Pat’s Polemics

It really is lamentable that these old curmudgeons just don't get it. The vision you and others have shared, of two to three years of communicative language instruction, in which great amounts of language are heard and read, before the introduction of some language analysis/rule explanation while continuing communicative instruction, is a very efficient way to produce people who can actually use a language.

If we taught driver's ed the way these curmudgeons teach languages, we'd get a lot of people killed--many more than the 40,000 a year in the US I recently heard of.

For those interested in this topic, Ben Slavic happened to blog on nearly the same complaint the same day. You can read it under the title "Response to Grant" at http://www.benslavic.com/bl... Ben states what should be happening in language classrooms in terms of communicative language teaching.

Just an aside -
That figure of 40,000 suggests we're doing something right b/c I remember hearing that same figure when I was about 8 y.o., so 60 years ago (I remember b/c when I heard it on the radio, I thought they picked people out to die and wondered if my mother would be one)

Just a off the cuff thought...
What if we changed out the word "grammar" for some politically charged term?

E.g: 'Entitlements', or '[Linguistic]communism'

"Kids just don't understand the fundamentals of communism any more. I'm going to bury them in worksheets."

"How will they ever succeed if they don't learn proper communism?"

"If we taught driver's ed the way these curmudgeons teach languages, we'd get a lot of people killed--many more than the 40,000 a year in the US I recently heard of."

I'm not sure that's a good analogy for language teaching.

First, in most states, one is required first to pass a test on legal and practical issues in driving, _before_ getting behind the wheel and practicing.

Second, not being taught certain things is the reason people driving 80 mi/hr in light snow collide with people driving ten. Or lock the brakes and slide off the road instead of using them effectively.

To quote Paul García:
First, may I add a reference on the matter of CLT and drills that I
have used with my methods students: Wong, W. & VanPatten, B. (2003).
The Evidence is IN: Drills are OUT. Foreign Language Annals, 36,
403-423.

Die Botschaft höre ich wohl,
allein mir fehlt die Glaube.