The Language Acquisition group has had many intense discussions about the most basic things that must happen for language acquisition to take place. We have studied the following texts:

From Input to Output:  A Teacher's Guide to Second Language Acquisition  by Bill Van Patten
Understanding Reading by Frank Smith
How Languages are Learned by Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada

My favorite quote:

"We don't acquire language by studying grammar, memorizing lists of vocabulary words, or saying things and getting corrected. We acquire language, or gradually absorb it, when we understand what people tell us and when we understand what we read. Our ability to speak comes gradually, after we hear and read a lot."

            -- Stephen Krashen

In this spirit the Comprehensibilty Project project has been launched.  Videos are being made of staff throughout the building in which captions are added that correspond to the words they say. This can be of great value to beginning ESL students.  Our presentation will consist of videos with captions.