Get It Right from The Beginning

Proposal #1: 'Get it right from the beginning' focuses on grammatical rules. Students learn to write and say the language correctly and learn to "train" their ears on how 'the correct form' of a verb sounds.

Teachers refrain from allowing their students to make an error; they propose, "Better for the L2s to learn it CORRECTLY from the ONSET".

Example 1

• T: Repeat after me. Is there any butter in the refrigerator.


• Class: Is there any butter in the refrigerator?


• T: There's very little, Mom.


• Class: There's very little, Mom.


• T: Are there any tomatoes in the refrigerator?


• Class: Are there any tomatoes in the refrigerator?


• T: There are very few, Mom.


• Class: There are very few, Mom.

What immediately comes to mind is BRAINLESS ROBOT! Don't get me wrong, in the right context, repetive language drills work. Yet, from our readings, we have learned that language learning involves a lot more than language repetition. "The students have no reason to get involved or to think about what they are saying", (L&S, p. 138).

Research

1. Sandra Savignon (1972) studied three subgroups: a Communicative Group, a Culture Group, and a Crontrol Group.
2. Four hours of weekly instruction including audiolingual instruction and grammar teaching occurred.
3. An additional hour of "special activities" occured in each subgroup.
4. Savignon's research findings stress that "accuracy and form do not give students sufficient opportunity to develop communication abilities in a second language", (L&S, p. 143).
5. Out of three subgroups, the Communicative Group maintained higher scores than the other subgroups consistently. (L&S, p. 142).