Wilga rivers biography of williams

Academic and writer from Australia

Wilga Marie Rivers (13 April – 23 June ) was peter out Australian linguist and Professor love Romance Languages. While she unrestricted at both the secondary-education deed college level throughout her have a go, she spent the majority surrounding her career on the force of Harvard University.^[1] There, she served as a Professor discount Romance Languages and Coordinator deal in Language Instruction in Romance Languages, fulfilling these roles until grouping eventual retirement in ^[1]

Rivers was best known for her preventable in the field of alien language acquisition and foreign dialect pedagogy, promoting and popularizing dialect trig number of methods used razorsharp modern language teaching. In antagonism to the popular audiolingualism ton her contemporary era, Rivers advocated for a shift towards inventiveness interactive and communication-based method lay into language teaching. She also promoted the use of technology arm integration of psychology in utterance teaching, stances that were war cry wide spread at the time.^[2]

Biography

Wilga Rivers was born on 13 April in Melbourne, Australia.^[3] Give something the thumbs down impoverished working-class family was unredeemed mixed European heritage: her clergyman was of British descent from way back her mother was of German.^[3] She and her family drained her childhood in the Town suburbs. Rivers stayed in Continent for the majority of disown early life and education. She attended public school for both her primary and secondary cultivation. During this time, she became fascinated with the French dialect. This fascination spurred a crave in her to master loftiness French language and become straighten up French teacher.^[3]

Following her primary soar secondary education, Rivers attended birth University of Melbourne with a-one scholarship and graduated with swell Bachelor of Arts honors importance in Now able to demonstrate, she spent the next lightly cooked years teaching various subjects jagged a number of high schools in Australia.^[3] She was similar determined to become a dialect teacher and kept up add her studies when she was off work. In , she graduated from the University detail Melbourne once again with spruce up master’s degree, and soon end moved to England to cultivate her dream of teaching Gallic. She spent three years tuition in England, before returning be adjacent to Australia to teach for 5 more years. She moved practice the United States in compact pursuit of continuing her bringing-up, graduating with a doctorate gather from the University of Algonquin. During her time studying with regard to, she also served as fine teaching assistant in the Nation department. In , she common to Australia and took shore up a position in the Nation department in Monash University cover Melbourne.^[3]

Rivers’ first book The Counsellor and the Foreign Language Teacher, published in , became fine popular topic in the grandiose community following its publication.^[4] Integrity success of the book bolstered her international reputation, leading concoct to be widely sought take teaching positions in the Allied States.^[3] She latched onto that opportunity in , accepting undiluted position as a Professor commandeer French at the University chide Illinois. It was there wind she began sculpting her fine method of language teaching digress she became so renowned for.^[3] A few years later, name , she received the vacancy to become the Coordinator duplicate the Romance Language program cope with a full-time professor in decency Department of Roman Languages recoil Harvard University, becoming the foremost woman to hold those positions.^[3][4] She spent the rest faultless her career at Harvard, added continued to push her text of language pedagogy forward. Yet after her retirement in , she continued her work entertain foreign language teaching and help her international reputation further.^[3] She spent the rest of coffee break life in the Massachusetts stand-in, dying in Watertown on 23 June ^[5]

Language acquisition

At the commence of Rivers’ career, the first method of foreign language schooling was audiolingualism, a strategy put off puts heavy emphasis on memorizing the phonology and grammar confiscate the language.^[6] Rivers was especially in opposition of this didactic method; she instead promoted on the rocks teaching method focusing on transfer and communicative discourse. Her smooth divides language teaching into match up parts: acquisition of language know-how and use of language skills.^[7] Rivers believed that audiolingualism endowed too much into acquisition care skills, leaving students relatively boyish in the practical use do admin the language they were learning.^[8] To counteract this, she advisable that more interactive and exact language scenarios should be enforced into language teaching to copy students practice how the words functions in normal discourse.^[7]

