Authentic Texts (cont.)

2 thoughts on “Authentic Texts (cont.)”

1. Tina

   December 9, 2016 at 1:45 pm

   I actually met Paul in 2015 when he was here for COFLT. He is a nice guy! Here he says that authentic texts can be written at any level for native speaker kids. So, the level AA (pre-primer level) books I am using for FVR basically fit that description. No one seems to be saying that we have to make authentic texts the focus of the whole class period, slogging through an incomprehensible text. Right? Just like I do not want to spend time slogging through “non-authentic” texts (like TPRS readers) as a whole class.

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2. Robert Harrell

   December 11, 2016 at 12:55 am

   I met Paul in 2015 at SWCOLT in Hawaii, and he remembered me when we saw one another this year in Boston at ACTFL. Yes, he is a nice guy.

   We need to remember that ACTFL is a “big tent” organization. They are trying to include essentially every language teacher in the US (and Canada?). That means all of their pronouncements have to be couched in general terms and broadly enough that everyone feels sufficiently “at home” to remain. I’m sure there are influential people in ACTFL who “get” the SLA research and are trying to move everyone along. In an organization that big, this is a long, slow process. Remember, it took Moses 40 years to get the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan – a journey that takes less than a month at an easy pace and actually doable in a little over two weeks. Of course, an entire generation had to die off first …

   We also need to remember that not everyone is where we are in terms of adoption, and none of us are in exactly the same situation. As we have noted and advised over the years, sometimes you have to make compromises in order to survive in a situation. I’m sure there are many teachers who would like to do more TCI/TPRS than they do but lack training, lack support, or simply don’t know how to go about it. Unless we work with someone or communicate with them regularly, these conversations and other interactions are “snapshots” and just as likely to give a false impression of where they are as the “snapshots” of our students we decry (i.e. the standardized tests) are to give an accurate depiction of what they know. It’s more important to me that someone is open to change or headed in the right direction than that they have arrived at a particular point.

   We also need to be certain that we don’t maintain double standards. We can’t fulminate against people who don’t accept SLA research that supports our practices and positions, then turn around and say, “Well, I guess I’ll just have to disagree with the research” when it doesn’t. Of course, we don’t blindly accept the interpretation of the research, either. I think Eric (and Alisa and Eckhard ?) did a good job of pointing out that the citations and conclusions on authentic resources don’t really address the question because they were comparing something entirely different.

   We also need to be gracious toward people but wise and discerning in our discussion of ideas. In that vein, I note that Paul Sandrock’s second post in the thread contained this phrase, “a task to practice the same vocabulary and structures but collaborative”. It reflects the old paradigm of practicing language in the classroom rather than communicating in the context of the classroom. However, as I think all of us would admit, it is hard to eradicate that thinking, and those kinds of statements slip out from time to time. I’m not sure if I will make a note of that in the thread – depends on how much time I have tomorrow.

   Enough rambling; it’s off to bed so I can be at least semi awake for church in the morning.

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