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In Unit Three, I began with a basic overview of the teaching theories employed by instructors, covering many subjects I had never before encountered. Each theory, though some startlingly different from others, was a helpful indicator of the very fundamental needs that have to be covered when teaching a language. For example, the grammar translation design is one I have previously encountered when French in high school and college, and while it does have its merits for building a language bridge between known and unknown, this method is more useful only if the teacher is fluent in the students' native language (L1). However, a method like PPP or the Lexical Approach do not require this and stress colloquial or conversational language more than rigid grammatical language translation. In this unit, I also learned Jeremy Hammer's theory of Engage, Study, Activate. This design was very informative because it provided a breakdown of the most necessary stages to teaching and actively learning. Studying the stages and the activities used in each phase provided insight into how student's can be engaged and interested in classroom activity and not put under the pressure of needing to impress or empirically achieve. One of the most informative aspects of this unit, however, was the insight it gave into the difference between mistakes and errors and the best times and ways to go about correcting student errors. The fact that it stressed the positive effects of self-correction and student/student correction over teacher/student correction as a means of using mistakes and errors not as failures but as opportunities for further learning gives me a good idea of how the classroom should be more community structured and should revolve around turning every moment into a chance to explore, question, and come to an understanding of language and how it works for the students.
