Robert continues with his questions for textbook companies. It would be nice if they would answer. But they won’t. Their involvement in education is not spurred by the same interests that prompt these questions from Robert:
How does the textbook take the universally recognized Silent Period into account?
How does the textbook support the ACTFL position statement that both teacher and student need to use the target language at least 90% of the time, both inside and outside (where feasible) the classroom? Does it give grammar explanations in English or the target language?
Do grammar explanations come before or after students manipulate the language? Articles in “Foreign Language Annals” (ACTFL’s publication) consistently indicate that explicit grammar instruction is both more useful and remembered longer if presented following extensive manipulation of the language rather than preceding it.
Does the textbook use technical grammar terminology? What evidence can the publisher present that knowing these terms is necessary to proper manipulation of the language? How do they explain the many people groups who do not have an explicit grammar, either oral or written, and yet the members of those people groups speak the language well? How do they explain that many people who speak their native language “like a native” do so without ever having studied formal grammar – and often without even being able to read?
By what mechanism does filling out worksheets produce oral and aural fluency? Brain research shows that the brain processes acoustic and visual information quite differently and in different parts of the brain.