I have never heard the concept of noticing before with regard to language teaching. Noticing is the process by which the learner pays attention consciously to the input that he receives. The result of this process is that the learner learns grammar because he put lots of attention to the input provided. The input which is internalized and learned by the learner is the intake. And when the learner does this process consciously, we called it noticing.
Noticing involves paying attention to meaning as well as to form when learning a language.
I think that during my years at school, when I learned English we used to pay more attention to form than to meaning. The teachers who taught English to me thought that the most important part of the language was grammar and not meaning. We focused mainly on form and we did not pay much attention to the content and to the communicative component of language. We were asked to practice a lot, to do lots of drills and to practice structures in our textbooks. We never gave much importance to meaning, which I think is very important.
I agree with you some years ago, form was more important but students learn anyway, perhaps they got meaning through different ways or perhaps was motivation?
ResponderEliminarAngela, I think one of the points here is that the learner's interlanguage has to be sufficiently advanced for noticing to be able to take play. Or in other words, the learner has to be ready to notice.
ResponderEliminar