Comprehensible Input-based teaching is practicing our craft with an awareness of the Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis. Here are some elements of the Acquisition/Learning Paradigm based on my reading and experience:
Acquisition Learning
Subconscious “picking up” of language Conscious study of language
Focus is on input Focus is on output
Student is mostly unaware of process Student is highly aware of process
Feels easy Feels difficult
Implicit Explicit
Informal Formal
Acoustical Intellectual
Listening-based Writing-based
Instinct Intellect
Developing a feeling of correctness Following grammar rules
Focus on meaning Focus on form
L2 is used to talk about content English is used to talk about L2 rules
Attention is on the message Attention is on the medium
Contextualized language use Context-free examples
Little-to-No error correction Error correction
Grammar as aid to immediate communication Grammar as subject matter
Depends on Attitude Depends on Aptitude
Dependent on meaningful interaction Can be independent of interaction
Works with involved students Works with “smart” students
Works for all Works for some
Since we have chosen to become language teachers, we are all probably good at “learning language.” We were good at both acquiring language AND at playing the language class game. We understood (more or less) what those brilliant grammatical explanations meant and could (more or less) apply them. We imagine that everyone else must be that way too. But they aren’t. And they are not “good” at it for good reason. It is NOT because they are just lazy, unfocused, or apathetic. Most people’s brains just don’t work that way. We word nerds are the odd ones. We are the abnormal ones. 95% of people do not think in terms of grammar. That means one student per class will be able to pick up useful language when we default to the learning mode of teaching.
Without this realization, our default setting will always be to the right side of the chart above. Since we were most likely taught that way, we will swerve from the acquisition mode to the learning mode when we are under pressure.
Happens to me all the time. I don’t like it and I fight against that tendency.
I firmly believe that TPRS can help to close the achievement gap problem. One additional difference between learning-based teaching and acquisition-based teaching (not included above) that I have observed is that the traditional format tends to leave mainly a certain type of student in the upper level language classes: white, high socio-economic, academically-oriented girls. When I switched to comprehensible input-based teaching with TPRS, I began seeing more and more students that were of all races, all family income and education levels, all levels of academic ability, and more boys in my upper level classes.