Audrey Rousse-Malpat

Can you become a good language teacher without a structure-based training? On a Dynamic Usage-based inspired L2 pedagogy from primary school to university.

Most foreign language teachers in the Netherlands today have followed what Lightbown and Spada (2013) call a Structure-based (SB) language learning training. This means that they have become proficient in a foreign language by learning and practicing a set of grammar rules that have been explicitly explained to them, in most cases in their L1. At the university level, language programs also have a strong focus on structure with the premise that becoming an expert in a language requires to be able to explicitly analyze the language as a system.

Recent findings in implicit language teaching (Piggott, 2019; Gombert, 2022) suggest that general proficiency in a foreign language in highschool can be obtained through exposure, repetition and use, which is in line with Dynamic Usage-based (DUB) principles in that language is viewed as a set of conventionalized routines that are learned through frequent exposure.

In this talk, I will present the results of three studies on the effects of a DUB approach to language teaching in highschool and one study on the implementation of a DUB curriculum at the university level, focusing on the effects of this approach on the language proficiency of the learners. Finally, I will discuss whether a Dynamic Usage-based learning training can lead to mastering a foreign language at an expert level and what would be the consequences of having teachers with such a training on future language classes.