practice.
The case of A will illustrate this. A reported that he had been working in the SAC
for two years without much progress. Although he knows some structures, formulaic
expressions and basic vocabulary, he is far from being able to produce the target
language. After some input sessions, he put it this way
A: (Comparing the model of language learning with his own way of learning)
As we can see, we only Ieam using our short-term memory. We do not practise.
“Well, I tested my hypothesis and now what? PRACTICE and USE.” Therefore,
we only go half the way and that is why we forget everything we learn, and that
fact prevents you from being able to use the language outside, in the real world.
Now he is aware that he needs practise. He considers that he is stuck in restructuring.
However, I do not consider that he has gone as far as restructuring. Because practice is
considered essential for restructuring and he has not got any practice (and with that, he
has not got any opportunity to get feedback or monitor∕evaluate his performance, (see
further discussion on this), he has not restructured his knowledge yet. As I see it he is
stuck in a vicious circle of noticing and structuring the same grammatical forms. This
repetitive noticing-structuring of the same forms just makes him aware that he “already
knows the rule”, but does not allow for the formulation of hypotheses and the
reaccomodation of new elements into his cognitive language network. What is even more
important, however, is the negative attitude, a kind of “Oh no! The same thing again!”,
that arises from this circle and weakens his motivation to Ieam the language.
Second, as it was stated earlier, restructuring and practising in language learning
occur at the same time. However, restructuration is not a process that appears
automatically after Structurating and with practice. Although the practice element is
essential for restructuration, there are two factors that one has to take into account, one is
the nature of flawed performance that signals the need for restructuration and the other is
the kind of forces that generate restructuration.
7.2.3.2.1 Correcting errors
Firstly, it is necessary to reflect on the nature of the flawed performance that is
being spotted as problematic. Basically, we are talking here about the classic difference
that Corder (1981) pointed out between errors and mistakes. Errors are caused by a
faulty or incomplete knowledge of the target language while mistakes, on the contrary
are due to the pressure that supposes real operating conditions (ROCs for Johnson,
1996,122). To use the terms of the present discussion, errors are the cause of a lack of
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