In Search of Language: Enhancing Language Acquisition in the Classroom

We truly are a profession at the crossroads…
Most American World Language teachers are well tenured. Methodologically, they have witnessed, as well as survived, the grammar translation method, direct method, the onset of the audio-lingual materials, labored with the notional-functional syllabus and strained to understand the ever-elusive “proficiency” orientation.
Based upon my frequent interactions with language teachers around the nation, it becomes increasingly evident that what impedes us from implementing our desire to render a generation of ‘home-grown’ multilingual’ students to our nation is our historic “preparation.”
Most of us have been amply trained with regard to methodology; that is, how the teacher teaches. Very few of us, including the newly arrived to our profession, have a fuller notion of language acquisition theory; that is, how the human mind actually creates and acquires language. We are armed with an arsenal of teaching techniques that often miss their mark largely because we don’t understand the nature of the target that we seek. Thus, we are In Search of Language .
Engaged language departments around the nation are turning to the research as a catalyst for change. Professional and staff development workshops, heretofore focused primarily upon “teaching tips”, now emphasize the language acquisition process and how to replicate it in the schoolhouse to the greatest degree possible. At the foundation of these workshops exists one overriding
Teaching will never suffice for what ‘acquisition’ must accomplish...