Robert’s email discussing Scope and Sequence with his district World Languages representative continues:
2. Furthermore, late-acquired items seem to simply require more exposure than early-acquired items. A corollary, therefore, is that delaying exposure to any feature of the language simply delays acquisition of that feature. For example, not exposing students to past tense or direct and indirect object pronouns until year 2 or 3 simply delays acquisition of those forms. Listening to parents and caretakers who speak to children in their first language reveals that they do not shelter the grammar but use all facets of the language’s grammar and syntax long before the child is ready to produce them. What they shelter is vocabulary. Textbooks generally get this backwards as well, giving long lists of vocabulary terms to be memorized out of context while parceling out the grammatical and syntactical structures bit by bit. The conclusion is that teachers must use the whole language the whole time.
N.B.: Please note that I am not saying students must be held accountable for all aspects of grammar from the very beginning; they must be exposed to it.
The Problem with CI
Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and
