I thought this chapter on Form-Focused Instruction was quite helpful for me. I am continuing my research from last semester on Corrective Feedback and I thought this chapter tied in quite well with some of the issues I am grappling with. I was particularly intrigued by the statement that, "research shows that rarely is overt grammatical correction by teachers in the classroom of any consequesce in improving learners' language" (426). Instead it is suggested that teachers focus on helping their students elicit meaning from the texts they read and express their ideas accurately in their writing and speech, whether the grammar be correct or no. :)The charts and sample exercises were helpful in illustrating possible techniques to teach certain concepts. I particularly liked Exercise 1 that suggested using realia to teach posession. Far more fun than worksheets.
I am 1/4 of the way through Coraline. So far I am not impressed. Maybe this will be the first case of the movie being better than the book.
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The exercise on using realia is such an obvious one, yet I read it and went: "Duh, that's a good idea." It is nice to have someone point out the good things. :)
ReplyDeleteI doubt it will be better than the book. It never is. But what really tickles my noodle is the fact that everything was done by hand. I read an article in Wired this month about how each cherry blossom on the trees was one of 250,000 popcorn kernels painted by hand, and the steam of the tea kettle was actually cotton soaked in hairspray.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would take reala over worksheets ANY day of the week.
"research shows that rarely is overt grammatical correction by teachers in the classroom of any consequesce in improving learners' language" this also grasped my interest too. And then I thought why my instroctors have focussed on the grammar so much?
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