I just got this from Angela; it certainly brings up more about a leitmotif that has been front and center here over the years:
Hey Ben!
Check out this article that I ran across:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7616618.html
Here’s a line that really stuck out at me… “Our students do not reach professional fluency by listening – they reach it by interacting with partners in guided tasks.” What do you think? Would this be true for students at advanced levels, AP, etc??
Angela
The quote above is in the middle of the fifth paragraph of that article, by the way. Here’s what I think – the question that comes into my mind is, “Are the ‘guided tasks’ the principle sources of comprehensible input here? Is that the claim? Blaine once said that he is always ready to chuck all he has invented if something comes along that is better and more effective in teaching languages. This person may have found it in the form of guided tasks in which listening is not the key, to read the article! Awesome! Awesome? Maybe really awesome? Maybe not? Hmmm. We need to follow those students around for a week, talk to them, see what they are doing outside of the classroom, perhaps.