Midterm Review

1) Describe the Atlas Complex and why it is important to avoid. You may be given an Atlas-like lesson and be asked to provide suggestions on how to improve it, explaining your suggestions.

2) What are the characteristics of modified input? If you are given sample input, suggest at least three (3) modifications that would make it better input for language acquisition. You must refer to the work of Hatch (p. 30).

3) Describe the origins and characteristics of ALM and CLT. If given a series of activities, decide whether they are truly communicative or whether they are mechanical.

4) On p. 61 of our textbook, a list of subtopics was generated under the category of "food." You may be given a category and asked to generate a similar list of subtopics - topics that are wide-ranging, interesting, and that lend themselves well to exploration by teenageers.

5) Think about what it means to socialize your students to a communicative classroom, one in which the L2 is used extensively and in which students are expected to carry out pair and group work. What if you have a class full of students who in the past had an ALM/mechanical drill teacher who used English most of the time? How would you socialize the students to your methods?

6) Be able to describe the guidelines for developing structured input and output activities. If you are given a set of activities, be able to identify any changes that you would make in order to have the activities meet the guidelines. Also, how are structured output activities different from communicative drills? Briefly explain how each might look.

7) You may be asked to write a few paragraphs about the chapter by Reagan & Osborn. What did you find most interesting?

8) In your own words, explain the difference between a communicative goal and a grammar goal. Identify some possible subgoals that may accompany a lesson-final information-based task (the task will be provided for you). For example: Students will list various possessions that they have in their homes or dorm rooms and decide whether these items are luxury items or necessities. They will compare their responses with those of the rest of the class and then determine whether the class as a whole is “practical” or “extravagant.” You would list some possible subgoals for this lesson-final information-based task.

9) Explain the debate over the psycholinguistic validity of paradigms as well as their affective function. After weighing both sides of the debate, what is your personal opinion on the matter?

10) According to Lee and VanPatten, “we may come to the conclusion that languages, are, in essence, unteachable... .” What do they mean by this?