Taking and Keeping the Floor in the Elementary Foreign-Language Classroom: The Strategies of One Child

Abstract

The hypothesis that oral practice is an important variable in second-language learning has been refined considerably over the past few years. Seliger (1977) defined practice as any verbal interaction between the learner and others in his environment (265). His description has since been amplified to reflect the importance of context (Cathcart, 1986; Tarone, 1983), task (Cathcart, 1986; Duff, 1986; Gass & Varonis, 1985; Rulon & McCreary, 1986), interlocutors (Johnson, 1983; Varonis & Gass, 1985), age (Scarcella & Higa, 1981), gender (Varonis & Gass, 1985), and ethnic group of learners (Sato, 1982; Duff, 1986). How learners gain practice in particular setting is function of strategies that they have developed. Rubin (1981) describes the learner's strategy of creating opportunity for practice. Using this strategy, learners create situations to test hypotheses with native speakers, respond to questions addressed to other students, and otherwise find opportunities to practice actively their second language. Practice may embody the purpose of learning or communication, hence the distinction made by Faerch and Kasper between learning and communication strategies (1980). These researchers define strategy as a potentially conscious plan for solving what to the individual presents itself as problem in reaching particular goal (60). It is not always possible, however, to distinguish one class of strategy from another. Learning and communication may occur simul-