Chapter 5: Facilitating Negotiated Interaction
Interaction with target language is key.
Types of interactional activity:
• Textual Activity makes use of Krashens Monitor Model and i + 1 as a means of teaching students. The best way for them to learn their L2 is to receive comprehensible input.
I think that students can learn how to understand and speak a language (at a young age) just by listening and interacting with the language in that way but they will not be able to write or read the language with any sort of proficiency and that can be very detrimental to the students’ academic career. Because there is no active participation by the learner there seems to be a lack of learner autonomy in this kind of activity.
• Interpersonal Activity includes specific types of interaction in which the negotiation of meaning is involved (Prevent or repair communication breakdowns).
Being able to converse with native speakers and being able to adjust your own speaking can be extremely helpful in learning a L2. This kind of interaction allows the learner to take some control of their learning, instead of just being spoken at. There may be more use of mental facilities and a focus on correct grammar when speaking to become comprehensible. The learner may be able to notice further their own mistakes when they are corrected by those with a higher proficiency.
Comprehensible output is actually, in my opinion, a very important piece to learning a language. In my own language learning for Spanish the best ways that I’ve learned and gained further fluency is to 1) hear the language spoken to me by native speakers and 2) to be able to respond and sound out my own output of the language. With this kind of method I find that I learn from the native speaker and their use of grammar and I also learn from my own mistakes as I speak and correct as I go along in the conversation. So I consider output to be a key part of learning an L2.
• Ideational Activity pits ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) against i + 1 and how one follows a meaningful interaction model while the other merely suggests input at the learners’ level and one step higher with no emphasis on interaction.
This method is focused on interaction and the learner but it also takes into account sociocultural factors and the effect they have on L2 development.
Chapter 7: Fostering Language Awareness
Language Awareness Movements:
• The British Movement: 1975 report of the Bullock Committee to go into “the teaching to reading and other uses of English” Promotion of linguistic tolerance began and a few educational reform proposals began. A new desire arose to create curiosity in students concerning language and its uses in everyday life and how it changes our lives.
• The American Movement: The Whole Language Movement ~1975. This is the introduction of language into all aspects of classwork and disciplines. It looks to enrich the experience of the students with language. A new recognition of diverse linguistic resources that learners bring to class.
This idea of using language and acknowledging language in all aspects of the curriculum, in math classes and whatnot, reminds me of changes made to curriculum that require the use of math across the curriculum which was implemented when I was in junior high and high school. It seems to be used as a way to create more linguistic awareness, just like the use of math in all courses was used to improve the math scores/knowledge for students.
Language Awareness of Language Teachers
In my 241 English class this semester we have talked quite extensively about the issues of teaching and how problematic it can be when teachers themselves do not understand the language they are teaching which is why knowing the languages’ history is so important. Teachers must have language awareness so that we are not leaving our students with answers like the one on page 161. Having no answer at all, or saying something happens just because it does, can cause serious confusion for students who are trying to learn English as their L2.
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