Janik, D. A Neurobiological Theory and Method of Language Acquisition. Review by Joel Weaver, MA, TESOL, Director Intercultural Communications College, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. Munich: Lincom Europa, 2004. 279 pp. 14 Chapters. 320 refs. 3 illustr. ISBN 3 89586 763 2.
Some books are just books. This one is destined to become a classic. The back cover states, "This book is not about teaching - it's about EFFECTIVE learning from a new perspective..." I beg to differ - it's about a whole new perspective in learning and teaching, one that has the depth and foundation to rewrite how institutions teach and students learn.
Written by a physician-educator turned linguist, it is a long-awaited synthesis of what the author calls the "German" school of neurobiological (biological-based) learning. Beginning with the Socratic-Platonic schism in learning and teaching, it spans 20 centuries of work by biologically and medically trained educators and linguists, culling out the myriads of contemporary 'fashion' theories and methods, integrating in the latest medical imaging information and linguistic theories into what the author identifies as "a single, unified, underlying theory of learning." After struggling through this book, and yes, it is a struggle for readers who have a limited background in the workings of the human body, I must agree. This may be the fundamental unified theory of learning we educators have been seeking.
Dr. Janik's erudite manner of connecting the shards of neurobiologically-based learning from diverse, traditionally separate academic disciplines makes for a rich, intense, satisfying academic reading. With over 300 references, the book is a treasure-trove of data and information. After reading it, it isn't a surprise to me that Dr. Janik's book was chosen by the publisher as the first in a new series on neurobiological learning.
The book is arranged in 13 chapters, beginning with "The Need for a New Learning Methodology," and develops neurobiological learning from an entirely novel point of view: that of effective (traumatic) learning. Dr. Janik's premise is that if one could understand the neurobiological processes involved in traumatic learning (one of the most effective forms of learning known), new light might be shed on traditional teaching and learning. That it clearly does, and in a manner that belies and eventually supplants its closest cousins, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic theory. One of the outstanding strengths to this new theory is that from beginning to end it remains grounded in the physical body, rather than pure ideations. For example, while visiting Freud's concept of 'ego'-based cognition, Janik points out that while both intriguing and useful, it is not locatable in any particular brain structure, location or process. Janik, in replacing 'ego' with a more discrete entity, 'personal cognition,' which can be located within distinct areas of the brain during brain imaging, adroitly replaces Freudian psychology back within the neurobiological fold.
A topic I found particularly interesting was Janik's development of the key role that birth trauma (the 'Big Bang' of human learning and the principal source of traumatic learning), prenatal and postnatal learning, intelligence, lucid dreaming, internal time consciousness (Janik's 'seventh' sense, just behind 'kinesthesia' or 'gut feeling') and truth, which takes on a whole new dimension when viewed neurobiologically.
During the course of the work, he reviews in great detail the pros and cons of a 'truine brain,' replacing it with a more complex but richer neurobiological model that includes, among other elements, the 'nerve superhighways,' a 'thalamic learning gateway,' and acknowledges for the first time the role of the cerebellum in rhythmic, tonal and timed learning.
Janik is not content with simply rewriting the neuroanatomy and neurobiology of learning. This intellectual, biomedical and, yes, philosophical tour de force includes discussions on the neurobiological basis for critical learning periods, posits fifteen 'tenets' (natural laws) of neurobiological learning, includes a short section on the application of neurobiological theory and methodology in the language learning classroom, and derives a 'new' form of effective, NON-TRAUMATIC, neurobiologically-based learning which he calls 'transformational learning' (TL). TL as described by Janik is a curiosity-based, discovery-driven, mentor-assisted form of learning that is more than just stunning or intriguing (it is). Non-traumatic, effective learning as envisioned by Janik, provides a neurobiological foundation for critical thinking, espouses and supports the concepts of individual freedom and responsibility, correctly (I think) identifies the importance of the spirit and spiritual learning, and creates new and interesting hypotheses that are physically testable.
