Page:Adapting and Writing Language Lessons.pdf/85

CHAPTER 3 The lesson also contains one occasion to do something with Spanish. The expository paragraph and the questions that follow it allow the student to demonstrate that he can comprehend a text that consists of novel utterances, and go on to talk about it with novel utterances of his own. Other opportunities for use of the Spanish of Lesson I can be found, but they are not made explicit in the lesson as it now stands, and may be overlooked by some instructors.

The lesson ends with a 'cultural supplement' which consists of an exposition of, with the suggestion that it 'may provide ideas for cultural inputs into the classroom.'

In its present form, then, Lesson I contains all of the four components (p. 54ff) that we have claimed are necessary for a complete unit, and its general socio-topical content is suitable for almost anyone who would enroll for a Spanish course in the first place. As language lessons go, then, it is excellent. There are, however, reasons why a prospective user might want to reject this lesson, or at least tinker with it. The students may be more interested in Puerto Rico or Spain than in Chile.

They may not be planning on a homestay with a family. They may not expect to leave for Latin America on the following day. More seriously, they may feel strong antipathy toward a lesson that depends on memorizing a dialog, or may find that the dialog is too long for them. Their teacher may dislike some stylistic detail of the wording. There may be objection to some of the superficial inconsistencies in a set of materials which were, after all, produced primarily for in-house use. Accordingly, revision of each