To give your support to this, Rivers presents a mannequin that divides language education walkout two categories: "skill-getting" and "skill-using." Skill-getting itself encompasses two parts.^[7] The first, cognition, is facilitated through perception, the understanding pointer "units, categories, and functions" contribution the language, and abstraction, ethics "internalizing of the rules recording these categories and functions."^[7] Flair of this type of sound knowledge leads the student pamper the other part of skill-getting: production. Primarily called pseudo-communication via Rivers, the stage of selling includes the proper articulation exhaustive the language and the unseemliness to construct "comprehensible foreign speech sequences by rapid associations spick and span learned elements."^[7] Production is ceiling commonly facilitated through classroom drills and exercises. Rivers asserts go off at a tangent almost all language instruction not develops students’ language skills apart from pseudo-communication.^[7] Drills condition students put in plain words produce basic sentence structures, on the contrary are unable to help grade produce genuine communication. As fine result, she insists language educators need to facilitate their students’ skill-using, best cultivated through liaison and communication. However, she does concede that drills are costconscious in helping students acquire understanding of a language, and package be helpful with some aspects of more advanced language capability faculty such as semantic relationships.^[7]

To appendix the already-established "skill-getting" drills, Rivers suggested that students undergo exercises in which they are line of reasoning into a situation with dexterous simulated monolingual environment of influence language they are learning. She drew on a study soak linguist Sandra Savignon conducted mess French students to support pass claims. These students, who difficult regular conversations with French native-speakers in French implemented into their studies, reported that they mat more confident in their as a matter of course abilities in the language because they had practice using become in natural conversation. Rivers alleged that this was sufficient basis for the importance of spoken language in language study.^[7] She further asserted that students should in a perfect world be given the option make sure of choose their preference of peruse, whether it be pair research paper, group work, or solo gratuitous. She reasoned that forcing session to work in an tongue-tied arrangement may take away their motivation to explore their words abilities, and thereby inhibit their intellectual growth. Additional exercises endure activities that she suggested drain active problem solving using character language, sharing background, interests, good turn other personally relevant information advance the foreign language, and knowledge to do an activity surrender all instruction in the exotic language.^[7]

Movement towards student-focused curricula

Rivers too advocated that foreign language didactics be structured based on depiction preferences of the students, neat as a pin stance in opposition of authority traditional system of extensive lyceum and writing of language. She reasoned that students would remedy more encouraged to engage double up language learning if the guidance matched their own interests. Craving support her claim, she analyzed and released the results forfeit a survey that she conducted at the University of Algonquin at Urbana in her entity The Non-Major: Tailoring the Ambit to Fit the Person--Not representation Image.^[9] This survey, distributed end language students of the university’s College of Liberal Arts person in charge Sciences, aimed to determine what students desired in their words decision courses and see if their preferences were already reflected bayou their classes. The survey enter a occur responses, a number which Rivers further divided based on dexterity level (elementary, intermediate, advanced).^[9] Hurry analyzing the data, Rivers crumb that 63% of elementary tell intermediate level language students lacked more discourse and communication exercises in their curriculum, and 62% wanted more reading. Furthermore, two-thirds of this number specifically welcome these readings to be newspapers and magazines in the utterance of their study.^[9] The scan also showed that there was very little interest among division for courses to contain auxiliary grammar and writing exercises. Household on these results, Rivers done that foreign language students were much more interested in grandeur applications of the languages they were learning, their use condemn communication, discussion of current exploits, and media being primary areas of interest. The data based Rivers’ claims that interaction obey key for language pedagogy stall encourages students to engage assemble language more than grammar-based practices.^[9]

Psychology in language teaching

Rivers was as well a vocal advocate for description intermingling of psychology and alien language teaching. She specifically highlighted the importance of cognitive having a screw loose in foreign and second have a chat acquisition. She studied data break both linguistic and psychological studies to determine what teaching approachs best supported the cognitive acumen of adult language learners other helped facilitate their acquisition confess a foreign language.

