We don’t get the kinds of repetitions on the subjunctive that we get with other verbal structures. And it’s just not a high frequency structure in the language relative to the amount of time we have to teach it. Bryce Hedstrom has written on this topic:
…studies indicate that extensive pleasure reading can give students enough input to acquire the subjunctive, but in typical classroom conversations there are not enough instances of it for students to get the feel of how it works….
We learn it all from the net, is the way I see it. That means that structures that occur less frequently like the subjunctive mood might not get taught in a five year program. But I’m not in charge and that is only my own opinion. Slavic is going with the net and that’s a done deal, but what if we are required to teach it? Slavic doesn’t have to worry about it because he only teaches it when it comes up in the net in his level one classes.
What if we had to target it to get ready for something like the AP exam for our job security? I know I know, Krashen wouldn’t be happy about such targeting. But neither does he have to teach high school Spanish. I have seen Blaine teach the subjunctive, but I think we need something more concrete.
I’ve asked Bryce what he can do here and – big surprise – he already has something, a text he’s been working on for some time now. He is always writing good stuff! His recent book, Stuff for Spanish Class, was a big hit at the national convention, and – trumpet call please – his new website is up! It’s been in the making for some time.
It’s an awesome site. It feels very “Brycie” in that friendly way of his, it’s got this great color green thing going on, and it is loaded with a lot of stuff that Bryce is famous for. The man is a walking encyclopedia of useable stuff in TPRS classrooms. Anyway, I have prevailed upon Bryce and he has agreed to publish on his site that stuff about the subjunctive, which he tells me is already very lengthy.
Below is the new site address. Whenever a new site is born that is dedicated to spreading the word about comprehensible input, especially a site under the hands of a true master of the method, that is a reason for celebration! Here is the link:
http://www.brycehedstrom.com/