Frank Lloyd Wright There's been a lot of discussion this week about usage/function versus form/structure in teaching alternative languages (EAL for example).
For me, these are separable but do their best in producing the most well-rounded learner when combined together in the learning experience. In formal settings, the teacher has control over both of these styles, but in the real world that isn't always the case.
I've made a case for a learning scenario where only usage and function was the focus - a need to get by in a foreign country.
Someone else provided an example whereby only form and structure were studied - creating an academic but impracticable knowledge.
It is best to keep in mind that teaching is never a one way street - we cannot simply provide information in a vacuum. There is a learner on the other end. When we discuss styles, methodologies, and so on, it is wise to understand that the teacher has little or no control over the reaction of the learner. We can only offer a best case scenario for the learner, and let them make of it what they will. Sometimes we forget that, and become frustrated that our teaching is not getting through.
That may be the wrong perspective... it may not be our teaching that is not getting through, but rather that the learning is not taking place.
Ah, Bill, that photo raised so much for me. My dad was an architect and architecture prof, and so I grew up in a home that was all about form and function, and I never made the connection to my approach to language learning till now. I'd have to say that some buildings (teaching approaches) are too functional for my liking (eg. Centre Pompidou with its external escalator), but when the balance is there (pyramid at the Louvre) I'm struck by both at once ... and neither, because they co-exist so harmoniously.
ReplyDeleteI try to ground my learning in real-life situations... comes back to that 'social constructivism' I discussed in an earlier post. Hope the memories are good ones? :)
ReplyDeleteLots of good memories ... in architecture, art, music, nature. :) I think that form and function is especially present for me in language though. A beautiful and effective turn of phrase is a fine thing. It's about understanding the shape and impact of a single word sometimes, which implies understanding the "ear" of the person who hears it. That "ear" comes from a lot of reading and writing, I think, and so I'm all for students doing literary reading too. I miss the days when people spoke eloquently, wittingly and sometimes bitingly. They used words with real reverence at times (not that I was around for it, of course!). Any word can evoke many different images, and so it's good to know which meaning is intended ... function and form melt together.
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