Robert’s email discussing Scope and Sequence with his district World Languages representative continues with Robert’s response to his WL rep, which was posted in the last article:
My reply to him:
Hi, Thanks for your response. I think I understand your position, and we are perhaps not as far apart as at first may seem. Notice that even in year 1 there is provision for spontaneous, unforced output. In fact, tomorrow my first-year students will be performing a scene from a story we are reading; it’s as an aid to understanding rather than a grade for the book, though. I simply believe that Presentational Communication – preparing a product for an audience that is unable to provide immediate feedback, negotiate meaning and ask for clarification and therefore taking into account the audience’s prior knowledge, cultural competence and linguistic ability – is not appropriately a significant component of assessment until after massive amounts of comprehensible input. Part of our divergence of opinion may lie in our definition of “presentational communication”. It isn’t a check of “can you negotiate meaning in German so that another person understands you?” That’s Interpersonal Communication.