We ask kids to read too early and to output writing and speech too early. Consider:
In the first two years, they will be asked to do those tasks after only 250 hours (more like 100 in time actually spent on them due to all the wasted time that all of us know all about just because we are in school settings.
But we need more time than 250 hours of auditory input before we can become good readers, what I call “instant recognition” readers.
And we need at least 10,000 hours before we are able to manufacture speech and writing output that is authentic (not memorized). In fact, if we asked an administrator observing one of our classes to output some writing or speech after observing our class, how would they react? That is how our kids would and do react when we force output from them.
We raise their affective filters with premature requests that they read and write and speak and we don’t seem to care. But they do. We get them flummoxed and plant doubts in their minds when we do this.
Why force things that can’t be done simply because more time is needed? Our students aren’t ready and the collateral damage when we do that is immense. In some, it shuts down their desire to learn the language for the rest of their lives. It’s those 250 hours. They’re just not enough.