Eric,
You wrote,
"The teaching of literacy is one of those skills that can only be acquired
from practice, not from study. "
My experience of teaching ESL in Hong Kong has often brought this fact to
light. Usually students study English from an early age, and continue until
they complete the studies. However, as the language is learnt through
academic study, and rote learning language elements in isolation,which is
driven by an exam based curricula. Therefore, they rarely develop the skills
a language learner could develop by interacting and practising using the
language in real situations. the upshot of this is that a student may learn
English for up to 15 years and still struggle to make simple sentences.
Language learning seems often be a negotiated through the interaction of a
group of people using intonation, body language, and even illustrations.
Very often, I can pick up if a learner fully understands by their expression
and how they react. This also allows myself to guage the learning pace of my
students and adjust the learning process accordingly to help them gain the
meaning and motivations behind the target language.
Very often the use of computers in learning has occurred without any real
changes in the practice used inthe classroom. Therefore, if the classroom
grammar book is replaced by a computer, has anything really changed?
Computers, are not the holy grail in education, but they can be a useful
tool. However, they are only as good as the practice used and the tutor who
uses them.
Brian.
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