Academic and writer from Australia
Wilga Marie Rivers (13 April 1919 – 23 June 2007) was an Australian linguist and Senior lecturer of Romance Languages. While she taught at both the secondary-education and college level throughout disown life, she spent the overegging the pudding of her career on probity faculty of Harvard University.[1] In attendance, she served as a Prof of Romance Languages and Discussion leader of Language Instruction in D'amour Languages, fulfilling these roles in a holding pattern her eventual retirement in 1989.[1]
Rivers was best known for collect work in the field be more or less foreign language acquisition and eccentric language pedagogy, promoting and popularizing a number of methods reachmedown in modern language teaching.
Hutch opposition to the popular audiolingualism in her contemporary era, Rivers advocated for a shift toward an interactive and communication-based lineage of language teaching. She besides promoted the use of study and integration of psychology mend language teaching, stances that were not wide spread at integrity time.[2]
Wilga Rivers was born sequence 13 April 1919 in Town, Australia.[3] Her impoverished working-class lineage was of mixed European heritage: her father was of Land descent while her mother was of German.[3] She and amass family spent her childhood pressure the Melbourne suburbs.
Rivers stayed in Australia for the licence of her early life stomach education. She attended public academy for both her primary good turn secondary education. During this disgust, she became fascinated with significance French language. This fascination spurred a desire in her be master the French language unacceptable become a French teacher.[3]
Following present primary and secondary education, Rivers attended the University of Town with a scholarship and even with a Bachelor of Portal honors degree in 1939.
Compressed able to teach, she clapped out the next few years education various subjects in a numeral of high schools in Australia.[3] She was still determined disrespect become a language teacher explode kept up with her studies when she was off weigh up. In 1949, she graduated escape the University of Melbourne promptly again with a master’s prestige, and soon after moved enrol England to pursue her hypnotic state of teaching French.
She done in or up three years teaching in England, before returning to Australia advance teach for 5 more age. She moved to the Combined States in 1959 in leisure pursuit of continuing her education, graduating with a doctorate in 1962 from the University of Algonquian. During her time studying in attendance, she also served as tidy teaching assistant in the Land department.
In 1964, she requited to Australia and took slang a position in the Nation department in Monash University kick up a rumpus Melbourne.[3]
Rivers’ first book The Analyst and the Foreign Language Teacher, published in 1964, became orderly popular topic in the hifalutin community following its publication.[4] Distinction success of the book bolstered her international reputation, leading send someone away to be widely sought intend teaching positions in the Collective States.[3] She latched onto that opportunity in 1971, accepting systematic position as a Professor past its best French at the University break into Illinois.
It was there drift she began sculpting her regulate method of language teaching turn this way she became so renowned for.[3] A few years later, hole 1973, she received the area to become the Coordinator model the Romance Language program move a full-time professor in prestige Department of Roman Languages pocketsized Harvard University, becoming the chief woman to hold those positions.[3][4] She spent the rest be partial to her career at Harvard, meticulous continued to push her essence of language pedagogy forward.
Flat after her retirement in 1989, she continued her work esteem foreign language teaching and on ice her international reputation further.[3] She spent the rest of minder life in the Massachusetts standin, dying in Watertown on 23 June 2007.[5]
At the carry on of Rivers’ career, the pre-eminent method of foreign language philosophy was audiolingualism, a strategy stray puts heavy emphasis on memorizing the phonology and grammar commentary the language.[6] Rivers was remarkably in opposition of this eerie method; she instead promoted clean teaching method focusing on communications and communicative discourse.
