Structured Input: Grammar Instruction for the AcquisitionOriented Classroom - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 85
About This Presentation
Title:

Structured Input: Grammar Instruction for the AcquisitionOriented Classroom

Description:

Without appropriate input there can be no acquisition of language, ... has appeared on Late Night' for years. (e) Stephen King. Three Major Processing Issues ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:1662
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 86
Provided by: andrewf153
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Structured Input: Grammar Instruction for the AcquisitionOriented Classroom


1
Structured Input Grammar Instruction for the
Acquisition-Oriented Classroom
  • Andrew P. Farley
  • February 2007

2
Unscramble the following to make a sentence.
  • appropriate
  • of
  • input
  • can
  • acquisition
  • or
  • be
  • no
  • without
  • either
  • there
  • second
  • language
  • first

3
Input an essential
  • Without appropriate input there can be no
    acquisition of language, either first or second.

4
Why Input?
5
What Is Input?
  •  
  • Samples of meaning-bearing language that learners
    are exposed to in a communicative setting.
  • It is language that communicates some kind of
    message.

6
Examples of Input in a First Language Context
  • Do you want a drink of water?
  • Dont forget to wash before dinner.
  • Make sure you eat all your vegetables.

7
Input in Foreign Language Learning Context
  • Please open your books to pg. 78.
  • Please get into groups of three.
  • Watching a film.
  • Listening to a song.
  • Advertisements
  • Interacting with the instructor and students in
    the target language.

8
  • Successful Language Acquisition Begins with INPUT
  • Language Acquisition Cannot Happen Without INPUT

9
Input provides the linguistic data to start the
process of language acquisition.
  • The concept of input is perhaps the single most
    important concept of second language acquisition.
    (Gass, 1997, p. 1)
  • All cases of successful first and second language
    acquisition are characterized by the availability
    of comprehensible input (Larsen-Freeman Long,
    1991, p.142)

10
Input an analogy
  • Input is like gas for a car

11
HOW DO LEARNERS GET LINGUISTIC DATA FROM INPUT?
  • Via form-meaning connections they make from input
    when learners attempt to comprehend a message.
  • (VanPatten, 1996, 2003)

12
WHAT IS FORM?
  • Surface features of language (e.g., verbal and
    nominal morphology)
  • Functional items (e.g., prepositions, articles,
    pronouns)
  • Word form

13
What is Meaning?
  • What do we mean when we say meaning?
  • Real-world referential meaning.
  • THEREFORE
  • A form-meaning connection is the relationship
    between real-world meaning and the way it is
    encoded linguistically.

14
MEANING
FORM
? gato, chat
15
Form and Meaning (cont.)
  • I talked to my professor.
  • ?
  • (past tense)

16
Form and Meaning (cont.)
  • Sylvie regardera un film.
  • ?
  • (future tense)

17
(No Transcript)
18
Why Structured Input?
19
WHAT IS STRUCTURED INPUT?
  • Structured Input (SI) is a deliberate attempt
    to alter learner processing strategies.
  • Structured input activities may or may not be
    accompanied by information about processing.

20
Structured Input An approach based on what we
know about L2 input processing.
  • 1. Why certain grammar points may go overlooked
    (unprocessed) by learners.
  • 2. What strategies learners tend to use that may
    hinder acquisition.

21
The Goal of Structured Input
  • Structured Input is created in an attempt to
    push learners away from faulty processing
    strategies
  • and
  • push them toward using more optimal
    processing strategies while attending to the
    second language.

22
Referential vs. Affective
23
SI Activities Two Types
  • There are two kinds of SI activities referential
    and affective.
  • Referential Activities. These are meaning-based
    activities that have a right or wrong answer.

24
Referential Two Examples
  • Example Listen to each statement and select the
    picture that matches what you hear.
  • Example Listen to each statement and determine
    which person the sentence refers to.

25
Affective Activities
  • These are meaning-based activities that require
    the learner to offer an opinion, express a
    belief, make a judgment.
  • In short, you may not know how the learner is
    going to respond.

26
Affective Three Examples
  • Example 1 Check off the statements that are true
    for you.
  • Example 2 Put these activities in the order in
    which you do them.
  • Example 3 Complete each statement with a word or
    phrase that is true for a typical student.

