In this comment-turned-article John Piazza makes a couple of key points about what actually leads to measurable and real gains in the language, in the true and not false way, and then he reveals his struggle with one of those false ways: (forced) homework. My comment to John is “stop giving forced homework” for the good of everyone involved. The reader is invited to comment. There is a beast to slay.
Personally, I don’t think the toolbox metaphor is useful anymore. It just seems to allow backward (“eclectic”) teachers to perpetuate their non-acquisition work. I’m rather following Bob Patrick’s lead (who is really following Krashen’s) in emphasizing that the ONLY thing that promotes acquisition is understandable messages in the target language. Everything else is a waste of time. Some teachers promote acquisition by accident, in spite of their methods. Other teachers do this intentionally and consciously. The former are not efficient promoters of student language acquisition, because so much of their curriculum is taking away from acquisition.
Also a note on homework. This year I went from teaching 4 days per week to 3 days in a 6 day rotation. Because sometimes I don’t see my students for 8 or 9 days if there is a long weekend, I have been giving my students weekly homework assignments during the interim, whereas I gave almost no homework last year. Relatively simple Latin derivative work that students can do on their own, and which most students would agree is useful and interesting. But this one addition has really killed me from an administrative/paperwork perspective. It takes me so long to keep track of the assignments, who turned in what, who turned it in late, who owes me missing assignments. I have kids who simply don’t do it, even though they want to. And for some of these poor kids, especially the ones who have learning and processing difficulties, it has really created a lot of stress for them and their parents. And this is what is dragging down their grade, and it takes up all my time. And none of this has anything to do with acquisition. So why the hell am I doing this? As I finish up the first quarter, I am seriously reevaluating what I’m doing, and asking myself what I’m doing for acquisition, and what I’m doing in order to stroke my professional ego, and compensate for my program getting gutted, which is not my fault.