Week 5: Sociocultural worlds of learners

I think input is harder than people crack it up to be. Personally, having to speak 90-95% Spanish to my second semester Spanish class is extremely hard. Language must express and negotiate personal meaning. It’s really challenging in some moments not to succumb to an English whim in class in order to get my point across. Although the book questions simplified vocabulary (e.g., cognates) and rate of speech, that is the only way I can give comprehensible input to my students some days.

I personally find error correction a fascinating field, probably because each person and situation has its own contextual factors to consider before proceeding. We discussed this topic quite a bit in my foreign language pedagogy courses (Spanish). For examples, in some classrooms and cultures, direct correction is expected and appreciated. However, it is important for each teacher to know their students’ personalities and preferences. I usually correct with rising intonation questions or recast.

I would have died without contextual cues in my first steps of a language learner. If the LL is immersed in a culture similar to the culture of L1, then the target language can be enhanced by communicating and understanding each other with the foundation of contextual cues included in the conversation. Make sense?

“Acquisition without interaction; interaction without acquisition” – I have seen this socioculturally oriented view go both ways. Some people can study just the books and become fluent in a language, and then others know the rules inside-and-out but cannot produce orally a jot of the language. Again, it all depends on the individual learner.