When the bricks are presented from the beginning of the program of study via sound and thus as integrated and contiguous pieces of the overall house, as the learner’s mind points to each brick countless times in countless arrangements of words (we call that reading), then the student enjoys inhaling the language without even being consciously aware of it. The kids are happy because they can actually see the image of the house, the language always conveying meaning, coming a bit more into focus each day.
Current research dispels the ingrained myth perpetuated by the book lobby and teachers who serve it. Language in fact cannot be learned by showing kids arrangements of a few bricks at a time over a long period of time without ever really showing them what the house looks like, as per the previous posts in this series on this topic. Only the so-called “bright” kids, who need the “A” and thus put up with this tedious staring at bricks and how they are arranged, are left in classrooms at the end of what are misnamed as four year programs in high school and colleges.
If it were a business, foreign language education would fail for these reasons. Few customers would be left. Yet, administrators continue to pay these upper level teachers with seven kids or even less in a classroom for reasons known perhaps to them but not to the ripped off taxpayer. How odd to think that only “smart” kids can learn a language. ALL kids can learn a language!
No wonder we have financial problems in our schools – we are making our clientele stare at bricks lying around in different arrangements on the ground and not making any houses. We pay people to not build houses! I guess we call that subsidies.