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Minimizing perceptual mismatches 91 Reflective task 4.4
How do any pre-service teacher education programs you are familiar with or any in-service teacher training you have undergone prepare you to deal with perceptual mismatches? In what way, do you think, can teacher edu- cation programs be restructured to impart knowledge and skill necessary to identify and minimize perceptual mismatches?
Given the importance of perceptual mismatches, it is imperative that we try to identify them, understand them, and address them effec- tively if we are serious about facilitating desired learning outcomes in the classroom. It is reasonable to assume that the narrower the gap between teacher intention and learner interpretation, the greater the chances of achieving learning and teaching objectives. If we wish to act on this assumption, two crucial but difficult questions have to be tackled: How can the teachers and learners identify perceptual mismatches, and how can they minimize the mismatches once they are identified? Although very little research has been conducted in the field of L2 teaching and teacher education to address these two questions specifically, there are certain steps the teacher can take to identify and minimize perceptual mismatches. I present some of them in the form of microstrategies and exploratory projects.
Microstrategies for Minimizing Perceptual Mismatches
The following two microstrategies are designed to train learners themselves to identify and express their thoughts on potential mis- matches.
Microstrategy 4.1: Learner Training
4.1.0 It is reasonable to assume that some of the difficulties learners may face in understanding the aims and activities of the classroom are due to potential mismatches between their interpretation and their teacher’s intention. Because mismatches are based, at least partly, on the learners’ interpretations of what happens in class, they themselves can play an important role in identifying what they are. One way is to make them aware of the ten sources of mismatch introduced in this chapter. That can be done by treating the sources as a lesson in