Moving Beyond the Plateau - Essay

Jack C. Richards, in his booklet, from Intermediate to Advanced Levels in Language

Learning, Moving Beyond the Plateau, examines some of the tyical roblems
second!language learners and suggests strategies to hel learners overcome this
roblem. In addition, he exlains us ho" to hel learners "ith a better use, ractice and
comrehension of #nglish language, and also, he gives some strategies about. $ence, to
hel them "ith their language kno"ledge, is necessary to identify and recogni%e each
one of the follo"ing five very imortant features and exlore all about those.
&he first feature says, &here is a ga bet"een recetive and roductive cometence'. It
meaning that, learners should be able to understand more "ords than they can use. &heir
vocabulary learning is inside their minds but, they aren(t being able to roduce the
sentences and aly their language kno"ledge. $ence, they may eventually lose
confidence and determination, and their motivation to continue learning #nglish may be
affected. $o"ever, in this oint, Richards roosed some strategies to hel the learners
to ac)uire ne" forms from inut successful language ac)uisition, such as, Check off
from a list the exressions that occurred in the text', Identify differences bet"een "hat
they hear and a rinted version of the text' and more.
In the second feature, he seaks about *luency may have rogressed at the exense of
comlexity'. +o, learners need more comlexity language to be increase their
kno"ledge and also, ne" linguistic forms to ac)uired and added to their roductive
linguistic reertoire. &hereby, learners order the ne" "ords and linguistics items,
restructuring all the ne" information in their minds, as "ell as they can reorgani%e the
relation bet"een syntax, grammar or vocabulary ac)uired. &hus, learners increase their
abilities and fluency to roduce language, seak "ith better intonation and exress ideas
correctly, as "ell as they have oortunities to ractice more.
*ollo"ing "ith the third feature, Learners have a limited vocabulary range'. ,ne of
the most common roblems in learners is their oor vocabulary and the caacity to
remember ne" "ords. +o, "e need to hel learners imrove their vocabulary, moving
"ords from short!term to long!term memory' and reeating more fre)uently the ne"
"ords to remember easier these. Also, recommends the use of teaching strategies as use
of guided discovery, contextual guess"ork, mastering dictionary, and others. $o"ever,
vocabulary develoment does not only involve ac)uiring ne" "ords. It also involves
exanding kno"ledge of the grammar, syntax and collocational atterns that kno"n
"ords can enter into.
&he fourth feature is about, Language roduction may be ade)uate but often lacks the
characteristics of natural seech'. Although, learners looking for have a natural seech,
this is very difficult to them because to seak like as native seakers they need a
reertoire of thousands of routines, or chunks'. Learner can seak #nglish "ith
accurate and fluency but they do not al"ays sound natural, and here is "hen they need
more ractice using chunks, multi"ord units and conversational routines, observing
examles of natural discourse. $ence, language learners "ill be able to communicate
comrehensibly, effectively, and aroriately
In the last one feature Richards refers to, ersistent, fossili%ed language errors'. &hese
errors are very difficult to eradicate because language learners have these errors inside
and reeating the same all the time. -e can see this roblem in grammar and
ronunciation skills of learners and this ersist if "e do not hel them "ith some
strategies, as communicative classroom activities or rograms "here they "ill have an
extensive use of authentic communication. In addition, "e need to involve learners
becoming active monitors of their o"n language roduction, recogni%ing their kinds of
errors, and, ho" and "hen have to correct them, or noticing grammatical features of
inut or outut.
In conclusion, "e need to rovide learners a rich source of language learning
exeriences in seaking, listening, "riting and reading, also, exand their grammatical
cometence, including ac)uiring ne" "ays of using kno"n forms. &hus, these
exeriences going to roduce gradual develoment of language learner(s skills and they
"ill be able to correct errors as a monitors of their o"n learning. &herefore, learners
"ill be able to recogni%e ho" they can move since their current level of language ability
to more advanced learning lateau.
References
Jack C. Richards, Moving Beyond the Plateau', From Intermediate to Advanced
Levels in Language Learning.
Karen Brown
Pedagoga en Ingls - ! a"o
#an $ernando