The program was based on the
principle that ‘less is
more’ (ibid.: 189), and that
effective writing instruction
involves simply:
Motivating students to want to
practise and improve
Giving students control of
decisions about their work
Limiting teaching to what
students need or want to learn.
Teaching ‘at the point of need’
is, of course, a principle that
underpins the whole language
learning movement, including
‘reading recovery’ programs.
Courtney Cazden (1992: 129),
for example, writes about
‘recognizing the need for
temporary instructional detours
in which the child’s attention is
called to particular cues
available in speech or
print’ (emphasis added). It
would also seem analogous to
the reactive focus on form
promoted by proponents of
task-based learning, described
by some researchers as
‘leading from behind’ (e.g.
Samuda 2001), whereby the
teacher intervenes to scaffold
the learners’ immediate
communicative needs. As Long
and Norris (2009: 137) write:
Advantages of focus on form
include the fact that attention to
linguistic code features occurs
just when their meaning and
function are most likely to be
evident to the learners
concerned, at a moment when
they have a perceived need for
the new item, when they are
attending, as a result, and when
they are psycholinguistically
ready (to begin) to learn the
items.
‘Point of need’ teaching also
shares characteristics of what
are known as ‘just in time’ (JIT)
interventions, as when the user
of unfamiliar