The part of the article that really stood out to me were the eight conditions that are needed for optimal language learning. The eight conditions are:
- Learners have opportunities to interact and negotiate meaning
- Learners interact in the target language with an authentic audience
- Learners are involved in authentic tasks
- Learners are exposed to and encouraged to produce varied and creative language
- Learners have enough time and feedback
- Learners are guided to attend mindfully to the learning process
- Learners work in an atmostphere with an ideal stress/anxiety level
- Learner autonomy is supported
As a teacher, I think it will be very beneficial for me to keep these points in mind. I think using a combination of these, depending on the class, will help me to develop and maintain a more ideal learning situation for my students. In the past, I feel that I have done a good job with conditions 2, 3, 4, and 7. As a language education student, I look forward to learning more about how I can incorporate some of the other conditions in my classroom.
4 comments:
Was there anything that you didn't agree with or that you think needs further explanation?
Dan
Since this is the first chapter of the book, it's an introduction to the rest of the book. So, I didn't really detect any new material or groundbreaking opinions. I thought the material was basically factual, so I don't think there's anything I disagree with.
One sentence that I felt was a little odd was on page 3, when the author says "..educators do not need a discrete theory of CALL to understand the role of technology in the classroom; a clear theory of SLA and its implications for the learning environment serves this goal."
While I agree that educators don't need a CALL theory to understand the role of technology, I think they need some CALL theory in order to use technology effectively in the classroom. So, what's the use of understanding the role if you don't know how to implement it?
Learners are guided to attend mindfully to the learning process
I think this point is so important. Especially with my first year students. I feel like I need to teach them what the process of learning a second language will be like. They come into a first year class and don't yet realize that reading, writing, listening, and speaking a new language is going to require new skills and cognitive tools. Withough being taught that, I think they tend to get frustrated really quickly.
John
I really like you blog. This is the first time I've done anything like this so I'm trying to get some ideas. Like you, I really didn't find much to disagree with in the first week's readings.
Stefanie
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