(We invite second and foreign language teachers to input into this discussion about language acquisition. Please participate by clicking here). Everyone working with ESL Hawaii speaks at least one other language besides English. Some speak two, three or more languages. No one at ESL Hawaii seriously believes that a person can learn to communicate well in a foreign language by simply sitting in a classroom.

This being said, it seems almost unbelievable that almost all existing language schools--certainly all but one, maybe two, English schools in Hawaii-- are still offering it's language students a primarily static-classroom solution patterned after a 19th century educational model.

The Task-based Model: a Need to Know
The 'language brain' may be considered a translation device for our need to know--or our perceived need to know. If we look at the brain in general as a kind of dynamic database, then the 'language brain' may be considered to be primarily involved in the first phase of information acquisition.

A person's perceived need to know may take on many levels of urgency: from casual, to immediate. Regardless, "urgency" is the key factor. There is a vast psychological difference in 'urgency' between the student practicing English, for example, with a fellow English student in class, and the student needing to collect information from a non-sympathetic native speaker in the real world. The initial psychologal 'trauma' of the latter can certainly be attested to by anyone who has had to use their foreign language skills in real-world situations.

Task-based models are not new, and using them in static classroom situations has been fairly common in modern foreign language training. The problem with in-class task-based models is that they are, simply put, too safe. The classroom represents a safety zone for the students and so mistakes are tolerated--even incomprehensible communication is tolerated, to a degree.

Giving students task-based assignments in real-world situations--combined with classroom training that gives students real English 'tools' to work with-- may be a more realistic model.

In my classes, I have noticed a marked difference between the reactions of students when I give in-class task-based assignments and out-of-class task-based assignments. "For Friday, your assignment will be to find a place to live in Hawaii," illicits a look of sheer terror on the faces of some intermediate and above level students. However, the assignment is not meant to terrorize, but rather to raise the bar, and tasks are, in reality, measured according to culture, personality and language skill level.

The psychological component encompassing confidence in communication in real-world situations is a key factor to faster language learning. Real-world task-based training quickly addresses this important component.

ESL Hawaii's Study Tours program has been designed specifically to raise the bar in language acquisition training by presenting the students with situations in which they will have a real urgency in exchanging information with native speakers while out on study excursion. University trained teachers will be at hand, after the fact, to guide and suggest, and, if need be, tweak assignments and provide useful alternatives.