Readings for November 3rd

Chapter 11 covered the different terms that are used to define the term, "technique". I am thankful for that because it is very hard to keep some of the terms that are used throughout the textbooks. Mechanical, meaningful and communicative drills were also broken down with examples. I did not have to experience drills when I was learning a second language and therefore I became more familiar with the technique. It seems drills are infamous in the language learning world but the Chapter did point out some of the advantages such as establishing structural patterns, rhythm and pronunciation.

Chapter 12 covered many different types of technology that is used in the classroom. When learning Spanish at MSU I used some technology, such as recording my voice of reading a passage in Spanish and then hearing it back. In fact, I still have a few of my very first recordings and I cannot help but feel embarrassed of how much I 'butchered' the language. I found them useful because I realized mistakes of mine that were unrecognizable when concentrating on speaking. I wish my more advanced classes utilized this method because I could always use improvement on my accent.

Chapter 13 gave great pointers on how to encourage interaction in the classroom. It also highlighted how important interaction is especially but limited to the communicative approach. One line in the book stated, "Interaction is, in fact, the heart of communication"(p. 212). I found that statement to be very compelling as it points out the fact that communication is nothing without the feelings, thoughts or ideas of others. To further explain, communication can take place and has a very broad definition. One example may be a teacher standing in the front of the class "spoon feeding" information to the students. In other words, that teacher is communicating with her students but NOT interacting. She is not receiving any feedback or response and therefore the students are not making connections to what they already know or a\connecting the new information with their background knowledge.