ZOOMANIA: The See-Hear-and-Do Approach to FL Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Since the publication of Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century, the development of communicative competence both within and beyond the confined walls of the language classroom has become a national priority for the foreign language (FL) teaching profession. The literature on standards and proficiency suggests various models and applications for conforming communicative, linguistic, and cultural proficiency to reality (Lafayette; Lange; Liontas, Playing with a Purpose; Liontas and Baginski; Nielson and Hoffman). Despite this attention, a learner first gains the ability to narrate and describe with paragraph-length connected discourse at the advanced level. This need not be so. This article suggests ways for sequencing and tailoring Advanced-Level characteristics for use by Noviceand Intermediate-Level learners in listening, speaking, and writing, both in receptive and productive control, through a proficiency-based game approach called ZOOMANIA: The See-Hearand-Do Approach to FL Teaching and Learning. A secondary aim of this article is to acquaint the reader with the 3 W's of this approach: what it is, what it does, and why it works. Concrete suggestions, including time-tested classroom activities, situation cards, animal A-B-C, and proverbs and idioms featuring animals for expanding and refining its use for a greater variety of classroom implementation conclude the game's description.