Declarative vs. procedural knowledge

Before we go any further, click on the link for a short post explaining the basic differences between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. This is an e-mail I’ve just received: Dear Luiz, When teaching grammar, it seems we can never control what students use… and sometimes I’m not really sure what to do. I’m teaching a certain … Read more

Communicative approach and noticing

Dear Luiz,

I’ve read your post about knowing that and knowing how…I firmly believe it makes a big difference and most of advanced students present some inaccuracies in grammar deriving from the way they were exposed to the topic in their learning process. I have also done some research on Noticing and interface position. At a first glance, it seemed to me something really different, but as I saw some examples and tips on how to help students noticing, I realized it is very similar to the communicative approach. Am I right? I would like to hear your opinion.

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Repetition in the language class

Why has it become such a sin in EFL/ESL to ask students to “listen and repeat”? Whatever happened to repetition?   I have never quite understood why repetition (and perhaps controlled practice at large) went away in the first place. True, it can be boring, but so can a pseudo information gap activity based on … Read more