Discovering is Learning

As I think about Kuma's chapter, Activating Intuitive Heuristics, I cannot help but feel conflicted because I think of the readings and points brought up from previous class discussions and readings. In other words, his chapter has caused me to have an internal debate. The reason I am struggling so much inside is that I feel as though allowing students to discover grammatical rules and structures on their own can be very beneficial when trying to teach a class English. On the other hand, I think to myself, what about all of the other teaching methods and approaches we learned, such as Grammar Translation and Direct Method? I remember reading about how these techniques are more beneficial in other classrooms and in other cultures.

In my mind, self-discovery is one of the more effective teaching methods. Self-discovery, from my point of view, is more beneficial because I believe that I can better understand a concept if I am first presented with examples or  questions/activity to think about, and then I am slowly introduced to the main concept/focus. Then again, I have grown up in a particular environment and in a specific culture where self-discovery has been encouraged and more likely used by teachers and school administration. Maybe my feelings and reactions would be different if I grew up in another culture, or even during a different time period in the US when a different type of language learning approach was used.

Another point in Kuma's reading that caused me to think about the different teaching methods and which approach to use, was the part on the deductive method of grammar teaching. Kuma mentioned that, "many adult L2 learners, particularly those who bring an analytical approach to language learning, would like explicit description and instruction of grammatical rules for language practice and for error corrections" (pg. 184). Looking at this quote more closely, leads me to think that Kuma is illustrating the point that sometimes learners, especially adult learners, prefer to learn a language when the teacher presents the rules and the facts of the language, instead of the students "discovering" the different aspects to the language. However, he later goes on to say that the deductive method only has limited use and refers back to how the self-discovery method is more useful. Again, I cannot help but wonder, if this applicable for a variety of different classroom settings? Or is this specific to classrooms in the United States? Or even just in the Western Hemisphere?

Overall, Kuma brings up a very insightful way of introducing a language teaching method called the self-discovery. Within this method, the teacher serves more a facilitator who provides students with the necessary information and materials to encourage them to figure out the rules/facts on their own. However, I cannot help but wonder, is this approach universal? Or would it be more productive in a cultural setting like that of the US? For now, I believe that I still need to assess the needs of my students at that particular moment in order to determine which teaching method would be most effective whether that is the self-discovery method or another approach.