Oscar Swan on Immersion teaching of Polish

[Sarah Ruth Lorenz]

Chapter six of the latest edition of Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada’s How Languages are Learned has an overview of research that supports the conclusion that a mix of “form-focused” and communicative instruction is effective in L2 teaching. They call this the “get it right in the end” approach, and clearly endorse it; it is roughly the same thing as what Dusty suggests below. The whole book is a great overview of research in L1 and L2 acquisition and instruction.

Sarah Ruth Lorenz
Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA  70118
slorenz at tulane.edu 


On Aug 6, 2014, at 8:06 AM, dusty wilmes <upthera44 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

Hi Tony, 

I also enjoyed the Swan article--thank you for sharing it--and think he raises important caveats to the panacea of immersion (and the communicative method). I also see how, in my own experience learning Polish, certain fossilized mistakes developed. 

His point about such mistakes, which are reinforced and never corrected because the communication is understood well enough, is well-taken. I also thought the analysis of some of the evolved strategies of advanced speakers was insightful (using chunk phrases, avoiding grammatically complex constructions, etc). 

In our field, I think Swan’s study provides a compelling argument for not taking the communicative method too far, but applying a hybrid approach with greater explicit grammar instruction than might be done in, say, Spanish. On the other hand, since he is analyzing a total immersion experience, and most students have a meager 5 hours a week of language classes at best, I can see why we stress communicative method and its focus on maximizing language input. I would imagine the best balance for our languages to be a largely communicative approach with regular, brief insertions of explicit grammar instruction (even a bit of drilling endings, God forbid), this way we teach the students a  'predisposition to hear things grammatically.’ It is important that they develop linguistic awareness and continue to evolve their language and not fossilize mistakes. 

Best, 

Dusty




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                        http://seelangs.wix.com/seelangs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/seelang/attachments/20140806/b9e2e72a/attachment.html>