Teaching language to non-verbal populations

If you’re reading this in a country whose dominant language is English, let me ask a questions: when you were learning English, did you like your English classes? I didn’t. They weren’t effective. They all presumed that there is one way in which a human brain learns language. This comes largely from Chomsky’s language acquisition device and his suggestion at a “universal grammar.” The problem is, if you look at the underlying research that has gone into this line of inquiry, there’s one glaring omission. They don’t include non-verbal populations in their studies. So, can we really say that there is a “universal grammar” if we’re not including entire populations or sub-populations of people?

I have long posited that the non-verbal brain does indeed have a language. The language is based upon energy, feeling, image, vibration. It’s hard to put an eleven dimensional concept and framework into a three dimensional description, but I hope that you get where I’m going with this. My thoughts on this largely informed my decision to study English as a “foreign” language, even though I grew up in an English-speaking country. When I made this transition, my deeper learning begin to accelerate. This is because “foreign language” programmes approach the teaching of English from an entirely different angle.

The problem, however, is that many curriculum providers approach the subject from a “native” standpoint. Most instructional designers that I’ve come across in this space are native English speakers. You can get a sense from their text books and programmes that they’ve never had to learn a foreign language.

Here’s a good point for some definitions. A “second language speaker” is generally immersed in English throughout their day. Think of migrants to a new country. They’re constantly having to interact in their new language. They may choose to switch their home language to English to add more practice time to their lives. “Foreign language speakers” generally operate in the second language as an additional activity. Think of tourists. They’ll learn a foreign language, tour a country speaking that language in their public discourse, then return to their primary language when they’re done. I think this is how non-verbal populations work. We can work in this “foreign” verbal space, but retreat to our primary mode when alone or in our safe spaces.

Nevertheless, non-verbal people in the English speaking world suffer from a lack of good curricular offerings, unprepared teachers, and a general unavailability of authentic experiences designed with us in mind. I’ve thus been looking for a decent text for use in my classrooms, and in my own studies. Amazingly, friends, I’ve finally found one.

I was over on Academia.edu looking for something completely unrelated. Their algorithm recommended an interesting sounding title from a Nigerian professor. Dr. Isaac Ngulube of Rivers State University of Science and Technology in Nigeria has made available his “Learn English Son” on his Academia page. This was the text that was being pushed my way by the advert.

Learn English Son is designed to be comprehensive without being cumbersome. It seeks, in all areas, to be exact, clear and succinct. It is a practical grammar book covering all the rules of English grammar and writing styles - punctuation, sentence structure, correct word usage and a guide to adapting your writing style to different formats and assignments for classroom and business use. It is conceived as a reference material for the Use of English in Rivers State University of Science and Technology, and for English Language and Linguistics students of other Universities.

Learn English Son proceeds systematically from fundamentals of study skills and methods to analysis of English words and sentences. It attempts to give the potential writer an expert command of the fundamentals of good writing and the basic skills required for effective writing. It further attempts to examine the principles that underlie good written English and to suggest the best methods by which students may write good English. It provides advice and instruction on verbal logic, clarity of expression, emphasis, consistency of style, and how to structure paragraphs and essays. It concludes with recommendation on handling the larger elements such as the paragraph and the whole of the composition.

In other words, it was exactly what I was looking for.

The book has many idiosyncrasies due to the author being a non-native speaker, having taught English and Linguistics in Nigeria, Britain, and the United States. I have kept in mind the persistent need of writers for compact, ready reference work. Consequently, the diversified contents are clearly demarked and are readily identifiable to facilitate the finding of specific principles or answers to particular problems of composition.

And there you have it.

Here’s an amazing text book on learning English written by someone who learned this complex foreign language well enough to teach it to others - in other words, true mastery.

If you’re struggling with English, or if you’re a parent of someone who is, I recommend Dr. Ngulube’s book wholeheartedly.