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CanadianLinguist’s FORCE Cycle | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6995 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 1 of 9 31 May 2015 at 5:06am | IP Logged |
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I found an interesting set of videos on YouTube by a Canadian Linguist.
One set of videos is on what he calls the FORCE Strategy for interacting with the target language community. Briefly, FORCE is an acronym that covers five steps in developing a specific spoken language proficiency. I'm one of those who doesn't speak much, but with inspiration from his videos, I decided to speak Spanish with a bilingual bank teller today and it was a pleasant experience. F is for Focus on some very specific task, like say, talking to the bank teller, ordering coffee, ordering food, whatever. O is for Organize - organize the material you will use. R is for Rehearse - practice the specific scenario, preparing yourself so that when the time comes, you will be at ease. C is for Communicate - rehearse out loud right up to the last minute. Do what you set out to do at the start with your target language target. E is for Evaluate - examine how it went right after your communication. He suggests using a paper and pen. There's a lot more detail in the videos. The CandadianLinguist is a teacher with a passion for language learning. He's an excellent communicator and his videos are well organized and worth watching. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6995 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 2 of 9 02 June 2015 at 1:54am | IP Logged |
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Keith Swayne's FORCE Cycle is a reflection of his social lingualism. He likes to speak with the people around him in their target language.
These are some things he talks about: Phase one is FOCUS - Select a feature of the language or some feature you want to focus on. Greetings, a conversation theme. He suggests focusing on things you will need soon and often. Some examples: Family Yourself as a language learner. Your work. Computers (if that's something that's part of your life). Your home country. Your mother tongue. Two kinds of focus: 1) Theme or a topic (family, work, etc). 2) A skill, such as ordering coffee, food... I'm going to learn how to ... It could be a "structural" focus, such as how to talk about the past, how to agree, how to give instructions, how to accept or refuse an invitation. Pick stuff that will be widely useful for you. It should be specific enough that you can build a "cycle" around it. Ten things I can say about our baby... I'm going to buy a hard drive in Chinese. I'm going to be able to introduce myself. It should be measurable, practical and achievable for you, something that is a part of your real life. Learn to talk about what you like to talk about in your mother tongue. You use this FOCUS phase to narrow your preparation to a specific activity. This makes you exercise some control over the conversation, to limit the focus to what you're prepared to do and to guide you during the conversation to stick to your practiced proficiency. You have to take responsibility for keeping the conversation going. a) Prepare - have something to say - be ready to engage. b) Be ready to listen. c) Feel secure that you can do what you set out to do. d) Learn those small words that keep a conversation going, like, "oh really", "oh cool", nod, thank people for speaking to you. Acknowledge they are speaking to you. Smile, pay attention, use all of your senses. Show that you are totally engaged. You will be showered in natural, real target language from a native speaker. Working your way through a series of FORCE cycles will build your proficiency and confidence. You will find yourself handling an increased number of situations. Later conversations may include things from earlier FORCE cycles as your repertoire expands. Short term goals are just what you have focused on in the FORCE cycle. Long term goals in the language may be the capability to have "thematic" conversations around various topics. One neat thing about the CanadianLinguist is he practices what he preaches. He gives some examples of how he uses this step. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6995 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 3 of 9 03 June 2015 at 3:01am | IP Logged |
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It came on me today that the FORCE cycle is something I can use to force me to speak Spanish (or French) when I normally wouldn't.