27
Part Two
  • Sample Activities (English)

28
Yesterday or Today? You will hear sentences
describing some things that someone did yesterday
and some things that he is doing today. Listen
carefully to the sentences and identify whether
the sentence you hear is referring to something
that person did yesterday or is doing today.
Circle the correct response. Someone 1) Yesterday
Today 2) Yesterday Today 3) Yesterday Today Do
you think this person was a good boy yesterday?
___________ Teachers Script This person
1)     cleans house. 2)     gave chocolate to
the dog. 3)     cheated on the math homework.
29
Instant Messenger. You are on Instant Messenger
with your mother and she asks you the usual
questions to find out what you did yesterday.
Below is a list of her customary questions.
Simply write her an IM back for each question
responding by yes (sì) or no based on what you
actually did yesterday.   Your mother You ate
breakfast? You __________ Your mother You
drank a capuccino? You _____________ Your
mother You read the newspaper? You __________
___ Your mother You ate McDonalds, didnt
you? You _____________
30
Follow-up Steps
31
Follow-up steps for SI activities
  • Follow-up steps make the learners responsible for
    the content of an SI activity.
  • Follow-up steps increase the likelihood that
    learners will attend to form and meaning during
    an activity.

32
Some examples of follow-up steps are
  • Agree / Disagree
  • Vote for or against
  • Share and compare/contrast answers
  • Review your answers in light of new information.
  • Survey
  • Others

33
Guidelines for Activity Design
34
Guidelines for Developing Structured Input
Activities
  • Present one thing at a time.
  • This means Break up paradigms.
  • This means Use only one function or rule at a
    time.

35
Guidelines for Developing Structured Input
Activities
  • Meaning must be in focus.
  • If learners can do the activity without paying
    attention to some kind of meaning, then you do
    not have an SI activity.

36
Guidelines for Developing Structured Input
Activities
  • Use both written and aural input.
  • Learners must do something with the input.
  • Learners are not passive.
  • They indicate comprehension via selecting
    pictures, checking off lists, indicating
    true/false, and so on.

37
Guidelines for Developing Structured Input
Activities
  • Move from sentence level to discourse.
  • Begin with SI activities that contain short
    utterances/sentences.
  • Avoid paragraph-length discourse.
  • Move from referential to affective activities in
    a cyclic fashion.

38
Guidelines for Developing Structured Input
Activities
  • Keep the psycholinguistic processing problems in
    mind.
  • The point of SI is to push learners away from
    non-optimal strategies in processing.
  • If the activities are not purposefully designed
    to overcome these strategies, you do not have SI.

39
Pitfalls of SI Activity Design
  • Pitfalls of SI Activity Design

40
Pitfall 1 Not presenting one thing at a time.
  • ACTIVITY A The Future
  • Read each statement about the future and
    decide whether each is probable or improbable for
    the year 2030.
  • Probable Improbable In the year 2030
  • ______ ______ (1) they will invent a flying
    car.
  • ______ ______ (2) I will be married with
    kids.
  • ______ ______ (3) we will have more
    terrorism.
  • ______ ______ (4) the president will be a
    woman.

41
Pitfall 2 Not keeping meaning in focus.
  • ACTIVITY B Present progressive
  • Circle all the ing verb forms in the
    following paragraph.
  • Daria is sitting in a methods course at Notre
    Dame. She is thinking to herself Are these guys
    selling me snake oil? Or am I just not hearing
    them correctly? The presenter is talking about
    new ways to focus on grammar. Daria is not sure
    that shes buying it
  • Daria is gilking in a fetalya at Notre Dame. She
    is spooching to herself Are these dillets
    shacklackling me billous vippen? Or am I just
    not evorgating them duptly? The rhenor is
    tooping about gunky nuvvets to focus on drakkar.
    Daria is not sure that shes geeping it

42
Meaning in Focuscompare with previous activity
  • ACTIVITY C Bill Clinton Before and After
  • A recent newspaper article discussed Bill
    Clintons presidency and his retirement. Decide
    whether each excerpt taken from the article
    refers to Bill Clintons life during his
    presidency or now, during his retirement.
  • As President Now Bill Clinton
  • _______ _______ speaks at universities.
  • _______ _______ jogged almost every day.
  • _______ _______ met with world leaders.
  • _______ _______ spends time with his
    family..
  • more activity items of the same format

43
Pitfall 3 Not having learners do something with
the input.
  • ACTIVITY D My Summer Vacation
  • Listen carefully to each sentence your
    instructor reads about their upcoming vacation.
    Notice the use of will to denote future.
  • Instructor reads
  • This summer, I will spend two weeks in
    Europe. When I get back, I will take a road trip
    with my family. I will work in a bookstore for
    the rest of the summer to earn some extra money.
    Then, I plan to get a head start on Fall classes.

