understanding

Do they understand? Although there was so much I could talk about in chapters 5 and 7 of Kuma, I think a theme that I recognized that connected the two lies in learner understanding.

In chapter 5, the part that interested me the most was on page 106, where Kuma discusses Interaction Hypothesis. After describing "teacher-talk" and "foreigner-talk", Kuma explains that this phenomena occurs quite often in the language classroom. Michael Long explains, in the Interaction Hypothesis, that "oral interaction in which communication problems are negotiated between participants promotes L2 comprehension and production, ultimately facilitating language development" (Kuma, 106). In essence, rather than looking for expected answers, we as teachers should negotiate with our students the meaning of what they are saying. Negotiation involves clarification strategies, rather than a simple "yes" or "no", wrong or right. Kuma explains that while clarification strategies do occur frequently in speech among native speakers, it happens most often between a NS and an NNS or some relationship of that nature. Clarification, comprehension, and confirmation questions such as "Do you understand me?", "Can you say that again?", and "Is this what you mean?" are important in order to avoid "break-downs" in conversation. The thought that occurred to me is that not only is this valuable in the classroom, but students will also need these comprehension and clarification strategies in real speech! What better way to practice them than in the classroom? These strategies and modifications aid understanding.

In chapter 7, Kuma talks about language awareness. I think what stood out to me here is that students need to be encouraged to ask "why?". The example given on page 159 is that of the English spelling system which is, as the author writes, somewhat "zany". But then, what spelling system isn't? They are all different, and that is why it is necessary to check for student comprehension and understanding and allow them to understand it at a deeper level, rather than just being content with, "well that's just the way that it is spelled".

Throughout all of this too, I was constantly reminded of my experiences at the ELI. We used comprehension checks all the time. And I was asked for explanations all the time! And I hate to admit it, but I wasn't always prepared to deliver those explanations and I wasn't always good at it and sometimes I had to say, "I don't know". But I think that we can still encourage our students to search for understanding and to think about the language they are learning - because even all together, we might learn something!