View Content #27355

By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

In most cases, the ultimate goal of language instruction is to prepare learners to use language in a context other than the classroom (i.e., in the wild). This might mean work in a multilingual profession, engagement with a local L2-speaking community, online exploration, or a myriad of other possibilities. To prepare learners for this adventure, language teachers have a unique opportunity to enhance learners’ ability to do so through the development of critical skills and dispositions. This month, we will explore examples of these skills and dispositions (e.g., noticing, sorting, analysis, subjectivity, and awareness) and provide examples for cultivating them as part of learners' classroom experiences.

• Noticing: the ability to pay attention to what is happening and make choices about what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
• Sorting: the ability to categorize information, language strategies and techniques, and perspectives into any number of relevant categories.
• Analysis: the ability to make choices on what language to use, what others have used, and make sense of relevant patterns found in language.
• Subjectivity: the ability to make conscious choices about language and articulate those choices.
• Awareness: the ability to recognize others’ reactions during discourse.

This week’s Activity of the Week utilizes gameplay to cultivate each of these five areas.