Most language teachers who check out CI end up finding something wrong with it. But if the best research we have on language acquisition points to CI as the way people learn languages, then what are they finding wrong?
They are probably finding things out about CI that they don’t like. They are also probably not in touch with the research. So they are coming from an uninformed position.
Some years ago this group – in a previous incarnation – carried on a weeks-long online argument with the 18,000 member ACTFL teachers group. As the argument unfolded, the blog members here kept landing blows on these mostly- traditional teachers like a boxer would in a fight, but they didn’t land one blow back on us because they had no research to support the use of the textbook. It was a spirited but one-sided discussion.
I’m glad I’ve moved on from starting fights in the CI world. But all the same, why are so many teachers rejecting CI out-of-hand without having even studied the research? If there is SO MUCH research in favor of CI and none in favor of the textbook, then what gives these uninformed teachers the right to say that CI doesn’t work? It’s a good question to ask.