Phase Two is Organize - Collect vocabulary and phrases you are going to use in your FOCUS. Collecting vocabulary and phrases isn't learning. It's just a step. You want to get to spontaneity. You may not understand all the grammar you are going to use. You won't become bilingual by studying rules more intensively. Grammar is just a way to give names to patterns. He doesn't discourage learning grammar, but he doesn't want you to stress out about it. So how do you turn grammar rules into automaticity? You are gathering building blocks that you will be using. You have to speak to learn. You have to use the language to learn it. Grammar terms may be interesting, but in and of themselves, won't make you bilingual. Some teachers talk about active and passive phases. Keith suggests activating right from the start. Here, you will be activating the bit your are Focused on. You want to speak at a reasonable speed. You don't want to have to be analyzing rules in your head to speak. He also says memorizing vocabulary isn't enough. That's why the focus is on collecting and organizing the things you want to say on your topic. There may be some new vocabulary, but it is the vocabulary that is needed for your FOCUS. Phrases, rather than words is what you want. You want to say things how the target language speaker would say them. Simple phrases, simple words, that you can use at a normal speed and natural rhythm. Material can come from anywhere. Books, Courses, videos, Wikipedia, movies, etc. Pull phrases that make it sound like you know what you're talking about. Listen to others and hear what they say. You're goal is to speak the target language as a native speaker would say things, rather than as a translation directly from English. There is something special about writing by hand. Normally, he doesn't write much in normal life, but for language learning, he likes to write vocabulary, phrases, sentences, etc. Ask acquaintances how they would say what you want to say. Don't ask them to translate though. For instance, "tell me how you would shop for a guitar in Spanish". You want natural language samples. A dictionary could be helpful, in that it often has sample sentences. He doesn't limit your sources for your FOCUS. In your first attempts at a FORCE cycle, you may be doing mostly word-for-word phrases and sentences that you collected somewhere. You aren't expected to be creating sentences you've never heard before. Get the flow going. Start talking. Start using your target language. Later, you might look at the grammar to find out what you've been doing. As you progress, you will start recombining and being more spontaneous, but don't wait until you can speak spontaneously. Use the FORCE cycle so you can accomplish your small focus. E.G. I want to be able to go to the coffee shop and say "good morning", "how are you?", and order a cup of coffee. In later cycles, you will have more complex conversations, but don't start that way. You're entire conversation should be fairly short at first. There are no shortcuts to proficiency. You will master your new language in a very predictable way. You will learn simple things first. You will say, "hamburger please" at the novice level. If you get what you asked for, great. Later, you may give more directions about how the hamburger should be cooked, what you want to drink, etc. You will learn how to say simple things first. Learning container names is helpful. Cartons, boxes, ziplock bags, cups, glasses, etc. You will learn to say meat before you can say chicken, veal, filet mignon. You will say vegetables before you can name them all. Anticipate some things that could happen in the oonveraation so you can expect them and prepare responses. If you are going to ask how much something costs, you have to be prepared to hear numbers. Realize your not going to know everything you need. He gives the example of buying a guitar and not buying it on the first visit. Come back with further FORCE cycles and find out more about the guitar and music, etc. If you ask, "where is the bathroom?", you want to anticipate what directions you might get. Clear is better than clever. "close or far?" "this way or that way?" "upstairs or downstairs". Be intelligible, but you don't have to speak perfectly. You know we don't always use complete sentences in your mother tongue. This same concept is useful in language learning. Start out simple. Make lots of mistakes. Talk like Tarzan. It's alright to speak in short sentences, especially at the lower levels of proficiency. Communication is the key. Perfection is not. Engage with the target language community. Don't be afraid of mistakes. They will help you decide what your next FORCE cycle will focus on. Edited by luke on 03 June 2015 at 3:05am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4699 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 4 of 9 03 June 2015 at 10:21am | IP Logged |
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This looks very good for preparing for speech tasks. I think it fits in well with Boris Shekhtman's language island approach: use the FOCUS cycle in creating and evaluating your use of an island.
