My dog really perks up her ears when I say words like “chicken” and “beef”. The concern and interest she shows on her face when I say those words is probably a universal look of inquiry among dogs. She wants more information.
But when we give word lists to our students, expecting them to take the same interest in words like “candle” or “pencil sharpener” that we see in our dogs for food, we are always disappointed. There are too many nouns in those lists. After awhile their faces go blank in what I have called the “October Collapse”, and the kids don’t care anymore.
What can we learn from this?