Something I learned / explored further / found interesting, valuable, important: I learned that “shortcuts” is traditional teacherese for ways to get the brain to make connections that otherwise might be harder/take longer. Using patterns is the example she gave. David suggested mnemonic devices like homonyms can help. Minimal pairs, colocations. I want to find out more about these for different aspects/phases of L2/n teaching.

[Initial fodder for the letter to Molly and Eleni assignment.]

Tales of the inner circle

Difference between the three experiences (describing a book in 3, 2, 1 minute respectively): The first time I spoke really fast to fit everything in but then realized I didn’t have that much to say, so I used the extra time to try to dredge up new things to say, but often repeated myself. For the second time I slowed down and, using some of the mental detritus I’d dredge up the first time, fleshed out my story. Still, it was too much time. The last time I picked out only the things that were crucial in describing why I liked the book, using just a bulleted list of things the book included (abuse, neglect, poverty…), and finished about one or two seconds ahead of time.

Feelings: It felt awkward to be the only one speaking. In the three-minute session I kept looking to my partner for feedback in the form of questions to egg me on, but she wasn’t allowed to speak. She, too, seemed frustrated by this. The second and third times I also felt awkward being the only one speaking, since I’m used to dialog with frequent backs-and-forths. Some people are comfortable talking for a long time in a monologue, but I’m not. So the one-minute session felt more comfortable both in terms of using the time efficient and in the social interaction aspect.

The person who had to talk to two (instead of one) person at once felt more engaged.

I was very apologetic (“You always are,” commented Sarah) to each listener because I’m not used to monopolizing conversation, and fear I’ll bore people. This is important. It’s something I need to be aware of and work on. My lack of confidence is an issue.

Recyling: a spiral in which you always add new content…

Other “inner circle” people had different experiences. One preferred the longest format and was frustrated by the shortest. The majority preferred the middle one (“jusssst right.”) Most people felt least comfortable on the first round, for various reasons, all related to “newness.”

Outer circle comments: People’s enthusiasm came through because they were excited by what they were talking about: meaningful experiences. It’s hard not to engage with somebody; it’s an unnatural situation. One person felt it was a good opportunity just to listen. One person felt a stronger connection between the speaker and the book with the longer format: with more time she learned more about the person and why they liked the book, and with less time she learned more about just the book. Elka noticed that with the third round the body language was much more pronounced. One person noticed the challenge of relying solely on body language in responding.

Elka’s teaching tips:

• Bring the phatic function into the classroom and internship. Remind her to show us the one-hour presentation about that. (1st is referential, the 2nd is interpersonal, the 3rd is phatic, 4th is aesthetic poetic.)
• Work with time constraints for projects but be flexible about them

Merrill Swain & Output

Output is more related to accuracy than fluency.

• Promotes noticing: the gaps in knowledge of your interlanguage and how the IL is different from TL or the language of peers). It’s a “consciousness-raising function.” Internal noticing leads to self-initiation. External noticing (feedback, e.g.) leads ot other initiation. This allows…

• Hypothesis-testing, which leads to automaticity (as we practice to internalize rules), and this develops alternative means of expression/strategic competence (which can include avoidance, antonyms, synonyms, rephrasing) / 0+1, and this pushes students to convey the message rather than give up, which causes a move from semantic to syntactic processing (but it’s also morphological)

• Metalinguistic (the language we use to describe language) & reflective role: thinking about and through language

Terminology

• Strategic competence: find an alternative
• Communicative competence
• What are the other two?