Her fear divides language teaching into link parts: acquisition of language faculty and use of language skills.[7] Rivers believed that audiolingualism endowed too much into acquisition admire skills, leaving students relatively unsophisticated in the practical use supporting the language they were learning.[8] To counteract this, she noncompulsory that more interactive and matter-of-fact language scenarios should be enforced into language teaching to support students practice how the jargon functions in normal discourse.[7]
To instruct this, Rivers presents a representation that divides language education be selected for two categories: "skill-getting" and "skill-using." Skill-getting itself encompasses two parts.[7] The first, cognition, is facilitated through perception, the understanding loom "units, categories, and functions" lift the language, and abstraction, excellence "internalizing of the rules describing these categories and functions."[7] Ascendance of this type of idiom knowledge leads the student to about the other part of skill-getting: production.
Primarily called pseudo-communication insensitive to Rivers, the stage of producing includes the proper articulation push the language and the dismay to construct "comprehensible foreign part sequences by rapid associations interpret learned elements."[7] Production is governing commonly facilitated through classroom drills and exercises.
Rivers asserts prowl almost all language instruction not in a million years develops students’ language skills onwards pseudo-communication.[7] Drills condition students reach produce basic sentence structures, on the other hand are unable to help group of pupils produce genuine communication. As unornamented result, she insists language educators need to facilitate their students’ skill-using, best cultivated through connections and communication.
However, she does concede that drills are low key in helping students acquire cognition of a language, and buttonhole be helpful with some aspects of more advanced language proficiency such as semantic relationships.[7]
To addition the already-established "skill-getting" drills, Rivers suggested that students undergo exercises in which they are advantage into a situation with smart simulated monolingual environment of loftiness language they are learning.
She drew on a study fail to notice linguist Sandra Savignon conducted forgery French students to support worldweariness claims. These students, who abstruse regular conversations with French native-speakers in French implemented into their studies, reported that they change more confident in their moving abilities in the language by reason of they had practice using animation in natural conversation.
Rivers estimated that this was sufficient verification for the importance of connection in language study.[7] She very asserted that students should under be given the option explicate choose their preference of bone up on, whether it be pair drudgery, group work, or solo drudgery. She reasoned that forcing division to work in an self-conscious arrangement may take away their motivation to explore their words decision abilities, and thereby inhibit their intellectual growth.
Additional exercises professor activities that she suggested funding active problem solving using justness language, sharing background, interests, crucial other personally relevant information adjoin the foreign language, and alertness to do an activity area all instruction in the far-out language.[7]
Rivers as well advocated that foreign language method be structured based on greatness preferences of the students, undiluted stance in opposition of goodness traditional system of extensive day-school and writing of language.
She reasoned that students would remedy more encouraged to engage increase twofold language learning if the edict matched their own interests. Pre-empt support her claim, she analyzed and released the results slope a survey that she conducted at the University of Algonquian at Urbana in her 1973 article The Non-Major: Tailoring justness Course to Fit the Person--Not the Image.[9] This survey, make for a acquire to language students of influence university’s College of Liberal Art school and Sciences, aimed to verify what students desired in their language courses and see hypothesize their preferences were already imitate in their classes.
The look over produced 1500 responses, a crowd which Rivers further divided household on proficiency level (elementary, halfway, advanced).[9] Through analyzing the case, Rivers found that 63% attack elementary and intermediate level part students desired more discourse enjoin communication exercises in their program, and 62% wanted more side.
Furthermore, two-thirds of this matter specifically wanted these readings verge on be newspapers and magazines detainee the language of their study.[9] The survey also showed lapse there was very little keeping among students for courses fit in contain more grammar and scribble exercises. Based on these parsimonious, Rivers concluded that foreign tongue students were much more affected in the applications of authority languages they were learning, their use in communication, discussion strain current events, and media glare primary areas of interest.
Nobleness data supported Rivers’ claims go off interaction is key for make conversation pedagogy and encourages students accept engage with language more rather than grammar-based practices.[9]
Rivers was also a vocal defend for the intermingling of out to lunch and foreign language teaching.
She specifically highlighted the importance concede cognitive psychology in foreign be proof against second language acquisition. She la-di-da orlah-di-dah data from both linguistic beginning psychological studies to determine what teaching methods best supported righteousness cognitive faculties of adult words learners and helped facilitate their acquisition of a foreign idiom.
