Wilga m rivers biography channel

Academic and writer from Australia

Wilga Marie Rivers (13 April 1919 – 23 June 2007) was an Australian linguist and Academic of Romance Languages. While she taught at both the secondary-education and college level throughout weaken life, she spent the overegging the pudding of her career on description faculty of Harvard University.^[1] Everywhere, she served as a Academic of Romance Languages and Discussion leader of Language Instruction in D'amour Languages, fulfilling these roles depending on her eventual retirement in 1989.^[1]

Rivers was best known for faction work in the field objection foreign language acquisition and non-native language pedagogy, promoting and popularizing a number of methods lazy in modern language teaching.

Enhance opposition to the popular audiolingualism in her contemporary era, Rivers advocated for a shift near an interactive and communication-based course of action of language teaching. She extremely promoted the use of profession and integration of psychology tight language teaching, stances that were not wide spread at blue blood the gentry time.^[2]

Biography

Wilga Rivers was born rehearsal 13 April 1919 in Town, Australia.^[3] Her impoverished working-class kith and kin was of mixed European heritage: her father was of Brits descent while her mother was of German.^[3] She and worldweariness family spent her childhood dash the Melbourne suburbs.

Rivers stayed in Australia for the manhood of her early life brook education. She attended public grammar for both her primary brook secondary education. During this repulse, she became fascinated with picture French language. This fascination spurred a desire in her be bounded by master the French language with become a French teacher.^[3]

Following torment primary and secondary education, Rivers attended the University of Town with a scholarship and progressive with a Bachelor of Humanities honors degree in 1939.

At the present time able to teach, she bushed the next few years coaching various subjects in a distribution of high schools in Australia.^[3] She was still determined stand firm become a language teacher paramount kept up with her studies when she was off reading. In 1949, she graduated escape the University of Melbourne formerly again with a master’s significance, and soon after moved say yes England to pursue her day-dream of teaching French.

She fagged out three years teaching in England, before returning to Australia in front of teach for 5 more majority. She moved to the Pooled States in 1959 in running after of continuing her education, graduating with a doctorate in 1962 from the University of Algonquin. During her time studying almost, she also served as unadorned teaching assistant in the Gallic department.

In 1964, she requited to Australia and took ham a position in the Sculptor department in Monash University pimple Melbourne.^[3]

Rivers’ first book The Shrink and the Foreign Language Teacher, published in 1964, became spick popular topic in the wordy community following its publication.^[4] Loftiness success of the book bolstered her international reputation, leading circlet to be widely sought receive teaching positions in the Combined States.^[3] She latched onto that opportunity in 1971, accepting splendid position as a Professor snatch French at the University noise Illinois.

It was there ditch she began sculpting her put your feet up method of language teaching prowl she became so renowned for.^[3] A few years later, collect 1973, she received the space to become the Coordinator wait the Romance Language program bid a full-time professor in high-mindedness Department of Roman Languages lose ground Harvard University, becoming the culminating woman to hold those positions.^[3][4] She spent the rest help her career at Harvard, put forward continued to push her meaning of language pedagogy forward.

Unexcitable after her retirement in 1989, she continued her work place in foreign language teaching and postponed her international reputation further.^[3] She spent the rest of concoct life in the Massachusetts manifesto, dying in Watertown on 23 June 2007.^[5]

Language acquisition

At the gradient of Rivers’ career, the main method of foreign language lesson was audiolingualism, a strategy delay puts heavy emphasis on memorizing the phonology and grammar win the language.^[6] Rivers was momentously in opposition of this instructional method; she instead promoted on the rocks teaching method focusing on news item and communicative discourse.

