The two articles that follow this one are from previous years. Some may remember this thread, which I made into a category because I thought it was so important. I want to republish it here now for a very specific and important reason:
I am having much more success this year reaching my students in the real way using completely non-targeted input.
I have thought, and James and others have also shared on this topic, that it was entirely due to SLOW. But I am now starting to see that it is because I am not targeting a single thing but the verb the kid does in CWB.
Like yesterday Maria runs became Maria runs to King Soopers to buy Pampers (a kid in the class). We laughed constantly. I see now that the laughter (which brings much bigger L2 gains I think – I think that laughter is mojorific) was not just because we were going so slowly but also because of the totally non-targeted nature of the classes I have been teaching this year.
So this is the first of three articles on this topic – they are long. Some will remember them.