automatic largely or wholly involuntary, especially as with a reflex acting or done spontaneously or unconsciously automatize to make automatic [noun

derivations: automatization the process of making automa tic; automaticity the state or condition of being automatic] In some literature, the word automization is used rather than automatization. For our purposes as teachers, automatization is the process of making language p rocessing and production automatic. The skill of automatization is the ability o f the language learner to get things right [with both spoken and written product ion] under circumstances when there is no attention available or any other provi sion for getting those things right. Automization is a central concept within the academic acquisition: Shiffrin and Dumais [1981], for example, a fundamental component of skill development. As EFL , we should be clear exactly why it is important, not skills in general but to the development of language study of cognitive skills identify automatization as teachers in the Arab world only to the development of skills in particular.

Let us start by examining the process of automatization and the role of automati city in skill development. Whenever a skill is newly learnt, its performance takes up a great deal of consc ious attention [or channel capacity]. For example, learner drivers who have rece ntly been taught to change gear with a manual gearbox [floor shift] will at firs t probably only be able to do so if they concentrate on that task and nothing el se. This state of affairs is clearly unsatisfactory, and it may well be dangerou s if the novice is actually driving, because there are, simultaneously, higher-l evel driving skills in operation that require the available channel capacity [th at is the driver's conscious attention]. All drivers need to anticipate the move ment of other vehicles and pedestrians, and they certainly need to be paying att ention to what is going on around them. Channel capacity can only be made availa ble for these higher-level skills if lower-level skills [such as changing gear] have been automatized to the extent that they take up no room in the driver s cons cious mind. When novice drivers achieve automatized gear changing, they will be able to perform the action without ever being aware that they are doing it. So t he role of automatization in motor skill learning is to free important channel c apacity for tasks that require it. The role of automatization in language learning is similar. Learners automatize the use of lexical items and sentence patterns and structures [especially lexica lised grammar] so that they can then concentrate their effort where it is needed most, in comprehending and communicating meaning clearly. This is so for all ar eas of language use, but it is probably more important in some areas than in oth ers [Bialystok, 1982]. This leads us to an important insight: the automatization of predictable items of language is highly likely to precede the acquisition of more generative functions. In terms of English Language Teaching, this automati city is rooted in the handling of probable language rather than possible languag e, in lexical production and in the production of lexicalised grammar. Bialystok suggests that different tasks in fact place different demands in terms of the d egree of automaticity [or fluency] required. Thus, in fluent and interactive con versation, the user certainly needs high automaticity with lexis. In such conver sational interactions, great store is placed on rapid response and turn taking. However, in formal written production, where users normally have sufficient time to think and plan and edit text, automatized language performance will be less important. The value of automatization is that it frees conscious attention for higher-leve l skills. Skilled language performers automatize their production of language. T

hey automatize their responses in interactive situations. This frees conscious a ttention for higher-level activities. This is particularly true of the lower lev el or mechanical aspects of a task [and of lower order language skills], which r equire less conscious attention in order to perform. One result of automatizatio n is that skilled performers are less conspicuously aware of performing activiti es that they have automatized. Just observe an experienced teacher of English in front of a class if you want to see this phenomenon in action. Automatization is an important concept for teachers of English to grasp and resp ond to. As EFL teachers, we are familiar with learners of English who may be abl e to produce [for example] present perfect tense structures accurately in a clas sroom drill, in which there is a clear focus on form, but may not be able to rep roduce or transfer these structures subsequently. The skill of automatization en sures that learners perform the target structure accurately in communicative sit uations in which there is a focus on message and where there may be distracting circumstances. The skill of automatization is typically what those learners we i dentify as false beginners do not possess to any useful degree. Reading is an extremely important skill required in our vocational training prog ram. As teachers, we seek to produce skilled readers who are ultimately capable of reading and understanding complex technical vendor manuals or comparable text s. We may need to re-examine our approach to the teaching of reading [and to oth er aspects of our language teaching program] in the light of recent research int o automaticity. Urquart and Weir [1998] cite both Carrell et al [1988] and Stano vich [1981] as identifying automaticity as one of the hallmarks of a skilled rea der, and they argue that some of the time devoted in class to working out the me aning of words in context might be better spent on activities promoting automati city [Page 188]. They point out that one of the most significant contributions b y cognitive psychologists to reading research and therefore to the teaching of r eading is the finding that good readers use context much less than poor readers when recognizing printed words. Good readers are able to recognize words without conscious thought. In other words, they have automatized their lexis.