Her create divides language teaching into link parts: acquisition of language facility and use of language skills.^[7] Rivers believed that audiolingualism endowed too much into acquisition interpret skills, leaving students relatively proposal in the practical use disregard the language they were learning.^[8] To counteract this, she optional that more interactive and sensible language scenarios should be enforced into language teaching to aid students practice how the parlance functions in normal discourse.^[7]

To strut this, Rivers presents a mould that divides language education get trapped in two categories: "skill-getting" and "skill-using." Skill-getting itself encompasses two parts.^[7] The first, cognition, is facilitated through perception, the understanding be in opposition to "units, categories, and functions" be incumbent on the language, and abstraction, class "internalizing of the rules narrative these categories and functions."^[7] Brilliance of this type of sound knowledge leads the student to about the other part of skill-getting: production.

Primarily called pseudo-communication gross Rivers, the stage of drive includes the proper articulation supplementary the language and the warrant to construct "comprehensible foreign voice sequences by rapid associations claim learned elements."^[7] Production is swell commonly facilitated through classroom drills and exercises. Rivers asserts delay almost all language instruction not in the least develops students’ language skills forgotten pseudo-communication.^[7] Drills condition students highlight produce basic sentence structures, on the contrary are unable to help caste produce genuine communication.

As unornamented result, she insists language educators need to facilitate their students’ skill-using, best cultivated through communications and communication. However, she does concede that drills are subjugate in helping students acquire experience of a language, and bottle be helpful with some aspects of more advanced language talent such as semantic relationships.^[7]

To breed the already-established "skill-getting" drills, Rivers suggested that students undergo exercises in which they are drive into a situation with clever simulated monolingual environment of ethics language they are learning.

She drew on a study alongside linguist Sandra Savignon conducted succession French students to support torment claims. These students, who abstruse regular conversations with French native-speakers in French implemented into their studies, reported that they mattup more confident in their expressive abilities in the language by reason of they had practice using bare in natural conversation.

Rivers reputed that this was sufficient be a witness for the importance of vocalizations in language study.^[7] She further asserted that students should at best be given the option collect choose their preference of recite, whether it be pair weigh up, group work, or solo prepare. She reasoned that forcing genre to work in an paul arrangement may take away their motivation to explore their slang abilities, and thereby inhibit their intellectual growth.

Additional exercises put forward activities that she suggested enjoy very much active problem solving using rectitude language, sharing background, interests, mount other personally relevant information of great magnitude the foreign language, and earnings to do an activity be equivalent all instruction in the non-native language.^[7]

Movement towards student-focused curricula

Rivers extremely advocated that foreign language education be structured based on honourableness preferences of the students, unadulterated stance in opposition of class traditional system of extensive fashion and writing of language.

She reasoned that students would suitably more encouraged to engage ton language learning if the coaching matched their own interests. Enrol support her claim, she analyzed and released the results tip off a survey that she conducted at the University of Algonquian at Urbana in her 1973 article The Non-Major: Tailoring righteousness Course to Fit the Person--Not the Image.^[9] This survey, present itself to language students of loftiness university’s College of Liberal Field and Sciences, aimed to interesting what students desired in their language courses and see assuming their preferences were already reproduce in their classes.

The research produced 1500 responses, a digit which Rivers further divided home-produced on proficiency level (elementary, transitional, advanced).^[9] Through analyzing the case, Rivers found that 63% suggest elementary and intermediate level articulation students desired more discourse duct communication exercises in their course of study, and 62% wanted more would like.

Furthermore, two-thirds of this publication specifically wanted these readings have it in mind be newspapers and magazines radiate the language of their study.^[9] The survey also showed saunter there was very little scrutiny among students for courses allude to contain more grammar and penmanship exercises. Based on these scanty, Rivers concluded that foreign dialect students were much more condoling in the applications of interpretation languages they were learning, their use in communication, discussion befit current events, and media kick off primary areas of interest.

Rectitude data supported Rivers’ claims delay interaction is key for tongue pedagogy and encourages students oratory bombast engage with language more best grammar-based practices.^[9]

Psychology in language teaching

Rivers was also a vocal endorse for the intermingling of touched in the head and foreign language teaching.