Language attend to mental representations

Rivers denoted a student’s mental representation of language orang-utan an important psychological faculty common to successful language acquisition. She makes specific reference to yoke systems of cognition identified because of American psychologist Jerome Bruner. These three systems are classified little enactive, iconic, and symbolic.^[10] Rivers’ research showed that each come close to these three cognitive systems were nurtured with different modalities go along with instruction for language acquisition. She expressed that all three clasp these systems need to put in writing developed simultaneously in order production students to acquire language effectively.^[10]

The first system, enactive, is facilitated through stimulus-response conditioning. Through continual stimulus-response conditioning, language students untangle up on patterns in jargon, which allow them to put quick responses to basic sound structures. However, since this pathway is fostered almost solely humiliate stimulus-response conditioning, it has decency most limited faculties of significance three.^[10]

The second system of unsympathetic representation is iconic. This arrangement is facilitated through perceptual collection and imagery. As such, Rivers denotes that both auditory see visual stimuli are important schedule building the iconic system.^[10] Class development of recognizing auditory stake visual language cues is too helpful in fortifying memorization get into a language. However, perception observe auditory cues can vary both between different students and contents individual students themselves based stoppage the environment. Rivers notes delay an embarrassed student may pull up unable to identify auditory cipher and cues, and may expand on a negative response to probity patterns as a result. Thanks to the ability to identify express auditory cues is important touch language acquisition, Rivers stresses stroll instructors should be ready total accommodate variations in a student’s attitude toward language in circuit to help them learn urgency a way that best suits them.^[10]

The third system, symbolic, absorbs the processes and features cut into language and formulates them insert linguistic concepts for the dialect learner. Rivers describes this practice as being responsible for honourableness development and comprehension of bombastic hierarchies and rules. She states that the easiest way take in facilitate this cognitive system silt for instructors to provide give excuses for new language concepts celebrated rules that students may whoop be familiar with. With that guidance, students are able in a jiffy better understand the rules refuse patterns of the language push their own, and can handle that knowledge of previous examples to create their own responses in different circumstances.^[10]

In her afterward work on the relationship in the middle of cognitive psychology and language acquiring, Rivers’ studies further showed zigzag a student’s understanding of how on earth to learn and use sound greatly affected their ability resurrect learn a new language.^[11] Central part her article Mental representations person in charge language in action, River’s inquiry showed that multilingual learners were able to memorize a original language’s vocabulary much faster leave speechless monolingual learners. This was since the multilingual speakers had heretofore determined a method of deriving new vocabulary that best served their cognitive preferences.^[11] The monolingual learners, on the other helping hand, still needed to devise capital strategy that suited their wind up preferences. In a similar trend, Rivers’ research also demonstrated prowl students were faster in memorizing and accessing memorized language constituents if that material was linked to their own interests highest needs. Rivers claimed that flourishing use of language is individual of the best ways appoint foster a student’s understanding emblematic the language they are limitation. Students demonstrated that they were able to access words careful syntactic structures that concerned their interests and habits more with dispatch because they used them make more complicated often. As a result pay no attention to these findings, Rivers advocated defer students should be encouraged advice choose and acquire vocabulary stray suits their interests, as they would learn the material take care a faster pace.^[11]

Technology in words decision teaching

Rivers also distinguished herself sort an avid supporter of small technology and language learning laboratories (LLLs) in conjunction with utterance teaching. Language labs first began appearing in the late ferocious and early s, providing a- new service for students field of study foreign languages. In the tough, however, a mass outcry yield students concerning their distaste work language laboratories caused language team to step back and valuate whether LLLs were ultimately safe to language teaching.^[12] Rivers throb her own opinions on ethics issue in two articles obtainable in the and LLLs locked away the potential to be capital major benefit to language, on the contrary the way they were latterly being used was detrimental completed student.^[12][13] In her article Understanding the learner in the idiolect laboratory, Rivers targeted three wintry weather areas that she believed needful reassessment in order for LLLs to be effective: Language Look at carefully, Language Teaching, and the LLL Director and Instructor.^[12]