44
Doing Something w/ Inputcompare with previous
activity
  • ACTIVITY E My Summer Vacation Two Different
    Perspectives
  • Step 1 Are teachers lives really that
    different from their students? Read about your
    instructors plans for this summer and decide
    whether or not each activity would be fun for
    you.
  • My Idea of Fun Not My Idea of Fun I
  • _________ _________ 1. will spend two
    weeks in Europe.
  • _________ _________ 2. will take a road
    trip with my family.
  • _________ _________ 3. will get a head
    start on Fall classes.
  • _________ _________ 4. will work part-time
    at a bookstore.
  • more activity items of the same format
  • Step2 One of these statements made by the
    instructor is not true. Can you guess which one
    your instructor is not actually planning to do?
    Together with a partner, see if you can agree on
    which one is false and be ready to announce your
    guess.

45
Pitfall 4 of SI Activity Design
  • Not presenting both
  • oral and
  • written input.

46
Pitfall 5 Not moving from sentences to
connected discourse.
  • ACTIVITY F Richards Weekend
  • Listen to the following story that Richard
    told about his weekend and decide which
    statements accurately describe what happened.
  • T or F Richard
  • ______ 1. viewed some films.
  • ______ 2. went to a big party.
  • ______ 3. completed a project at home.
  • ______ 4. relaxed most of the weekend.
  • Instructors Script
  • My weekend was really relaxed. I just went out
    once to visit a friend at his apartment. Other
    than that, I stayed up late every night watching
    movies I rented and shopping for a new tennis
    racket on eBay. I finished all my homework on
    Friday, so I played around most of the weekend. I
    called my parents on Sunday just to check up on
    the new house they are building. All in all, it
    was a pretty low key weekend.

47
Pitfall 6 Not keeping the learners processing
strategies in mind.
  • -leaving redundant lexical items in the input
    strings together with the target morphology.
  •       
  • -leaving the target form in a sentence-medial
    position when it is possible to make it more
    salient in utterance-initial position.
  •         
  • -maintaining SVO word order with most or all
    activity items when learners could benefit from
    being exposed to OVS or other variations.
  • -or the opposite having only OVS word order to
    the exclusion of SVO.

48
Pitfall 7 Not attending to utterance length
during activity design.
  • ACTIVITY G The Model Student.
  • Step 1 Do you consider yourself an organized,
    responsible student? Are you a sterling role
    model for others to follow? Lets find out! See
    how many characteristics of a responsible student
    match you.
  • A responsible student
  • ______ 1. wakes up early to have a balanced
    breakfast before class.
  • ______ 2. lays out the clothes they are going
    to wear the night before.
  • ______ 3. arrives at school early to review
    for class discussions.
  • ______ 4. tries to get all their homework
    done before dinner.
  • ______ 5. goes to bed early so they can get
    eight hours of sleep.
  • ______ 6. falls asleep quickly and easily
    because they have worked so hard.
  •  
  • Step 2 Are any of the actions in Step 1 overly
    responsible, bordering on obsessive? Which ones?
    Be ready to share your thoughts.

49
Utterance Lengthcompare with previous activity
  • ACTIVITY H The Model Student.
  • Step 1 Do you consider yourself an
    organized, responsible student? Are you a
    sterling role model for others to follow? Lets
    find out! See how many characteristics of a
    responsible student match you.
  • A responsible student
  • ______ 1. wakes up early.
  • ______ 2. eats breakfast.
  • ______ 3. arrives early to class.
  • ______ 4. finishes homework before class.
  • ______ 5. goes to bed early.
  • ______ 6. falls asleep quickly.
  •  
  • Step 2 Are any of the actions in Step 1 overly
    responsible, bordering on obsessive? Which ones?
    Be ready to share your thoughts.

50
Pitfall 8 Remaining faithful
  • Feeling the need to remain faithful to the
    language, when being unfaithful is actually
    more beneficial to learners.
  • ACTIVITY J Pop Culture Icons
  • A recent article in a pop culture magazine
    summarized the lives and contributions of major
    figures in the rock-n-roll industry. Below are
    just a few excerpts from the article. For each
    excerpt, decide whether the author of the article
    was referring to Sarah McLachlan or to both Bono
    and the Edge.
  • Sarah McLachlan Bono and the Edge
  • 1. travels all over the world. _____ _____
  • 2. play the guitar. _____ _____
  • 3. sings before thousands. _____ _____
  • 4. writes a lot of songs. _____ _____
  • 5. make videos for MTV and VH1. _____ _____
  • 6. raises money for charities. _____ _____