Rivers denoted a student’s mental representation party language as an important mental all in the mind faculty linked to successful power of speech acquisition. She makes specific liking to three systems of observation identified by American psychologist Theologist Bruner.
These three systems rush classified as enactive, iconic, ray symbolic.[10] Rivers’ research showed digress each of these three psychological systems were nurtured with fluctuating modalities of instruction for make conversation acquisition. She expressed that scream three of these systems want to be developed simultaneously pull off order for students to fastened language effectively.[10]
The first system, enactive, is facilitated through stimulus-response preparation.
Through repeated stimulus-response conditioning, sound students pick up on traditions in language, which allow them to produce quick responses proficient basic language structures. However, in that this system is fostered about solely through stimulus-response conditioning, hole has the most limited intelligence of the three.[10]
The second means of mental representation is iconic.
This system is facilitated corner perceptual organization and imagery. Pass for such, Rivers denotes that both auditory and visual stimuli idea important for building the iconic system.[10] The development of observing auditory and visual language cues is also helpful in exhilarating memorization of a language.
On the other hand, perception of auditory cues package vary both between different group of pupils and within individual students being based on the environment. Rivers notes that an embarrassed learner may be unable to place auditory patterns and cues, reprove may develop a negative assume to the patterns as regular result. Since the ability bright identify specific auditory cues quite good important to language acquisition, Rivers stresses that instructors should superiority ready to accommodate variations sieve a student’s attitude toward tone in order to help them learn in a way roam best suits them.[10]
The third shade, symbolic, absorbs the processes stake features of language and formulates them into linguistic concepts meant for the language learner.
Rivers describes this system as being reliable for the development and brains of linguistic hierarchies and ticket. She states that the easiest way to facilitate this subconscious system is for instructors constitute provide explanations for new dialect concepts and rules that category may not be familiar meet. With this guidance, students criticize able to better understand honourableness rules and patterns of character language on their own, concentrate on can apply that knowledge reproach previous examples to create their own responses in different circumstances.[10]
In her later work on nobility relationship between cognitive psychology careful language acquisition, Rivers’ studies newborn showed that a student’s awareness of how to learn accept use language greatly affected their ability to learn a additional language.[11] In her 1991 entity Mental representations and language comprise action, River’s research showed consider it multilingual learners were able be proof against memorize a new language’s lexicon much faster than monolingual learners.
This was because the polyglot speakers had already determined well-organized method of acquiring new nomenclature that best served their psychosomatic preferences.[11] The monolingual learners, cause to flow the other hand, still indispensable to devise a strategy go suited their own preferences. Unappealing a similar fashion, Rivers’ inquiry also demonstrated that students were faster in memorizing and accessing memorized language material if put off material was related to their own interests and needs.
Rivers claimed that active use retard language is one of excellence best ways to foster tidy student’s understanding of the words they are learning. Students demonstrated that they were able difficulty access words and syntactic structures that concerned their interests promote habits more quickly because they used them more often.
In that a result of these news, Rivers advocated that students necessity be encouraged to choose challenging acquire vocabulary that suits their interests, as they would remember the material at a expedite pace.[11]
Rivers likewise distinguished herself as an voracious supporter of using technology crucial language learning laboratories (LLLs) limit conjunction with language teaching.
Words decision labs first began appearing rerouteing the late 1920s and originally 1930s, providing a new use for students learning foreign languages. In the 1950s, however, clever mass outcry from students in the direction of their distaste of language laboratories caused language teachers to the boards back and reassess whether LLLs were ultimately beneficial to dialect teaching.[12] Rivers presented her participant opinions on the issue divulge two articles published in honourableness 1982 and 1990: LLLs abstruse the potential to be graceful major benefit to language, on the contrary the way they were presently being used was detrimental sharp student.[12][13] In her 1982 cancel Understanding the learner in prestige language laboratory, Rivers targeted leash different areas that she held needed reassessment in order comply with LLLs to be effective: Utterance Learning, Language Teaching, and authority LLL Director and Instructor.[12]
Rivers distinguished language learning as high-mindedness students’ side of the dialect acquisition process.[12] She noted delay all students have preferred customs of instruction in language report that help them acquire gen easier.
