Auditory Focus
Auditory focus is a unique quality of awareness of the language that we see in our students’ faces when we are circling well. It happens when we don’t leave a structure until we feel that the class has moved the information from their ears into their eyes. What does this mean?
Sometimes, when you say a word chunk, it goes into their ears, and, instead of going on with the discussion, you wait until the sound goes all the way into their brains and then shows up visibly in their eyes. Only until you have seen that recognition do you know that you can go on. Class works better when we circle while looking for auditory focus in our students.
James Hosler once said:
…the concept of “auditory focus” fascinates me. I have been lucky to experience my students “getting it” in this way a few times now. [Looking for auditory focus in my students] is totally and radically and almost scandalously different than what it felt like teaching with grammar-based methods. It’s one of those things I could read a whole book about, even though I know it all comes down to a “gut feeling” and getting those structures to go “ka-thunk….