51
Pitfall 9 Developing ungrammatical sentences as
potential answers.
  • ACTIVITY K Furniture Shopping with Roberto.
  • Roberto is going shopping to begin furnishing
    his new contemporary apartment in Manhattan.
    Select the grammatically correct answer to
    complete the following sentences
  • 1. La sala es de estilo moderno. Asi que Roberto
    necesita comprar
  • un sofa blanco una sofa blanca
  • una sofa blanco un sofa blanca
  •  
  • 2. También debe comprar
  •    una silla negro un silla negro
  • una silla negra un silla negra

52
Ungrammatical Answers in SI Activitiescompare
with previous activity
  • ACTIVITY L. Furniture Shopping with Roberto.
  • Step 1 You are going shopping to begin
    furnishing your new contemporary apartment in
    Manhattan. You are going for the modern, even
    space-age, look. Which colors would you lean
    towards for each item?
  • (1) un sofa (2) una silla ... (3) una mesa
    (4) una alfombra
  • a) morado a) morada a) metálica a) roja y
    verde
  • b) azul b) negra b) amarilla b) blanca y
    negra
  • c) blanco c) verde c) azul c) blanca y
    roja
  • d) anaranjado d) roja d) blanca d) negra
    y roja
  •  
  • Step 2 Compare your answers with a partner.
    Did you both agree on how to decorate a
    contemporary NY apartment with the space-age
    look?

53
Pitfall 10 Creating giveaway items through
poor vocabulary choice.
  • ACTIVITY M Why are they famous?
  • Match the famous person to the activity they are
    best known for
  • has played basketball for the Los Angeles
    Lakers.(a) Julia Child
  • has lived in the White House. (b) ONeal
  • has written many gourmet cookbooks.
    (c)Letterman
  • has written horror books like Carrie and
    Misery. (d) Clinton
  • has appeared on Late Night for years. (e)
    Stephen King

54
Three Major Processing Issues
55
Three Major Processing Problems
  • There are three major processing problems.
  • These are non-optimal strategies employed by L2
    (or L1) learners.

56
Processing Problem 1Lexical Preference
  • Learners will ignore grammatical markers if the
    information these markers encode appears in a
    content lexical item somewhere else in the
    sentence or discourse.

57
Lexical Preference Examples
  • What did you do yesterday?
  • I dont think John understands this.
  • John talks way too much.

58
Processing Problem 2First-noun Strategy
  • Learners will take the first noun or pronoun in
    an utterance to be the subject.

59
First Noun Strategy Examples
  • Lo conoce bien.
  • Se levanta tarde.
  • A Juan le gusta Maria.
  • Jean fait nettoyer la chambre à Phillipe.
  • Le lion est tué par lhomme.

60
Processing Problem 3Sentence Location Principle
  • Learners are sensitive to position within an
    utterance.
  • Learners prefer to process utterance-initial
    items, then utterance-final items.
  • Utterance-medial items are most difficult to hold
    in working memory for processing.

61
Identify the Processing Problem
  • I watched television for three hours yesterday.
  • I purchased magazines while I was abroad.
  • David wants us to turn in our homework.
  • John was kissed by Mary in front of everyone.
  • Mireille porte une robe verte.
  • Dudo que tu perro entienda lo que dices.
  • Seb fait manger du fromage à Drew.

62
Keeping In Mind the Processing Problem
63
Reminder The Purpose of SI
  • To push learners away from
  • lexical preference
  • first noun strategy
  • sentence location
  • To push learners toward
  • attending to the form itself
  • identifying the function of nouns (and pronouns)
    correctly.
  • processing sentence-medial items

