Robert’s email discussing scope and sequence with his district World Languages representative continues:
8. Brain-based research also shows that the brain craves and requires meaning and significance. This is why people see figures in clouds or the face of Jesus on a tortilla. Language that is not meaningful (and meaning requires comprehensibility) and significant will not be acquired, though it may be put in short-term memory for a test or quiz. The brain also works from greater meaning to lesser meaning. A student will, for example, get the basic idea of (Spiel-/Jug-/Jou- = Play) much faster than “-e/-o/-e = I” because the former carries greater (and more significant) meaning.