Second language learning in the classroom
I found this week’s reading was quite long but had enough information to know about six proposals written in the textbook. Each proposal is interesting, and I was able to learn the pieces of how methods can be applied in the actual teaching in this chapter. There are many study case showed in the chapter explaining and enhancing each proposal. And I found some of them are interesting and I would like to share my thoughts on some of them.
Study19, which was enhanced input, is interesting study for me to think about the balance between input and output. For the natural settings or communicative, sometimes the input is rather expelled from the actual setting in the class, because they focus on the meaning of the language, arguing that what is important for the language is how the meaning is conveyed one to another. But I think that sometimes right amount of input would be necessary in order to improve their language skills. I would not say that interaction would not work to improve the language skills, and I think it is a great way. But I think that sticking on only the meaning of the language, the learners’ development would be stuck, in a nutshell, fossilization. The reason for this is because I think if leaners focused on the meaning rather than the form without they learned about the form, they would use the wrong form and become it would be a habit as in the behavioral theory. In order for learners to avoid being stuck, I think the right amount of input should be given to learners. As found by White, leaners made more progress when they were given a simple rule and then worked together to find the correct possessive determiners. As in this case, it is important not only to focus on the meaning of the language but also to give even a small amount of input to help leaners make more progress.