Having been on 4 to 5 listservs dealing with teaching FL over the last 20 years, I’ve always been frustrated by the lack of “digging down” into just what goes on in our classrooms, in our students’ heads, in our heads. Just skimming this thread, “targeted/non-targeted, sticky, response” etc. I feel we have reached the point where we can say the profession, at least on moretprs, no longer is just looking on these listservs for something to do Monday morning. I see an in-depth analysis of why we do what we do. The heart of my frustration has been an unspoken rule in conversations among teachers to not be disagreeable, meaning don’t disagree, to not be confrontational, which means don’t see an error, to not badger, meaning to let illogical thinking slip by without comment…… all in the service of not ruffling feathers. I recently posted a url (is that what you call it?) to a blog entry of mine on the sneakiness of CI teaching, the way learners learn without quite realizing it; so much of our profession believe that leaning a language should be a skull-crusher and only an elite 4% can learn it and they’re right, but everyone can acquire.
Now I see people really grappling with both the research and theory behind SLA and the practicalities of classroom life. Good goin’, people.
Pat Barrett