It’s 4H Fair week in our county and my kids are participating in the horse events for the very first time. They’ve known how to ride since they were very young, but we just never got around to showing the horses until this year.
One thing that I love about teaching a second language is realizing all the connections between language and EVERYTHING ELSE. Language isn’t like any other subject. Language literally is the bond that connects us to everything else that we do.
If you know anything about animals, you know that even though they don’t have verbal language, they do still communicate. Not only does the animal need to understand what you are saying and how you say it, but you also need to understand what the animal is communicating and why.
So I’ve been realizing for a while now that training your horse (we call it Colt Starting) and teaching an L2 are very similar! You have to do both very slowly and go at a steady pace. You also have to learn your horse’s way of communicating and he has to learn yours. I recently heard Road to the Horse Colt Starting Champion Vicki Wilson say that horses don’t understand at first what we want them to do (just like our students!) and that you can’t expect your horse to master what you want them to know in 15 minutes. It takes lots and lots of repetition over long periods of time. One time isn’t enough. Just like your classroom! You provide lots of repetitions of language chunks in a variety of contexts for your students until they have acquired language.
Very similar to Blaine Ray’s TPRS “go slow to go fast” reminder, with horses you want to “take the time that it takes” to master a new skill so that it doesn’t take up a lot of time later. This means you go slow enough for the acquisition to happen naturally because it can’t be forced. But, once the skill is acquired, it isn’t forgotten. For my classroom, this means that review time at the beginning of the second, third, and fourth years is minimal. Since acquisition happens naturally and perhaps differently in every horse or student you have to be patient and know that it will happen when it happens… and NOT BEFORE.
That’s so important, I’m going to repeat it: Acquisition occurs naturally and is different for everyone – human or animal.
Horseman Nick Dowers gave a clinic at the 2018 Road to the Horse Colt Starting Competition and offered many gems of advice that apply to second language acquisition. He said that we have to recognize when our horse (student!) needs a break and that offering up breaks to your horse shows you respect their needs. These breaks allow the horses’ brains to absorb everything you just did. Folks, that right there is the very premise behind Brain Breaks – respecting that our students’ minds are full and that they cannot continue receiving input is very important. (If you are familiar with Krashen’s Monitor Hypothesis, this is the Affective Filter portion – if the Affective Filter is up, nothing will be acquired). In his clinic Mr. Dowers said, “it’s not about where we want them (the horse) to be, but meeting them where they are and helping them to grow.” If that isn’t a plug for comprehensible input, I don’t know what is!
If you show respect for your animal/student and give them what they need, they will more than meet you halfway. A good horseman allows their horse to make mistakes and to learn from them because they know that progress is in baby steps and isn’t linear (sound familiar to any Dr. Stephen Krashen fans out there?). In horsemanship AND language acquisition you might take one step forward, two steps back, a baby step forward, another step back, and then suddenly a giant leap forward. Applying this in our classrooms means giving our students what they need (input) and a whole lot of it. Then, we have to give them the time to process it… their brains will do the rest. It’s all about PROCESS, not PROGRESS. So when we find ourselves frustrated with what our students don’t know, all we need to do is slow down and provide more repetitions. Mr. Dowers informs us to keep it novel and to introduce one thing at a time because it’s not OUR timeline, it’s THEIRS.
If you look for them, you will find connections to language teaching everywhere! Training a horse is a logical connection because you and the horse are learning about each other and how to communicate together. The best takeaway from horsemanship I can offer is to GO SLOW and don’t leave any holes that will come back to haunt you later. Take the time that it takes so it doesn’t take up a lot of time later. Provide lots of repetitions over time and in a variety of contexts and the brain will do the rest for you!
