Job Discussion Forums

[ChinaMovieMagic]

Wondering:
*how folks (if expats)compare their in-country to their home country, in terms of Continuum Concept practices.
Here in China, I'd say that for INFANTS, the culture is harmony w/many of the practices described BELOW...the spontaneous spirit of Taoism for the infants, and then the heavy hand of neo-Confucianistic discipline for school kids.

*whether folks can see a METAPHOR here, regarding the process of "natural" at-home (always successful) language learning, compared to (1)the regimented authoritarian FL teaching methods and (2)whole-brained communicative FL learning environments
(e.g. www.ialearn.org and www.winwenger.com)
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Understanding The Continuum Concept
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www.continuum-concept.org

According to Jean Liedloff, the continuum concept is the idea that in order to achieve optimal physical, mental and emotional development, human beings � especially babies � require the kind of experience to which our species adapted during the long process of our evolution. For an infant, these include such experiences as...

*constant physical contact with his mother (or another familiar caregiver as needed) from birth;
*sleeping in his parents' bed, in constant physical contact, until he leaves of his own volition (often about two years);
*breastfeeding "on cue" � nursing in response to his own body's signals;
*being constantly carried in arms or otherwise in contact with someone, usually his mother, and allowed to observe (or nurse, or sleep) while the person carrying him goes about his or her business � until the infant begins creeping, then crawling on his own impulse, usually at six to eight months;
*having caregivers immediately respond to his signals (squirming, crying, etc.), without judgment, displeasure, or invalidation of his needs, yet showing no undue concern nor making him the constant center of attention;
*sensing (and fulfilling) his elders' expectations that he is innately social and cooperative and has strong self-preservation instincts, and that he is welcome and worthy.

In contrast, a baby subjected to modern Western childbirth and child-care practices often experiences...
*traumatic separation from his mother at birth due to medical intervention and placement in maternity wards, in physical isolation except for the sound of other crying newborns, with the majority of male babies further traumatized by medically unnecessary circumcision surgery;
*at home, sleeping alone and isolated, often after "crying himself to sleep";
*scheduled feeding, with his natural nursing impulses often ignored or "pacified";
being excluded and separated from normal adult activities, relegated for hours on end to a nursery, crib or playpen where he is inadequately stimulated by toys and other inanimate objects;
*caregivers often ignoring, discouraging, belittling or even punishing him when he cries or otherwise signals his needs; or else responding with excessive concern and anxiety, making him the center of attention;
*sensing (and conforming to) his caregivers' expectations that he is incapable of self-preservation, is innately antisocial, and cannot learn correct behavior without strict controls, threats and a variety of manipulative "parenting techniques" that undermine his exquisitely evolved learning process.

Evolution has not prepared the human infant for this kind of experience. He cannot comprehend why his desperate cries for the fulfillment of his innate expectations go unanswered, and he develops a sense of wrongness and shame about himself and his desires. If, however, his continuum expectations are fulfilled � precisely at first, with more variation possible as he matures � he will exhibit a natural state of self-assuredness, well-being and joy. Infants whose continuum needs are fulfilled during the early, in-arms phase grow up to have greater self-esteem and become more independent than those whose cries go unanswered for fear of "spoiling" them or making them too dependent.

Here are some excerpts from the book which define the continuum concept:

...It is no secret that the "experts" have not discovered how to live satisfactorily, but the more they fail, the more they attempt to bring the problems under the sole influence of reason and disallow what reason cannot understand or control.

We are now fairly brought to heel by the intellect; our inherent sense of what is good for us has been undermined to the point where we are barely aware of its working and cannot tell an original impulse from a distorted one.

...[Determining what is good for us] has for many millions of years been managed by the infinitely more refined and knowledgeable areas of the mind called instinct. ... [The] unconscious can make any number of observations, calculations, syntheses, and executions simultaneously and correctly.

[Tamara]

On a personal note, my little one was born in a very gentle water birth, and we were never separated. We have been Attachment Parents from the very beginning. Now, at age two and a few months, she is bilingual and (if I do say so myself) a very intelligent and delightful person. I definately see a pattern in how she was always in a baby sling at adult level to hear our conversations, whether in Spanish or English, and how well she can respond to both now. On the other hand, I can't take sole credit for her Spanish language learning. When I'm at my part time job teaching ESL, her child care provider is at home creating a Spanish-language environment in our home.

I'm not sure if that relates to teaching in a classroom, except that I have more respect for the natural, imperfect process of language learning all around. I no longer expect my basic and early intermediate students to speak in perfect phrases or sentences, even when I've just taught that function or structure. If communication is taking place, I see it as a success.