Janik's book is not only about a new way of learning and 'teaching,' but is itself a roller-coaster, transformational learning experience that incorporates and demonstrates the neurobiological learning processes to the reader first hand. Janik claims that neurobiological learning theory provides a physical foundation not only to classroom learning, tutoring, and distance learning. More so, he claims that NL provides the basis for 'learning without walls' on earth and in our not so distant future, in space. Big claim - but surprisingly appropriate.
This classic work is a 'must read' not only for linguists, but also for educators, teachers, counsellors, therapists, psychologists, physicians... the list goes on. My advice: Roll up your intellectual sleeves, put on a surgical mask and gloves, take a couple of deep breaths and, in the spirit of neurobiological learning 'go for it!' - J. Weaver, MA TESOL.
Table of Contents:
Abstract
PROBLEMS
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2 - THE NEED FOR A NEW LEARNING METHODOLOGY
Reason, Logic and Proof
Source Material
Approach
Resources
CLINICAL AND EMPIRICAL EXPERIENCE
CHAPTER 3 - TRAUMATIC LEARNING
Exceptional Learning
Eidetic Recall
Absent and False Memories
The Paradox of Traumatic Learning
Ritual
Memory Stability
Reflexive Learning
Frozen Learning
Associative and Interpretive Recrafting
Peripheral Learning
Learning Object Constancy
Interpretive Resources
Traumatic Recruitment and Reinforcement
Recovery
Mind-Body-Spirit
Generational Transmission
Symbols
Rhythmicity
CHAPTER 4 - COGNITIVE LEARNING
Cognition
Metacognition
World View
Spirituality
Learning Disabilities
Developmental Learning
Sex and Intelligence
EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE
CHAPTER 5 - NON-IMAGING STUDIES
Postmortem and Ablative Studies
Brain Language
Lateralization
Recruitment
The Embryological Perspective
The Triune Brain
Cerebral Organization
Displacement
Cerebellar Organization
The Thalamus and Limbic System
Feelings
Myelination
Critical Language Period
CHAPTER 6 - IMAGING STUDIES
Brain Imaging
Cerebral Learning and the Birth Event
Early Postnatal Learning
Vocalization
Tools
Cerebellar Studies
Thalamolimbic Studies
NEUROBIOLOGICAL LEARNING
CHAPTER 7 - NEURO-ANATOMICAL BASES
CHAPTER 8 - NEUROBIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
Intelligence
Standard Intelligence
G-Factor
Numeracy
Reasoning
Logic
Truth
Consciousness
Sleep and Lucid Dreaming
Higher-Orders of Consciousness
A NEUROBIOLOGICAL THEORY OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
CHAPTER 9 - LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Calls
Speech
First Language Acquisition
Female Language
Reading and Writing
Language Sidedness
The Sixth Sense
Internal Time Consciousness
Discovery
CHAPTER 10 - SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Classroom-based Studies
Clinical, Experimental and Imaging Studies
CHAPTER 11 - ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AS A SUBSEQUENT LANGUAGE
THE NEUROBIOLOGICAL METHOD
CHAPTER 12 - THE NEUROBIOLOGICAL METHOD
A Brief Summary of Neurobiological Learning
A New Learning Perspective
The Tenets of Neurobiological Learning
CHAPTER 13 - APPLICATION
Curriculum
Adhibition
Interpretation
Pair and Small Group Learning
Play
Capstone Projects and Ritual
Mentor Training and Transportability
CHAPTER 14 - SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND MUSINGS
Bibliography
Index
Mr. Weaver is Director of Intercultural Communications College, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, where neurobiological learning theory was first applied. Dr. Janik is a physician, educator, linguist and fellow of the American Association for Integrative Medicine. He is a strong advocate of integrative approaches to health, healing and learning. The book is available from the publisher's webpage and Amazon.com. Dr. Janik has just completed a second book entitled Unlock the Genius Within: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching and Transformational Learning which is scheduled for release in September 2005 by Rowman and Littlefield (Rowman Education). Additional reviews are posted for both books at http://drjanik.tripod.com/Neurobook.html and http://drjanik.tripod.com/Neurobook2.html.
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