A brain-based approach to teaching
English as a second language
by Tanju Deveci
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Genesee (1994) says that in immersion, second language teaching is embedded in a rich and meaningful communicative context. The goal of learning language is not grammatical perfection, but meaningful communication among students and teachers. Students remain motivated to learn the second language when they have a sense of academic accomplishment and of increasing competence in using the second language for communicative purposes. The behaviorist notion of "practice" as a means of learning, which is prevalent in conventional programs, is replaced in immersion-type programs by the notion of "creative construction," in which learners are encouraged to experiment with linguistic forms in order to communicate with one another and with their teachers about academic and social matters. Errors in language use are not seen as bad, but rather as indications of the learners' active efforts to master a complex linguistic system. In immersion, the learner is seen as progressing through a series of stages toward full target language proficiency; the learner is not expected to start off like a native speaker.

In immersion, English will serve as a vehicle for discussions of academic matters and is only a secondary focus of instructional attention. In immersion, students are expected to acquire the language skills that are important for communicating about and understanding the academic subject matter set out in the program of instruction.
It has been argued by some researchers like Krashen that comprehensible input is important for second language acquisition. That is to say, students can only acquire language that they can understand. In this regard, immersion programs will provide extensive comprehensible input, which can also encourage our learners to use English productively especially if we include native speakers in the classroom.

Naturally, teachers will have to take on new roles in immersion programs. Mard (2002) argues that maybe their basic and the most important responsibility is to be a companion to their learners. Immersion students need the teacher as an immersion language interlocutor and as a negotiator of meaning in cognition problems. The teacher provides the children with the shape of the immersion language and those means that they need in order to use the immersion language themselves. When teachers socialize with their students in breaks etc., they need to use English, which will have a direct influence on the active acquisition of the immersion language. Besides this the teachers can deliberately choose subjects which learners link to life outside the school environment that they would otherwise experience almost entirely in their first language. Teachers need to make sure that nothing seems like an imperative routine which has to be passed quickly. For example, if they are talking about the weather on a particular day, it needs to be discussed in a way that students feel like it has personal importance for them. The routine questions should be repeated in order that more learners have the opportunity to answer individually and all of them get more chances to digest the input of the immersion language.

The most important thing at the beginning of immersion is to make students feel safe, which could be done through familiar daily routines. The children will not become alarmed, even though not understanding everything the teacher says in the immersion language. They will also feel secure if they know that the teacher understands their first language. Students can use their L1 while talking to the teacher although the teacher answers in the immersion language. Therefore, teachers do not themselves need to use their students' first language in order to assure that their message is understood and to ease the children's adjustment to immersion. The teachers do not need to be concerned about the things that their students do not understand. The students may themselves figure out the content of the teacher's message in English.

Teachers need to be aware of the fact that the acquisition of a new language happens individually. They have to give sufficient linguistic tools for those children who want to begin to use the new language immediately. On the other hand, they need to know that some learners might have a silent period in their language acquisition.
Teachers should insist on getting full answers from the students, at least during the early stages of language learning. This is because we cannot assume that students know which grammatical structure belongs together with a key word. Grammatical structures and sentence formation can be brought out also in different language games, so that the communication will not be mere unnatural drilling. Teachers should reinforce their linguistic message with gestures, facial expressions, pictures and concrete material in order to facilitate communication.

Teachers have an important task to arouse the immersion students' curiosity, enthusiasm, and interest for English. They can encourage students to use the new language through didactical stories.

Students will find it safer to use the new language at the early stages of the language acquisition if their teacher dramatizes a story with them and build up a territory of shared experience through this story.

As I mentioned earlier, in language immersion, grammar is not taught as separate rules. The content of communication is more important in language immersion than its correct grammatical form. Therefore, the teacher should encourage the use of English, and should not pay too much attention to correction of grammatical and structural mistakes. The corrections are made indirectly, so that they do not hinder communication. The students should become interested in grammatical forms and structures when they feel that they need more detailed information about the language itself (Buss & Lauren, 2002).

Teachers need to give a lot of responsibility to their students. Students should actively take part in the decision making of the aims of teaching and working methods.

Teachers need to have positive interactions with students. They can personally greet each student when they arrive in the morning, and be more aware of what they say to students. We know that threat biologically impair a student's ability to learn. When a student feels threatened, the brain can downshift to the stem quickly. In such a situation even though the brain reacts, it does not store information, which can make learning almost impossible. Students must feel their talents and opinions are valued, and teachers must create and nurture an atmosphere of trust. There should be certain procedures since they give students a feeling of safety and security because they know how to do what is expected of them. This enables students to concentrate on the content being presented instead of wondering how the teacher expects a certain task to be done (Dorner, 2002).

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