Page 94 - Beyond Methods

82 Minimizing perceptual mismatches Episode 4.1
S1 In United States hmm . . . what’s apartments made of? Wood?
T1 Wood.
S1 Wood? In United States . . .
T1 Uh . . . if . . . if you are building new apartments, probably wood will be more expensive . . . uh . . .
This particular foreign student does not know that, in most cases, wood is used to build apartments and houses in the United States, unlike his country, where mostly brick and mortar are used. His lack of prior knowledge about building construction in the United States hinders his ability to do the task. The teacher, who lacks knowledge about how buildings are constructed in the learners’ country, is not able to fully understand the reason behind the learner’s query. She assumes that the learner might be thinking about the expenses involved in using wood and merely makes a comment on it. This cognitive mismatch is not intended or an- ticipated by the teacher.
2. Communicative mismatch: This source refers to the commu- nicative skills necessary for the learners to exchange messages or express personal views. Because the learners have only a limited command of the target language, they struggle to convey their message.
Episode 4.2
S1 In this kind of exercise, you have to be careful and use our . . . which . . . do . . . uh . . . I forget . . . like it eliminates . . .
T1 Analyzing? It teaches you . . . you to analyze?
S1 No . . . hmm . . . through elimination of words you can find the best answer for the . . . we must use our intellect.
T1 OK...