64
ACTIVITY A Kobe Bryant In a recent interview,
Kobe Bryant was asked about his current life on
the road with the L.A. Lakers and his plans after
retirement from basketball. Below are some
excerpts from the interview. For each statement,
decide whether Kobe is referring to his current
life or his plans for retirement from the
NBA. With Lakers In Retirement 1. Conosco
gente nuova. ______ ______ I meet new
people. 2. Viaggerò molto. ______ ______ I
will travel a lot. 3. Lavorerò sodo.
______ ______ I will work hard. 4. Do
denaro a organizzazioni di beneficenza.
______ ______ I give money to charities. 5.
Sarò felice. ______ ______ I will be
happy. 6. Sarò di buon esempio.
______ ______ I will be a role
model. more activity items of the same
format
65
ACTIVITY E What Are The Chances? Step 1
Imagine your life forty years from now. What will
it be like? Full of fame and fortune? Or just
average? For each statement below, indicate the
likelihood of each happening in your life four
decades from now. Likely Unlikely 1. Avrò
molti nipoti. ____ ____ I will have many
grandchildren. 2. Sarò ricco. ____ ____ I
will be rich. 3. Potrò pensionarmi
presto. ____ ____ I will be able to retire
early. 4. Saprò di più della vita. ____ ____
I will know more about life. 5. Farò quello che
mi pare e piace. ____ ____ I will do whatever
I please. 6. Fonderò la mia propria ____ ____
I will start my own company. società
daffari. Step 2 Now that you have guessed
at some of the details in your distant future,
give a partner the chance to guess about you as
well. In pairs, have your partner try to predict
which statements that you said were likely and
which ones you said were unlikely. Step 3
Now score yourselves on how well you predicted
what the other person thinks their future will be
like. How accurate were you in your predictions?
Be ready to share your score with the class.
66
Activity H. Pop Culture Icons A recent article in
a pop culture magazine summarized the lives and
contributions of major figures in the rock-n-roll
industry. Below are just a few excerpts from the
article. For each excerpt, decide whether the
author of the article was referring to Sarah
McLachlan or to both Bono and the
Edge. Sarah McLachlan Bono and the
Edge 1. travels all over the world. _____ ____
_ 2. play the guitar. _____ _____ 3. sings
before thousands. _____ _____ 4. writes a lot
of songs. _____ _____ 5. make videos for MTV
and VH1. _____ _____ 6. raises money for
charities. _____ _____  
67
ACTIVITY A Shaquille ONeal The Los Angeles
Lakers Shaquille ONeal has won several NBA
championship rings. Below are a reporters
comments about Shaq. For each statement, decide
if the reporter believes it or doubts it.
Circle the opinion phrase that correctly begins
each comment.   1)      1. .. sea un hombre
perezoso. a. Creo que b. Es dudoso
que 2)      2. ..es el mejor jugador del
mundo. a. Estoy seguro b. Dudo
que 3)      3. ..come en Burger King con
frecuencia. a. Es cierto que b. Es
posible que 4)      4. ..lea muchas
novelas en su tiempo libre. a. Todos saben
que b. Todos dudan que 5)     
5. ..le guste hablar con los reporteros. a. Es
cierto que b. No es verdad que 6)     
6. ..siempre lleva ropa elegante. a. Es
evidente que b. No es evidente que  
68
ACTIVITY D Regis House You probably know a
little about the success of Regis Philbin, former
host of the television show Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire?. Below are some statements about
his home and his home life. Place a check next
to the statements that seem logical to you. Es
probable que su casa It is probable that his
house ___ tenga aire acondicionado. has air
conditioning. ___ esté en un barrio
seguro. is in a secure neighborhood. ___ sea
muy pequena. is very small. Dudo que su
casa I doubt that his house ___ sea
semejante a la casa de mi familia. is similar to
my familys house. ___ tenga solamente un
piso. has only one floor. No creo que
Regis I dont believe that Regis ___ tenga
animales domésticos. has pets. ___ limpie su
propia casa. cleans his own house. more
activity items of the same format
69
  • ACTIVITY B Bart and His Mom
  • You have probably caught at least one
    episode of The Simpsons while channel surfing,
    and you know that Bart is not exactly the role
    model for all youth. He must drive his mother
    Marge crazy! Still, Bart is not all that bad, and
    he loves his mom. Read each statement below about
    Bart and his mom and decide which English
    renditions accurately represent the Spanish.
  • No la comprende Bart. 3. Lo abraza Marge.
  • She doesnt understand Bart. a. Marge hugs him.
  • Bart doesnt understand her. b. He hugs Marge.
  •  
  • Bart la besa. 4. Marge lo sorprende.
  • She kisses Bart. a. Marge surprises him.
  • Bart kisses her. b. He surprises Marge.
  •  
  • more activity items of the same format

70
ACTIVITY D My best friends   Indicate whether
or not each statement about your best male friend
applies to you. Mi mejor amigo se llama
____________________________ Sí, me
aplica No, no me aplica 1. Lo llamo con
frecuencia. _____ ______ 2. Lo abrazo cuando lo
veo. ______ ______ 3. Lo comprendo muy
bien. ______ ______ 4. Lo ignoro a
veces. ______ ______ 5. Lo aprecio
mucho. ______ ______ Can repeat with female
friend as well.
71
Practical Hands-On WorkshopActivity
Development
72
Design Two SI activities
  • Keep in Mind
  • Primacy of Meaning Principle
  • First Noun Principle
  • Sentence Location Principle
  • Choose a grammatical point
  • Create one referential and one affective
    activity.
  • Remember the follow-up steps!