This is rather interesting in the light of that looong thread about vocabulary. I have a feeling Swayne would have been siding very strongly against the "cram 8k vocab" crowd. I was especially interested in the statement "Phrases, rather than words is what you want". If you want to get speaking right away, I think that phrases certainly have to be the focus. Someone said on that thread that phrases are the building block of language, not words, and I've heard linguists say that as well. We often think of language like words as bricks and grammar as mortar, but in reality people don't just stick words together. People speak in collections of set phrases, and variations of set phrases, that they themselves have heard over and over. Something like that is probably the inspiration for the substitution exercises in courses like FSI. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6995 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 5 of 9 04 June 2015 at 2:42am | IP Logged |
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The Third Phase in the Keith Swayne's FORCE Cycle is REHEARSE
Practice the material are going to use in the conversation you are Focused on. This should be a fairly small amount of material. It may be 5-6 sentences in a language where you have low proficiency, somewhat more if you are advanced. Make sure your pronunciation is good. If you have recordings, that will be helpful. Find useful tools. Keith found the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) useful. He studies a lot of language, and his proficiency is all over the place, depending on the language and the amount and frequency his life brings him into contact with the target language speakers. http://forvo.com/ has an iPhone app and a website that have words in your target language pronounced by native speakers. Listen to dialogues repeatedly. He listens many, many times, sometimes a hundred times or more. Many accomplished language students do the same thing. Really focus on what you listen to. Try to match the speaker as best you can. Trust your ears. Written texts aren't entirely reliable about how to pronounce things, even in phonetic languages like Spanish. He listens to things like Assimil many times before he goes to the written text. He feels that with enough listening, things will start to make sense. If you read a text without listening to a recording, you're accent may be thick. Reading is not a substitute for listening. He doesn't watch the news in English any more. He listens in French. If you have written material, read as accurately as possible. You want to practice material as close to correct as you can. Your eyes can help your speaking if you use them to look at a native speakers mouth. Sometimes it's good to exaggerate and boldly imitate what you hear. Why do you rehearse? It builds confidence. You know you have practiced. You can almost do it without thinking or hesitation. It's better to speak badly and keep it going than to speak with hesitation and full of ums and ahs. If you can keep talking, your listener will be more engaged. Speaking without errors is less important than to your ability to keep going. How long should you practice? Until you can say what you want to say at a relatively natural pace. With long words he hasn't seen before, he often starts the pronunciation from right to left (end of the word towards the beginning). These seems to help because you are focusing more on the syllables than the words. With Tagalog or Chinese, he has practice dozens and dozens of time before he tries to use it in a the next phase (COMMUNICATE). Your accent may not be perfect, but it should be understandable. You want to REHEARSE enough that you don't need a script when you get to the COMMUNICATE phase. Edited by luke on 05 June 2015 at 10:30am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6995 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 6 of 9 05 June 2015 at 10:16am | IP Logged |
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Phase 4 of the CanadianLinguist's FORCE Cycle for elevating speaking proficiency by speaking with native speakers in your target language is COMMUNICATE.
You may find the target language speakers you meet slow down when they speak to you. That's okay. You can become bilingual by speaking with people who know your target language better than you. Children learn by taking in the language around them. Yow want to do the same. In conversations, participate, don't monopolize. Create "artificial immersion". Make a mental map of where to find target language speakers, what part of town, or which part of the building they live in. There are lots and lots of multilingual people in the world today. You can be one too. Be prepared for people to give you compliments on your language. You need to know how to respond in your target language. E.G.: Vous parlez bien le francais. Vous trouvez ? Certain topics come up frequently, such as, you as a language student, or the target language in general. The CanadianLinguist hears and has conversations about the differences in French between France and Canada. Be realistic. Your goal is to communicate real meaning. E.G. to buy coffee, to buy a icket, to buy lunch, to find out about someone's family. It would be nice to get a dollar's worth of practice, but you'll probably get a penny's worth over and over and over again. That will add up over time. Take a little at a time. Don't be too hard on yourself. Set a small, short, easily achievable goal. Early on, this may be a few sentences. Later on, perhaps a fifteen minute conversation. You may use the FORCE cycle as, Focus, Organize, Rehearse, Communicate, Communicate, Communicate, Communicate, Communicate, Communicate, Evaluate. If you are learning to buy something, you may find it is useful in a variety of situatation. E.G., for buying different things. Be flexible. Circumlocution may lead your speaking partner