Thursday, June 21, 2007

Reflection 8: Best Practices

Okay. What is it going to be: form-focused or communicative or a combination of both? Back up your thoughts with some of the studies in LS Ch. 6.



Based on the research I have read, here in Lightbown and Spada and several other sources, and in my own personal experiences as a language learner and a language teacher, the best approach would have to be somewhere in the middle, combining plenty of comprehensible input (go, Krashen) in the students' Zone of Proximal Development (shout to Vygotsky) with plenty of opportunities to speak in meaningful interactions. Grammar/structure has to be addressed as well, and it seems most effective to introduce this explicitly, then have students practice in meaning-based, communicative tasks. My favorite book that supports this is James F. Lee & Bill Van Patten (1995). Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen, which focuses on providing opportunities for both structured input and structured output, with concrete examples we can use to create. Lee and Van Patten's book is excellent in terms of classroom applications that can be immediately implemented. In this chapter of L&S, studies 31, 35, 37 and 38 lend further credibility to the idea of varying instruction and using a combination approach.

4 comments:

Juanita's Space said...

Joleen,
In my own experinece as a language learner there is not a better way to learn English than have interacting with other persons in a vary of contexts. As you said "with plenty of opportunities to speak in meaningful interactions".
Como aprendiz, muchas de las veces existen reglas gramaticales que no logras comprender por mas que sean repetitivas. Pero,en algunos casos estas reglas se convierten en un aprendizaje significativo cuando las llevamos a la practica en una conversacion y por alguna manera no se vuelven a olvidar.
Juanita.

Clara P. said...

Hi Joleen,
This is just a total girl comment that really has nothing to do with the academic content of your site (which I think is GREAT by the way!) I just wanted to tell you that you look especially great in that photo you have posted on your profile!
Claire

Clara P. said...

Dear Joleen,
This is a total girl comment and has nothing to do with the academic content of your blog (which I think is GREAT by the way!) I just wanted to say that I think that you look especially gorgeous in the picture you have posted in your profile!
Claire

Clara P. said...

Oh, yeah I forgot that you said these go through your email! Sorry for the double posting. :0)
claire