Job Discussion Forums

[spiral78]

me, either
at least, not yet!
And if what it takes is a blindered espousal of any one 'best' approach, I reckon I'll never be!

[arioch36]

Krashen says some things that are on the money. Usually these are things people have been saying for years. For instance, how important it is to read. Sounds great. I would totally agree. Who could argue with that.

However, and attempt to apply Krashen outside of the States (or a truly native english speaking environment) is fraught. Here in China there are few english books that the average student can read.

Language immersion? Where the students have 30 hours a week of classes in Chinese, meetings in CHinese, etc.

The more I teach in China, and the more i read Krashen musings, the more immaterial I find him to be for working in a foreign environment. I truly think he is the figurehead chosen by elitist leadership in US education years back, similar to when they needed a figurehead to combat BF Skinner ( and that figurehead has spent the past 30 years trying unsuccessfully to prove his universal aquisition theory). Much of what Krashen says had been said before, but he was the right poster boy

If I had to pick one guru of learning methodology (excluding Dave, of course) it would be Vgotsky. Every teacher in the classroom (as opposed to the theorist gurus with their fudged research papers and no real practical teaching experience) every teacher I know that has studied Vgotsky has found his writings materially useful in teaching in the classroom

The fact that Krashen is widely "respected" in the circles of they who created in him, and in the circles of those who wish to benefit by riding his coattails, impresses me no more then Dewey
Dewey, the father of modern education. Lauded as a hero and revolutionary educator by the elite in the academic community in the early 1900's. Actually studying his career, one finds that he was inneffective as a teacher, a total failure as an administrator (his school quickly had to shut down) And classroom teachers I knew (such as my mother) found the emphasis placed on Dewey to be a hindrance more then a help.

Wow, sorry. Carried away. I had better stop