and Dr. David Sousa4, in their work on brain-compatible classrooms, highlight the following equation: Attention + Memory = Learning. Sousa goes on to explain that it is “sense and meaning that appear to be the primary criteria the brain uses in deciding what to encode to long-term memory.”5 When students learn a language by realizing an act, by completing a task, they are engaged in something that makes sense, that is meaningful to them. In fact, students can explain what they are doing in language class in such a way that is understood by non-language teachers! They might say: In French we are designing our dream bedroom and telling everyone about it! The learning that occurs under these premises is identifiable and significant. Retention occurs because the learning is relevant to the student needs. Furthermore, this approach promotes engagement, curiosity, and especially attention: this is not boring. Our students understand where they are heading in the instruction sequence; they get it! You might be wondering at this point about the role of grammar in our language classes. Don’t we need it? What happened to the subjunctive? To the prepositions? Grammar, in fact, is a crucial component of our classrooms, but it has ceded its protagonist role as the goal of instruc-
tion, to meaning and communication. It remains essential because accuracy in the way we express ourselves guarantees communication and transfer of meaning. But how do we teach grammar in this different paradigm? We map a task to elicit the use of the grammar concept while focusing on meaning and form. If the project’s final product is to produce a weather report, we pose the following question: what are the language points that the students need to master in order to accomplish this task? Grammar is to the service of authentic, real world communication. This last point leads us to contemplate the ways in which we assess our language students. At St. Andrew’s we do not give traditional final exams in languages. We organize instead performance assessments, which are real indicators of what our students will be asked to do in their lives outside school. They are, at their essence, problems or scenarios that mimic situations from the real world. Students and teachers, in partnership, remark and discuss the observable level of proficiency; or better said, “What is the student able to do in the foreign language and with what degree of accuracy and complexity?” Throughout the year, our students are asked to consider their own progress and
map out their resulting objectives in an exercise of reflection that facilitates their own learning. The following ways to present curriculum constitute brain-compatible practices: performances, authentic problems, simulations, using technology, projects, scenarios, and concept building, among others. Our program endorses these practices while it engages students in the discovery of another language. At the same time, it grows the self-awareness and empowerment of those who are capable of functioning in another cultural context that they understand and respect. Web Extra Listen to students and teachers reflect on their performance assessments in Foreign Language. Maria Diaz (mdiaz@saes.org) is Head of the Language Department.
17