Introducing PLACE (overview)

FINDING YOUR “PLACE”: Program in Language Acquisition and Cultural Exploration

How great the tale, that there should be,

In God’s Son’s heart, a place for me!

That on a sinner’s lips like mine

The cross of Jesus Christ should shine!

What is PLACE?

Many, if not most, of us have been wounded by previous language learning experience. Many of us have an expectation that we will not succeed and/or that language learning will be difficult at best, and certainly not enjoyable. Many do not look forward to the process and anticipate finishing ‘language school’ (and language learning) once and for all. If that is to any extent you, you will likely be surprised by the PLACE approach.

Language wasn’t meant to be learned in an academic setting nor as a (purely) academic exercise. After all, children learn any language easily, fluently, and without an unnatural accent. PLACE seeks, as much as possible, to re-create the way children learn language by leading you, the learner, through meaningful experiences of culturally relevant and real comprehensible input, laced with a few new words or concepts, the meaning of which can be largely deduced from the context.

Essentially PLACE is nothing more than a combination of activities and techniques which serious language learners, notably missionaries of all sorts, have used effectively. It integrates a full range of natural learning procedures with simple projects with sufficient guidance that all the needed functions, usages, and grammatical structures are covered comprehensively in a coherent, step-by-step manner…and at your own pace.

Unlike many other language programs in which the teacher develops and guides the curriculum, PLACE puts the learner in charge (see Characteristics of a Good Language Learner). You choose beforehand what you want to learn next, guided by a simple structure, various focused activities, and a spirit of adventure and discovery.

You learn the language by ‘playing the game’. “The fine, the deep mid, the silly, the short square, the leg slip, the gully . . .If one is not familiar with these terms, he will find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and will certainly lose the game of cricket for his team.Where would one learn the terminology for the game? It is readily available in the encyclopedia.But learning the terminology and actually playing the game are two different things entirely.Playing the positions well can only come from experience on the cricket field.” Spell it Out (accessed 21 August 2013)

PLACE principles

PLACE is built around the following principles:

• “Language and Culture are integrated and are best learned together”. PLACE builds language learning sessions from and within the relevant cultural contexts of your daily life.
• It is widely acknowledged that good language learners find their own way taking charge of their learning. PLACE puts the learner in charge of significant choices and of the pace of learning.
• Learning is a matter of understanding and making meaning. PLACE guides the learner through stage appropriate projects and activities, from novice to advanced, step-by-step. The major learning activities throughout the stages focus on understandable, culturally relevant, and usable material. You understand before you attempt to speak.
• Learning is also integrated and holistic. In other words, we acquire meaning by associating and integrating what we hear (and see, feel, taste, smell) with the actions we are doing, the items you are seeing, and with the context within which we are living. PLACE seeks to involve the whole person in the process of language learning.
• Learning is also social; we learn in relationships, being apprenticed into understanding and new ways of living in the cultural-world by those who are more knowledgeable and understanding. PLACE is built around relationships.
• PLACE combines structure with freedom for the learner to exercise his or her own preferences and styles of learning, while also challenging and encouraging and enabling the learner to grow in non-preferred styles and preferences as well.
• PLACE is designed to be used either as the core of a complete language learning program or as a complement to other programs, supplementing what might be otherwise lacking.
• For an overview of the components of the full PLACE approach see the Twelve Components.

“It is possible that compelling input is not just optimal: It may be only way we truly acquire language.”