Making Second Language Teaching “Brain-Compatible”

Abstract

As we saw in the previous chapter, neuroscience has now established that the brain’s two hemispheres differ not so much as to the type of stimuli they are designed anatomically to process, as to the manner in which they process information. This is why it is improper, if not misleading, to use terms such as “right brain learning” or “left brain ideas.” There are no such things. Terms such as “L-Mode” and “R-Mode,” on the other hand (Edwards 1979), are preferable because they refer only to types of processes associated with one or the other hemisphere. The PET-scanning research has shown that while each hemisphere is specialized to handle a certain specific type of function, it does so in tandem with complementary or parallel processing patterns taking place in the other hemisphere (and in other parts of the brain). So, the term “R-Mode” is used in this book to refer to functions that have a primary locus in the RH, but which activate other areas of the brain in an interconnected fashion. Similarly, the term “L-Mode” is used in reference to functions whose neural substrate is in the LH, but which stimulate other areas of the brain in an interdependent fashion. But as adaptable and neuroscientifically-consistent as such terminology is, its incorporation into SLT begs the following question: Is there any pedagogical advantage in using such terminology?

The most important part of teaching = to teach what it is to know.

Simone Weil (1909-1943)