be the only criterion for the kind of practice that triggers emergent language processes, Mention has already been. ‘made of pattern-practice drills; other 6G + exuo 61 March 2100 « ENGLISA TEACHING professional + weneistprofesstonatoom + more playful language activites, such as chants (see box above) and recitation, drama and roleplay, poetry and hi hhop, may serve equally well as a context for exploring the productive power of chunks, and unlocking their generative potential. GD Elis, W"Retlections on reoueney effects In language processing’ Studies in ‘Second Language Acquistion 22) 2002 Elis, N ‘Constructions, chunking an ‘onpeetionism in Doughty, C and Long, 1M ds) The Handbook of Secon Language Acquistion Blackwel 2008, Hoey, M Lexical Priming Routledge 2008 Holand, J Emergence: From Chaos to (rer CUP 2000 Larsen-Freeman, D ‘The emergence of complexity, tuency, and accuracy in the ‘oral and writen production of fv (Chinese learners of English’ Aoi Linguistics 278) 2008 Lewin, Compleniy: Life on the edge of chacs Prcenix 1996 Lewis, Mmplementing the Lexical ‘Approach LTP 1997 Simic, C ‘Refugees! In Aciman, A Ee) Letters of Trani: Reections on exile, ‘dent, language, an loss The New Press 1999, ‘hay, A Formula Language and the Leecon CUP 2002 Scott Mombuay teaches ‘onan one MA TESOL chook, New York He Iniost Books Texching Unplugged: Boome in Engen Languoge Taaohing, ce-asthored wits Lake Menge an published by DELIA Pebthing. ‘soot thersburyegralicom