73
Frequently Asked Questions
74
FAQ 1 What if students grow tired of the same
basic format for SI activities?
  • Variety
  • True / False
  • Matching
  • Photos, Drawings, etc.
  • SI doesnt normally appear alone.
  • Accompanied by
  • Output
  • Reading
  • Listening Comprehension
  • Culture

75
FAQ 2 What then is the role of output practice?
  • Output practice promotes fluency and accuracy.
  • Output activities provide contexts for processes
    related to access and production.
  • No theoretical framework of SLA excludes output
    practice as a beneficial or necessary part of
    SLA.
  • We agree concerning the value of output practice.

76
FAQ 3 Which is better- referential or affective
activities?
  • Neither is better or worse.
  • Different functions
  • Referential activities force learners to attend
    to the target form.
  • Affective activities allow learners to see or
    hear the forms in meaningful contexts and relate
    the contexts to their own lives in some way.
  • Both provide healthy doses of input with the
    target feature in the most salient position.

77
FAQ 4 What should be the ratio and ordering of
referential to affective activities?
  • In general, referential activities should precede
    affective activities.
  • For every affective activity, there should be one
    or two referential activities.
  • Spiraling of referential and affective
    activities provides variety and can only enhance
    the effects.

78
FAQ 5 Which is better for the student- oral or
written SI activities?
  • Structured input in the aural mode tends to be
    more often neglected in the L2 classroom.
  • Instructors sometimes forget about the importance
    of the act of listening.
  • Particularly important for languages in which
    orthography does not intuitively represent the
    sound system.

79
FAQ 6 How can I maintain a high level of
creativity and keep students (even high school
students!) interested in my SI activities?
  • Collaboration Two heads are better than one!
  • Brainstorm using themes and subthemes.
  • The next slide contains some examples.

80
Brainstorming
  • Famous people
  • o       Politicians
  • o       Actors and actresses
  • o       TV personalities
  • o       Artists
  • o       Musicians
  • Places
  • o       Cities or towns near the school
  • o       Local hotspots
  • o       Vacation destinations
  • o       Students hometowns
  • o       Sites of current events
  • o       Places associated with well-known people
  •       

81
Brainstorming (cont.)
  • Activities
  • o       Daily routine activities
  • o       Weekend activities
  • o       Seasonal activities
  • o       Holiday fun
  • Experiences
  • o       Best and worst trips
  • o       Best and worst eating experiences
  • o       Most embarrassing moments
  • o       This Happened To Me True or False

82
FAQ 7 Arent there other types of grammar
instruction that help too?
  • YES, there are many approaches to L2 grammar
    instruction including
  • Input flood
  • Textual Enhancement
  • Explicit information
  • Corrective feedback
  • However, structured input stands alone as the
    most rigorously examined type of instructional
    intervention with regard to variety of languages
    and grammar points tested.

83
FAQ 8 I have heard that this input-focused
approach (SI) does not promote accuracy and that
if I want my students to be accurate with the
language, this approach is not the best. Is that
true?
  • This argument is raised fairly often, but makes
    no sense.
  • All of the assessment tasks in the published
    research to date on SI has taken into account
    accuracy when determining pre- and post-test
    scores.
  • SI consistently brings about improvement with
    regard to accuracy on both written and oral
    production tasks.

84
FAQ 9 How compatible are SI activities with
technology? Have they been successfully
integrated into online curriculums?
  • YES, here are a few people who have used an
    online version of SI activities
  • Bill VanPatten Univ of Illinois at Chicago
  • Andrew Farley Univ of Notre Dame
  • Diane Musumeci Univ of Illinois at U-C
  • Cristina Sanz Georgetown University
  • Many others!
  • The results of a two-year survey conducted at
    Notre Dame reveal successful implementation.
    Results included in Farley (2005-MGH).

85
FAQ 10 Is the nature of a grammar point a
significant factor in student learning?
  • While the nature of the grammatical point does
    play some role in learning, SI has been shown to
    be effective with
  • Verb tenses (various languages)
  • Present progressive (ESL)
  • Subjunctive mood (Spanish and French)
  • Object Pronouns (Spanish)
  • Negation with articles (French)
  • Adjective agreement and other features as well!
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com