Daily quote about teaching

“Opportunities for freer communication did  not cause learners to do less well on measures of linguistic accuracy” Research by Sandra Savignon, quoted by Lightbown and Spada in “How Languages are Learned”

This entry was posted in TESOL. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Daily quote about teaching

  1. Eric Roth's avatar Eric Roth says:

    Sometimes a simple insight must be dressed up in formal, academic garb to gain widespread acceptance. Shock, shock, most people learn languages better when they feel comfortable speaking and being themselves.

    The trick remains respecting the students, creating a tolerant and rigorous atmosphere, and encouraging students to “become who they are.”

    Like

  2. Alex Case's avatar Alex Case says:

    I kind of agree but…

    It’s very easy to dismiss experiment results when you think they say something obvious. It’s also very easy to dismiss scientific results when they say something you don’t agree with. But when it comes down to it, 700 years ago if you had produced a scientific result that said the world is flat people would have had exactly that “Doh, yer, obvious!” reaction. The fact that we as a species are not producing results now that say that is much more down to the use of the scientific method than it is to “learning to trust our feelings”.

    If accepting SLA beliefs because someone famous says they are true with little or any practical proof is the point, then I 100% agree.

    Like

  3. Alex Case's avatar Alex Case says:

    PS

    I don’t know which country you teach in, but most of my Japanese students would respond to questions meant to ‘reveal their true self’ with the simple reaction “Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” (approximate translation- you expect me to answer that?????)

    Like

Leave a comment (link optional and email never shared)