Incidental Language Learning

[Guest guest]

I did a google search for " incidental language aquisition " and the results

referred to it in the the context of learning a second language, not a first.

A search for " incidental language " resulted in a lot of links to more ESL

links. Here are three that were interesting.

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Here's a book that might be intersting but it's out of print.

How to Use Incidental Teaching for Elaborating Language

by Betty M. Hart, Todd R. Risley

Paperback: 32 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.25 x 9.25 x 6.25

Publisher: H & H Enterprises; (December 1982)

ASIN: 0890790663

________________________________________________

Here's a paper that might be interesting but I don't have time to read it

today.

EXPLICIT AND INCIDENTAL INSTRUCTION

AND LEARNER AWARENESS

K. Hauser

University of Hawai`i

http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/NetWorks/NW12/default.html

_________________________________________________________

This looks to be a course description, but perhaps you could contact the

instructor and ask some questions.

The title is:

Teaching Language to Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

http://www.coe.ilstu.edu/seddept/current_courses/syllabi/354.pdf

[Guest guest]

Does anyone know of any studies or sources that can be cited to support this

concept that we learn so much through incidental listening? I know it's

just common sense, but sometimes common sense does not have much sway with

the IEP team. So I'd love to be able to show something to support our IEP

requests. If no one has studied this, someone ought to, IMHO.

M. ston

Mston@...

Father to Cecilia, CI 9/5/03 (looking to convince our IEP team that having

our daughter in a cued speech immersion classroom is appropriate for her

education--as opposed to a class where different modes of communication are

used)

You wrote:

<<Ask the audiologist if she has ever heard of " incidental listening " . It

is the method by which most of us learn language when we are young. Our

kids need access to any conversation which would be heard, or overhead, by a

hearing child or they are at a disadvantage and not receiving an equal

education. Actually, a speech pathologist should be able to explain this

very well and perhaps the teacher of this class should be asked to do so.>>

[Guest guest]

<<Does anyone know of any studies or sources that can be cited to support this

concept that we learn so much through incidental listening?>>

,

I'm not in my office right now where I have most of my books but incidental

listening as a learning strategy for language is well-documented. You might

start with Carol Flexor's book Facilitating Hearing and Listening in Young

Children. Here's one of her articles:

http://www.learningtolisten.org/power_of_hearing.html

If you do a quick web search on an engine like google, you'll find a lot of

info, also. I believe that any good speech pathologist should be at least

familiar with the concept, particularly if he/she works with kids with hearing

impairment.

Carol

[Guest guest]

<<I did a google search for " incidental language aquisition " and the results

referred to it in the the context of learning a second language, not a first.>>

Jill,

A better search phrase might be " incidental listening hearing loss " .

Here is a quote from Carol Flexer's article, which I gave the link to in my

previous email:

" Research in the field of developmental psychology tells us that about 90%

of what

very young children know about spoken language and the world, they learn

incidentally.

(Flexer, 1999) Very young children learn a great deal of information

unintentionally because

they have access to overhearing conversations that occur at distances. "

Here's a link to an article on the Gallaudet website which also mentions

incidental learning while explaining the benefits of an FM system in the

classroom: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Odyssey/Winter2003/inclass.pdf

I know that Carol, and other studies I've read, cite that children in classrooms

often benefit from hearing the teacher giving additional explanations of

assignments to other students in the classroom. For example, if a student calls

the teacher to their desk to ask about a math problem, all the children within

earshot will hear the teacher's responses. (I can recall this in my own

classroom experience--and being happy that someone else asked the question so I

didn't have to feel dumb! LOL!) Of course, the child with hearing loss does

not always have the ability to hear these quieter conversations and so they miss

out on those additional teaching opportunities as well.

Carol

[Guest guest]

<<I did a google search for " incidental language aquisition " and the results

referred to it in the the context of learning a second language, not a first.>>

Jill,

A better search phrase might be " incidental listening hearing loss " .

Here is a quote from Carol Flexer's article, which I gave the link to in my

previous email:

" Research in the field of developmental psychology tells us that about 90%

of what

very young children know about spoken language and the world, they learn

incidentally.

(Flexer, 1999) Very young children learn a great deal of information

unintentionally because

they have access to overhearing conversations that occur at distances. "

Here's a link to an article on the Gallaudet website which also mentions

incidental learning while explaining the benefits of an FM system in the

classroom: http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Odyssey/Winter2003/inclass.pdf

I know that Carol, and other studies I've read, cite that children in classrooms

often benefit from hearing the teacher giving additional explanations of

assignments to other students in the classroom. For example, if a student calls

the teacher to their desk to ask about a math problem, all the children within

earshot will hear the teacher's responses. (I can recall this in my own

classroom experience--and being happy that someone else asked the question so I

didn't have to feel dumb! LOL!) Of course, the child with hearing loss does

not always have the ability to hear these quieter conversations and so they miss

out on those additional teaching opportunities as well.

Carol