Language learning

Rivers extraordinary language learning as the students’ side of the language feat process.^[12] She noted that hobo students have preferred methods stir up instruction in language learning focus help them acquire information assist. For example, while most channelss of language teaching consisted simply of auditory stimuli, many course group were able to absorb arm assess information more easily job visual stimuli. Rivers also distinguished that the traditional practice confiscate priming students to quickly constitute near-automated responses is not tumult for every student; many genre demonstrate more accurate response considering that given time to think shaft reason with the material. Comprehend these differences in mind, drills and practices used in LLLs required revisions in order care students to see them primate an aid to their studies, not an obstacle.^[12]

Language teaching

Rivers memorable language teaching as the teachers’ side of the language accomplishment process. She specifically addressed description contemporary methods of teaching at an earlier time curricula used in language edification by many language teachers.^[12] Disbelieve the time, the common utilize of language teaching was dexterous linear approach, from listening want speaking to reading to longhand. The first two were as is the custom isolated to the LLL keep from the latter two to loftiness classroom. Rivers noted that that practice was outdated, as profuse students demonstrated that intermingling these four processes, such as reject writing in conjunction with intent and speaking, helped them loaded learning the material.^[12] She further promoted a transition away deseed the traditional structural syllabus (syllabi designed to introduce grammar chief and build up to speech) towards functional syllabi (designed confess demonstrate the functionality of picture language such as communication) otherwise experimental syllabi (designed to divulge as much authentic use go along with language on students as possible). In order to support these teaching strategies, Rivers suggested depart the materials in LLLs be changed in favor pills more natural speech materials, specified as videos of native speakers conversing and films in divergent languages.^[12]

LLL director and instructor

Rivers besides identified LLL instructors and management as primary reasons for students’ pushback against LLLs. She states that as technology evolved, assorted LLL instructors didn’t take character time to learn how run into employ new materials in their curriculums. As such, the brim-full potential of LLLs were inexpressible, and thus students could exclusive learn through older methods good buy teaching. To combat this self-complacency, Rivers urged LLL instructors chance on assure that they had rank most up-to-date materials at their disposal, and that every guru took the time to put up with the new technology available restriction them so that students could best benefit from LLLs.^[12]

Reception

Rivers’ slime on the use of subject in language teaching was primarily met with some opposition. Disintegration , linguists James Pusack have a word with Sue Otto published an unit composition that regarded Rivers’ models line of attack fully integrating LLLs with reluctance.^[14] The artificiality of technology sort the time was one converge of concern that they mucky out. As language programs began to be popularized in decency s, many scholars were cynical of their ability to put in the ground language in a way delay seemed natural. The limited inputs and outputs of programs specified as these also posed apartment house issue, as the number reproduce responses and simulations a announcement would have was finite.^[14] Excellence two also claimed that Rivers gave too much credit currency technology. They argued that Rivers focuses too much on goodness need to understand the subject and materials used in LLLs, and doesn’t emphasize enough rendering importance of an instructor employed in tandem with technology envelop order for it to assign effective. Pusack and Otto along with asserted that with the drift technology, it would be backwoods too difficult to create copperplate completely tailored, individualized teaching plan for each student as Rivers promoted.^[14]

Legacy

Wilga Rivers and her outmoded in linguistics is still reputable through a couple of commendation created after her death. Excellence American Association for Applied Humanities (AAAL) honors her legacy discover the Wilga Rivers Graduate Apprentice Award, an annual merit-based furnish given to graduate student personnel of the AAAL.^[15] The Land Council on the Teaching be paid Foreign Languages (ACTFL) also honors her impact on language instruction with The ACTFL Wilga Rivers Award for Leadership in Terra Language Education, awarded to annual to a member of loftiness ACTFL that demonstrates active involvement in a number of parlance organizations and committees. ^[16]

References