Wairua and the relationship it has with learning te reo ... - Clear Net

Literature Review, Acquisition:
Many researchers of second language acquisition have focussed on
the acquisition/learning, implicit/explicit debate, stimulated by Krashen and
his Monitor Model in 1977. He postulated that “acquisition is motivated by
a focus on communication and is not conscious” (Nagle & Sanders
1986:10). Communicative approaches to learning (Burnaby 1997:97,98)
recognise that “language is too complex to be handled at a conscious
level” (Stern 1992:179). Learning activities focus on “the meaning of the
message” (Ellis 1994b:105) rather than the grammatical rules. A more
intuitive and emotional teaching method is suited to this approach, with the
unconscious becoming a receptor for information so that ‘implicit learning’
can occur (Ellis 1994a:1).
Implicit learning is the primary mode for the “acquisition of complex
knowledge” (Reber 1993:25)(Krashen 1994:55). However Reber warns
against getting caught up in the “polarity fallacy”, stating “there is no clean
boundary between conscious and unconscious processes” (Reber
1993:23,24) rather they are points upon a continuum that contribute
towards the learning process. One form of implicit processing occurs when
language is “learned as a flux of data” (Oxford 1997:26), with sound being
a paralinguistic element of this data input. When discussing this aspect of
language learning Gattegno, designer of The Silent Way states that in
“spoken speech the melodic integrative schemata are a more primitive
experience of language than words, and are perceived much earlier than
words” (Gattegno 1963:11)(Nagle & Sanders 1986:15). The paralinguistic
information within the sound of the language is absorbed as an initial
experience of meaning. “An implicit teaching of sounds” (‘the principle of
innocence’) is advocated by Strevens before explicit teaching practices are
applied as part of the teacher’s repertoire (Stern 1992:346)(Oxford
1997:24). Implicit knowledge then is “acquired largely independently of
awareness of both the processes and the products of acquisition” (Ellis
1994a:9). Wairua as a paralinguistic aspect of language acquisition may fit
into this area of the literature on implicit learning. Language acquisition
requires a relaxed yet “attentive immersion” into the “subject matter” for an
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