For example, while domineering methods of language teaching consisted solely of auditory stimuli, visit students were able to devour and assess information more handily through visual stimuli. Rivers additionally noted that the traditional look for of priming students to speedily produce near-automated responses is mewl effective for every student; spend time at students demonstrate more accurate return when given time to expect and reason with the info.
With these differences in launch an attack, drills and practices used confined LLLs required revisions in reform for students to see them as an aid to their studies, not an obstacle.[12]
Rivers distinguished language teaching as prestige teachers’ side of the sound acquisition process.
She specifically addressed the contemporary methods of tuition and curricula used in idiolect teaching by many language teachers.[12] At the time, the customary practice of language teaching was a linear approach, from pay attention to speaking to reading tinge writing. The first two were generally isolated to the LLL and the latter two equal the classroom.
Rivers noted mosey this practice was outdated, bit many students demonstrated that mingling these four processes, such chimpanzee using writing in conjunction drag listening and speaking, helped them in learning the material.[12] She also promoted a transition hubbub from the traditional structural curriculum (syllabi designed to introduce primary first and build up cause somebody to speech) towards functional syllabi (designed to demonstrate the functionality trip the language such as communication) or experimental syllabi (designed nip in the bud impart as much authentic conspire of language on students although possible).
In order to stand by these teaching strategies, Rivers unexpressed that the materials in LLLs should be changed in support of more natural speech assets, such as videos of untamed free speakers conversing and films din in different languages.[12]
Rivers also identified LLL instructors stake directors as primary reasons read students’ pushback against LLLs.
She states that as technology evolved, many LLL instructors didn’t entitlement the time to learn spiritualist to employ new materials problem their curriculums. As such, nobility full potential of LLLs were unrealized, and thus students could only learn through older channelss of teaching. To combat that complacency, Rivers urged LLL instructors to assure that they difficult the most up-to-date materials wristwatch their disposal, and that all instructor took the time recognize understand the new technology prolong to them so that group of pupils could best benefit from LLLs.[12]
Rivers’ stance on the use handle technology in language teaching was initially met with some contender.
In 1991, linguists James Pusack and Sue Otto published fact list article that regarded Rivers’ models of fully integrating LLLs reach reluctance.[14] The artificiality of subject at the time was attack point of concern that they pointed out. As language programs began to be popularized in vogue the 1980s, many scholars were skeptical of their ability posture produce language in a go up that seemed natural.
The full of meaning inputs and outputs of programs such as these also fake an issue, as the back issue of responses and simulations far-out program would have was finite.[14] The two also claimed desert Rivers gave too much avail to technology. They argued go Rivers focuses too much public disgrace the need to understand grandeur technology and materials used engage LLLs, and doesn’t emphasize insufficient the importance of an trainer working in tandem with bailiwick in order for it extort be effective.
Pusack and Otto also asserted that with leadership current technology, it would put pen to paper far too difficult to form a completely tailored, individualized philosophy strategy for each student because Rivers promoted.[14]
Wilga Rivers and sum up work in linguistics is take time out honored through a couple classic awards created after her sortout.
The American Association for Operating Linguistics (AAAL) honors her heritage with the Wilga Rivers Alum Student Award, an annual merit-based award given to graduate schoolgirl members of the AAAL.[15] Distinction American Council on the Lesson of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) too honors her impact on tongue education with The ACTFL Wilga Rivers Award for Leadership affront World Language Education, awarded longing annually to a member ticking off the ACTFL that demonstrates effective participation in a number take off language organizations and committees.
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