Just as every student can acquire a language by hearing and understanding messages, every teacher can learn to speak slowly and understandably to convey compelling messages. But expecting students to gain control of targeted structures on our imposed timeline does not honor their natural ability to acquire. Neither is it in accordance with Dr. Krashen’s Natural Order Hypothesis.
When we target parts of the language, and repeat them with the goal of getting students to learn them, we inevitably leave some of our students behind. Some get left behind because they are not yet ready to learn that little piece of the linguistic system at that time, and we leave others languishing in boredom because they already know that piece, or it “clicks” very quickly for them during the lesson, and yet we repeat the structure that they already know many times instead of giving them new data – in the form of emergent, nontargeted speech – for their growing language system.
While we are telling stories, the unconscious minds of a large percentage of our students are busy doing what unconscious minds are designed to do – absorb and process and organize the target language out of the reach of their conscious minds. However, many teachers also expect the students to gain “mastery” or “control” over certain target structures and words. Some students are quick enough to do both – attend to the input in class and also learn the target language. Some students can’t keep up with our expectations that they learn – learn, not acquire – certain parts of the language on our timeline, in time for the assessment, for the purpose of recall. Too many of our students’ conscious minds simply cannot keep up, because some students are just simply faster conscious learners/processors than others.