week 13

When reading the Lightbown and Spada chapter, I found that a few of the proposals reminded me of my learning in high school, which was not incredibly successful.  The "Get it right in the end" proposal seemed to be like the most effective way to teach, in my mind.  It's important to remember that some things are more difficult to teach than others and will just take time for the student to acquire.  This was the case for me in French when I was learning the genders of nouns.  It's memorization and practice and new because we don't have an equivalent in English.  I think when students don't have the equivalent in their own language, it takes more time for the learner to acquire it.  Interlanguage can change depending on the student's focus.  It's important to teach in a way that creates memorable experiences so that the students can alter their interlanguage and learn from errors and successes.

When I was in France, I remember that I learned that most not only when errors were pointed out, but when someone would compliment me on my accent.  Teaching in a way that encourages learning in both the students' L1 and L2 will allow them to feel a part of both cultures and languages.  This, in turn, will create an environment that fosters learning and creates memorable, meaningful exchanges that would never show up in a textbook.