kind of conversation or discussion
going in the target language. It’s
difficult to play games to reinforce
vocabulary, grammar skills, et cetera.
The momentum just isn’t there.The economist Jesse Levin has done
some fascinating work along these same
lines, looking at Dutch schoolchildren.
He counted how many peers children
had in their class—that is, students at a
similar level of academic ability—and
found that the number of peers had a
surprising correlation with academic
performance, particularly for struggling
students.^5 In other words, if you are a
student—particularly a poor student—