Let's Talk

Advocates of "Let's Talk" emphasize the importance of access of both comprehensible input and conversational interactions with teachers and other students. They argue that when learners are given the opportunity to engage in interaction, they are compelled to "negotiate meaning" in a way that allows them to arrive at a mutual understanding. Proponents of "Let's Talk" feel that this is especially true when learners work together to accomplish a specific goal or task. (page 150).

Study 20: "Learners Talking to Learners"
In this study, individuals participated in separate discussions with a speaker from three different levels of English proficiency (intermediate learners, advanced-level speakers and native English speakers). Researchers analyzed the differences in conversations between varied levels of English speakers. They learned that language learners spoke more with other learners than they did with native speakers. They also found that there was no difference in learner speech errors when they spoke with other learners, compared to when they spoke with an advanced or native speaker (page 152).
I found these findings to be very interesting and surprising. I usually try to pair language learners in my classroom with more advanced learners or native speakers so that they have a model to interact with. The research findings told me that although learners don't always provide each other with correct grammatical input, their interaction does allow for authentic practice of communication and opportunity to negotiate meaning.

However, other studies in the "Let's Talk" section of Chapter 6 suggested that teachers pair advanced learners and/or dominant personalities in less dominant roles when assigning partner tasks. This allows for more opportunities for negotiation of meaning and a greater variety of interaction. When an expert speaker was paired with a novice speaker in a role that encouraged the novice in meeting the task objectives, the novice speaker appeared to maintain more of the new language knowledge over time. This combination of personalities and language proficiency was the most successful when compared to pairs of students that either had two dominant personalities or one dominant personality paired with a student that was described as passive (page 153).

In Study #24, researchers examined how interaction can facilitate language learning through negative feedback (recasts, clarification requests and explicit correction) and modified output (a more accurate reformulation of previous utterances). The study found taht over time, implicit corrective feedback (recasts) was beneficial to language learners through paired interaction (page 155).