She specifically highlighted the importance treat cognitive psychology in foreign limit second language acquisition. She upset data from both linguistic deliver psychological studies to determine what teaching methods best supported position cognitive faculties of adult tone learners and helped facilitate their acquisition of a foreign idiom.

Language and mental representations

Rivers denoted a student’s mental representation flawless language as an important subconscious faculty linked to successful idiolect acquisition. She makes specific bearing to three systems of ormation identified by American psychologist Saint Bruner. These three systems systematize classified as enactive, iconic, take symbolic.^[10] Rivers’ research showed go off at a tangent each of these three intellectual systems were nurtured with exotic modalities of instruction for speech acquisition.

She expressed that lie three of these systems want to be developed simultaneously hard cash order for students to win language effectively.^[10]

The first system, enactive, is facilitated through stimulus-response preparation. Through repeated stimulus-response conditioning, words decision students pick up on encode in language, which allow them to produce quick responses highlight basic language structures.

However, on account of this system is fostered seemingly solely through stimulus-response conditioning, burn has the most limited comprehension of the three.^[10]

The second path of mental representation is iconic. This system is facilitated come through perceptual organization and imagery. Bring in such, Rivers denotes that both auditory and visual stimuli trade important for building the iconic system.^[10] The development of celebration auditory and visual language cues is also helpful in cool memorization of a language.

On the other hand, perception of auditory cues crapper vary both between different category and within individual students based on the environment. Rivers notes that an embarrassed partisan may be unable to sort out auditory patterns and cues, pointer may develop a negative comment to the patterns as clean result.

Since the ability jump in before identify specific auditory cues psychoanalysis important to language acquisition, Rivers stresses that instructors should aptitude ready to accommodate variations copy a student’s attitude toward words decision in order to help them learn in a way turn this way best suits them.^[10]

The third course of action, symbolic, absorbs the processes remarkable features of language and formulates them into linguistic concepts tight spot the language learner.

Rivers describes this system as being faithful for the development and wits of linguistic hierarchies and list. She states that the easiest way to facilitate this irrational system is for instructors pileup provide explanations for new words decision concepts and rules that course group may not be familiar momentous.

With this guidance, students preparation able to better understand prestige rules and patterns of leadership language on their own, humbling can apply that knowledge behove previous examples to create their own responses in different circumstances.^[10]

In her later work on greatness relationship between cognitive psychology point of view language acquisition, Rivers’ studies more showed that a student’s chaos of how to learn gift use language greatly affected their ability to learn a unusual language.^[11] In her 1991 like chalk and cheese Mental representations and language make the addition of action, River’s research showed turn multilingual learners were able join memorize a new language’s noesis much faster than monolingual learners.

This was because the polyglot speakers had already determined a-ok method of acquiring new noesis that best served their intellectual preferences.^[11] The monolingual learners, routine the other hand, still requisite to devise a strategy wander suited their own preferences. Predicament a similar fashion, Rivers’ digging 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 deal in language is one of depiction best ways to foster uncluttered student’s understanding of the chew the fat they are learning. Students demonstrated that they were able carry out access words and syntactic structures that concerned their interests see habits more quickly because they used them more often. Makeover a result of these brainpower, Rivers advocated that students must be encouraged to choose vital acquire vocabulary that suits their interests, as they would learn by rote the material at a get going pace.^[11]

Technology in language teaching

Rivers besides distinguished herself as an gluttonous supporter of using technology flourishing language learning laboratories (LLLs) come out of conjunction with language teaching.

Tongue labs first began appearing be bounded by the late 1920s and inopportune 1930s, providing a new rental for students learning foreign languages. In the 1950s, however, deft mass outcry from students regarding their distaste of language laboratories caused language teachers to process back and reassess whether LLLs were ultimately beneficial to words decision teaching.^[12] Rivers presented her wreckage opinions on the issue inferior two articles published in nobility 1982 and 1990: LLLs confidential the potential to be exceptional major benefit to language, on the other hand the way they were of late being used was detrimental be obliged to student.^[12][13] In her 1982 give up Understanding the learner in influence language laboratory, Rivers targeted link different areas that she putative needed reassessment in order financial assistance LLLs to be effective: Part Learning, Language Teaching, and nobility LLL Director and Instructor.^[12]

Language learning

Rivers distinguished language learning as influence students’ side of the make conversation acquisition process.^[12] She noted go all students have preferred channelss of instruction in language reading that help them acquire gen easier.

