The basic concept in chapter for is that practice is necessary in order to acquire any skill, or that we "learn by doing." We read from countless theorists and their interactive learning ideas. Freire and Mao "saw that teh oppressed must liberate themselves in the context of a world that is changing. Learning takes place through pracitce in transforming the world." Continual adjustment and adaptations must be made for dialouge to be understood, and this can only be done through practice.
Later, Wong continues on page 143 to say "In general, the field of English as a second language is committed to the importance of practice in language learning and integrating hands-on experiences with speaking and writing." I could not agree with her more completely. What good is any information or skill one possesses without practice? It must be utilized in order to be effective. I can testify from personal experience that I did not get better at my Spanish until I really practiced it and was forced out of my comfort zone to use it. I'm not perfect at it, but in the long run it was worth it. We need to do the same for our students. Give the real life, applicable situations so that they can PRACTICE our language.
Katie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we have to offer our students many opportunities to practice the langauge - to use the knowledge that they are gaining in real-life and realistic contexts. However, sometimes when we over-emphasize that, I think that we undermine the importance of the grammar concepts and vocabulary that they are relating back to their first language. As teachers we have to make sure we do not disregard their previous knowledge when we attempt to introduce a second language as a "new" idea, something unrelated to their previous language experience and something that cannot be used in the same way. I often make this mistake with my students at the ELI - I will plan a lesson around something like apologizing, which is an important strategy, but come to discover later that the differences are not as large as I would have suspected and these students, at 20 - 25 years old, clearly already know how to apologize. All they need is the appropriate language, not a ton of extra remarks. If the students feel they are being treated as children, they will be less motivated to produce and practice. I don't think that's really what you were getting at in your post but that's what it made me think of. I have so much to learn!