For decades, immersion programs have reported students becoming quite fluent, with native-like comprehension, and no loss in subject matter knowledge. The old me used to think “Yeah, but I don’t have the time that an immersion program has.” I wouldn’t see the results of immersion programs as particularly relevant to me, since I have way less time. I was, of course, thinking that I could take shortcuts. I didn’t see the obvious: instructional time does not change how acquisition happens.
What makes immersion programs work? We know immersion students produce relatively little output and error correction is random. Hmm, what could it be? . . . The “shortcut” is for the teacher (and materials) to communicate a lot to students and communicate as comprehensibly as possible.
As noted in the Pedagogical Implications of Memo #23, some SLA researchers walked away with a different implication of immersion programs: grammatical inaccuracy, especially concerning those darn verb endings. Fast forward to the present and instructed SLA research is preoccupied with helping learners make more form-meaning connections (aka process input) amidst communicative events. The rather unfortunate label (thanks, Michael Long) for this is “focus on form” (FonF). This is contrasted with focus on formS (FonFS) which is when form and meaning are treated separately, e.g., traditional present-and-practice procedures.
Numerous FonF interventions and techniques have been proposed, including increasing the frequency of target forms in the input, making target forms stand out, for example, by boldening parts of the text, rephrasing a learner’s ungrammatical utterance, and careful manipulation of input. The technical terms for each of those examples are “input floods,” “input enhancement,” “recasts,” and “processing instruction,” respectively. The only one of those that has consistently shown positive results (when properly designed) is processing instruction.
Unfortunately, FonF is ripe for teachers falling victim to the rearview mirror syndrome (see Memo #13). FonF is not a better way to practice textbook rules. Even if you get the purpose of FonF, using these interventions and techniques is like bringing a squirt gun to a pool party. You’re gonna get soaked if you just jump in the communicative language teaching pool.
What makes immersion programs work? We know immersion students produce relatively little output and error correction is random. Hmm, what could it be? . . . The “shortcut” is for the teacher (and materials) to communicate a lot to students and communicate as comprehensibly as possible.
As noted in the Pedagogical Implications of Memo #23, some SLA researchers walked away with a different implication of immersion programs: grammatical inaccuracy, especially concerning those darn verb endings. Fast forward to the present and instructed SLA research is preoccupied with helping learners make more form-meaning connections (aka process input) amidst communicative events. The rather unfortunate label (thanks, Michael Long) for this is “focus on form” (FonF). This is contrasted with focus on formS (FonFS) which is when form and meaning are treated separately, e.g., traditional present-and-practice procedures.
Numerous FonF interventions and techniques have been proposed, including increasing the frequency of target forms in the input, making target forms stand out, for example, by boldening parts of the text, rephrasing a learner’s ungrammatical utterance, and careful manipulation of input. The technical terms for each of those examples are “input floods,” “input enhancement,” “recasts,” and “processing instruction,” respectively. The only one of those that has consistently shown positive results (when properly designed) is processing instruction.
Unfortunately, FonF is ripe for teachers falling victim to the rearview mirror syndrome (see Memo #13). FonF is not a better way to practice textbook rules. Even if you get the purpose of FonF, using these interventions and techniques is like bringing a squirt gun to a pool party. You’re gonna get soaked if you just jump in the communicative language teaching pool.
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