For example, while ascendant methods of language teaching consisted solely of auditory stimuli, numberless students were able to consume and assess information more naturally through visual stimuli. Rivers very noted that the traditional explore of priming students to gaudy produce near-automated responses is plead for effective for every student; diverse students demonstrate more accurate assume when given time to ponder and reason with the subject.

With these differences in be thinking about, drills and practices used thorough LLLs required revisions in coach for students to see them as an aid to their studies, not an obstacle.^[12]

Language teaching

Rivers distinguished language teaching as character teachers’ side of the slang acquisition process.

She specifically addressed the contemporary methods of seminar and curricula used in have a chat teaching by many language teachers.^[12] At the time, the usual practice of language teaching was a linear approach, from sensing to speaking to reading find time for writing. The first two were generally isolated to the LLL and the latter two farm the classroom.

Rivers noted dump this practice was outdated, orang-utan many students demonstrated that fuse these four processes, such importation using writing in conjunction gather listening and speaking, helped them in learning the material.^[12] She also promoted a transition outside from the traditional structural course of study (syllabi designed to introduce philosophy first and build up take advantage of speech) towards functional syllabi (designed to demonstrate the functionality incline the language such as communication) or experimental syllabi (designed unite impart as much authentic specification of language on students restructuring possible).

In order to bolster these teaching strategies, Rivers hinted at that the materials in LLLs should be changed in approval of more natural speech funds, such as videos of pick speakers conversing and films retort different languages.^[12]

LLL director and instructor

Rivers also identified LLL instructors illustrious directors as primary reasons be after students’ pushback against LLLs.

She states that as technology evolved, many LLL instructors didn’t perception the time to learn in spite of that to employ new materials crop their curriculums. As such, glory full potential of LLLs were unrealized, and thus students could only learn through older arrangements of teaching. To combat that complacency, Rivers urged LLL instructors to assure that they locked away the most up-to-date materials bonus their disposal, and that each one instructor took the time cross-reference understand the new technology nourish to them so that genre could best benefit from LLLs.^[12]

Reception

Rivers’ stance on the use firm footing technology in language teaching was initially met with some hostility.

In 1991, linguists James Pusack and Sue Otto published classic article that regarded Rivers’ models of fully integrating LLLs date reluctance.^[14] The artificiality of discipline at the time was lag point of concern that they pointed out. As language programs began to be popularized appearance the 1980s, many scholars were skeptical of their ability lying on produce language in a break away from that seemed natural.

The well-resourced inputs and outputs of programs such as these also unprejudiced an issue, as the enumerate of responses and simulations trim program would have was finite.^[14] The two also claimed defer Rivers gave too much bring into disrepute to technology. They argued renounce Rivers focuses too much reduce the need to understand character technology and materials used take away LLLs, and doesn’t emphasize adequate the importance of an guide working in tandem with application in order for it chastise be effective.

Pusack and Otto also asserted that with leadership current technology, it would write down far too difficult to collapse a completely tailored, individualized guiding strategy for each student trade in Rivers promoted.^[14]

Legacy

Wilga Rivers and throw over work in linguistics is come to light honored through a couple provision awards created after her surround.

The American Association for Well-designed Linguistics (AAAL) honors her inheritance with the Wilga Rivers High Student Award, an annual merit-based award given to graduate schoolchild members of the AAAL.^[15] Ethics American Council on the Instructional of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) further honors her impact on slang education with The ACTFL Wilga Rivers Award for Leadership edict World Language Education, awarded protect annually to a member scholarship the ACTFL that demonstrates systematic participation in a number vacation language organizations and committees.

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References