to provide the word you are looking for. Avoid translating as much as possible. Use clarification in the target language instead. I'm sorry, what do you call those things? Also use confirmation when you learn a new word. Paraphrasing is helpful too. E.G.: If I understood you correctly, you said the doctor has given him something to help him walk. Yes, he gave my brother crutches. Crutches? Yes, Crutches Body language, gestures, and context are helpful. Guess what they are trying to say. Cut yourself some slack. Don't be too hard on yourself. If they respond in English, find polite ways to respond in the target language. E.G.: I'm sorry, my Punjabi isn't good, but maybe we can speak in Russian. (said with a smile) I don't speak Swahili yet. Let them know you want to speak their language in order to learn it. People are very understanding about that. With a big smile and warm voice: Your English is excellent and so advanced. I'd love to be able to speak German like you can speak English. Can we speak German? I'll buy your coffee. Focus on real conversations so your partner can enjoy it. They are not simply a walking dictionary. It gets better with time. If you have similar conversations over and over, you will improve. Be ready with what to say if you get lost in the conversation. E.G. I'm sorry, can you say that again, or in another way? Be warm. Laugh at your mistakes. Negotiate meaning. Ask for clarification. Don't abuse their time. Come up with graceful ways to end the conversation. You will always understand better than you speak. In your target language, the other person always has more interesting things to say. They may do most of the speaking. That's good too. Your mouth will start to say things you are hearing. This comes naturally, without thinking about the grammar. Stay comfortable, have fun, expect your progress to be gradual. Expand on things on you know. You will become comfortable with certain themes first, then related themes. Edited by luke on 05 June 2015 at 10:35am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6995 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 7 of 9 07 June 2015 at 12:49am | IP Logged |
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"Evaluate" is the final phase of the FORCE Cycle
Evaluation should be done with a paper and pen. Ask yourself questions. Here are some examples: Was your focus specific enough, or was it too broad? Was your speaking partner a good one for your focus? Nice location for talking? Was the Communication phase too long or too short? Did your partner drop over from boredom? Did you forget to ask their name or some other part of your FOCUS? Were there learning resources that would have helped? (thematic word list, for example). How much difficulty did you have? Did your partner have trouble understanding you? Did you rehearse enough? Did you properly anticipate their responses? Did you understand the responses? Did you understand a lot, or did you have to guess a lot? Did your partner give you any feedback? (e.g., you need more vocabulary) If your grammar is off, you will be forgiven, but if you lack vocabulary, people will think you don't speak their language. Was the cycle suitable to your level of proficiency? E.G. If you are advanced, you might be arguing politics and using the conditional. It's better if your partner and you can stay in the target language as much as possible. Did you manage misunderstandings effectively? Clarification, repetition, confirmation, paraphrasing - say it in another way, and guessing are all tools to manage misunderstandings. It's better to use these tools in your target language. Did your speaking partner have any feedback on what you need to work on? Evaluate your courtesy and friendliness. A little extra courtesy or politeness is better than being extra laid back. What would have been most helpful if you'd known it before? This can be useful for later FORCE cycles. If your focus is interesting to you, you'll follow through on it. If it's not, you won't. Are there any special cultural rules, for instance about eating, or speaking or gestures that you need to learn? Try to be recognized as a cultural insider, rather than a cultural outsider. Pay attention to how people in your target language behave in order to fit in better. Ask yourself what your next focus should be. How was your pronunciation? Could you be understood? It's better to speak clearly and focus more on pronunciation than you might in your native language. Did you get all the details of what your partner said? What activates a language course or new structure is communicating in real life with real people in your target language. Everything you are learning will become so much easier when you actually need to use it to communicate. This has been a short summary of the FORCE cycle. The videos themselves are a summary. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4448 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 9 11 June 2015 at 6:34pm | IP Logged |
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I came across his videos a couple of weeks ago too. I like his approach towards the different courses (Assimil, TY, Living Language, etc). Boris Shekhtman's language island was the first thing I thought of when I saw the FORCE videos.
I am using some of the island/focus approach and have been able to generate some very good conversations in the last few days. I was visiting with one person and talking to them about work and an upcoming trip. She commented how well I am speaking now. What she did not know is I had practiced the "Conversation" 5 times in my vehicle before I walked in to her business. But it did feel more relaxed and in turn I was able to listen to her vs listen to my internal voice questioning if I had said something earlier incorrectly. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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