"Proponents of 'Get it right in the end' argue that what learners focus on can eventually lead to changes in their interlanguage systems, not just to an appearance of change. However, the supporters of this proposal do not claim that focusing on particular language points will prevent learners from making errors or that they will begin using a form as soon as it is taught. Rather, they suggest that the focused instruction will allow learners to notice the target features in subsequent input and interaction. Form-focused instruction as it is understood in this position does not always involve metalinguistic explanations, nor are learners expected to be able to explain why something is right or wrong. They claim simply that the learners need to notice how their language use differs from that of a more proficient speaker" (Lightbrown and Spada, 166).
My dad often instructed my siblings and I in this way, not on a language level, but just in life. If my siblings and I mistreated one another, "sorry" alone wasn't enough. He wanted it to be a sincere apology, paired with a recognition of what we had done wrong and how we could do it differently next time. I'd like to say we always learned our lesson. We didn't. But it was an effective way to teach! Rather than just letting us make our mistakes over and over again, he wanted each child themselves to recognize where our behavior was failing and how we could be more kind to one another. Perhaps a better example is in decision-making. Whenever my siblings and I were faced with a "tough" decision (such as, should I spend $5 on this or not) my dad would often tell us what he thought, but allow us to do it anyway if we persisted. Later in life, I often realized how many times I made decisions I regretted - not life-altering decisions, but just decisions. However, I learned from each one and having learned things myself, I wanted to change them the next time. No one was MAKING me learn; rather, I felt I was taking responsibility for my own learning. And that made me want to be successful and want to honor my parents' advice.
The more I type, the more I realize this maybe isn't a very good comparison, but it really made sense to me when I was reading through this chapter. The whole point of 'Get it right in the end' is for students to recognize their OWN mistakes and strive to fix them themselves. Teaching can become very ineffective if we attempt to fix everything for the students. This does come back to motivation, but they do have to, at some point, choose to invest in their own learning and WANT to correct their own mistakes. We cannot help students' knowledge change and increase if they do not want to change. If we can help them desire to produce correctly, they will. And then, they will be able to call it their own. That, to me, is teaching.
I would definitely say that I must agree with you. I feel like a lot of students now-a-days just sit in a classroom, repeat what they learn, and strive for an A, but in reality, they don't learn the material. 'Get it right in the end' is about them just learning all of the material at the end, and not focusing so much on the small details that happen from the beginning to the middle of the process.
ReplyDeleteI think that this can be hard for some teachers. Some teachers won't see their students speaking English well because they won't follow them long enough. Therefore, I have seen some teachers just focus on the beginning and middle, which I think isn't always the best for the learner.
I think you make some interesting points here, Hannah. I agree with what Elise said above about how the learning we do in school really should happen more like the 'Get it right in the end' proposal from the text, it's the learning process that matters, and perhaps if we were more mindful of that as we're going through it, we would value our learning experiences a lot more. The mention of that reminded me of when I was in high school studying for comprehensive finals. A teacher once said to me something like "If you don't remember it, then you didn't really learn it well," referring to having a review a ton of material that we had already learned during the semester for the final. Obviously, that thought doesn't apply to everything, such as more long-term things, etc.
ReplyDeleteI also like how you connected these theories with other concepts in your life, like how you mentioned your family and the discipline. I think we all go through times like that in our lives where we make mistakes and it takes us a while tp realize the right thing to do, whether it's how to treat a sibling or decide if we really want to buy whatever it is.