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JAMES R . NORD

In support of his view, Zaporozhets reports several experiments in which children have been taught skillsmore successfully when their orientation reaction (attention) (feed forward) has been directed to the components of the skill,rather than on simply the end product.
In one experiment involving teaching children age three to seven years to hammer a
nail into a block of wood, children concentrating on the end result took some 30 to 40
hits, whereas children whose attention was directed to the hand movements could
achieve the results in seven hits.⁹⁸
This same step-wise anticipatory procedure is revealed by Gilbert when he explains his technique of backward chaining. Although he based his approach on reinforcement theory, the actual account seems to describe stimulus anticipation.
The most immediate available source of information about the adequacy of the
mastery response lies in the produce of that response. To teach a child to tie his
shoelaces, we properly begin by teaching him the last act in the sequence; when he
makes the last response he produces a completely tied shoe, and he can see this
immediately. If tying his shoes is an objective of the child, the last response is
reinforced by its own doing. The first exercise used to teach shoe tying demonstrates
this response and its product to the student as he observes the condition of the laces at
the time the response is appropriate. In the second exercise a student is shown how to
make the next to last response, and the immediate product of this response is a
condition of the laces that he learned to be the occasion, the s^dfor the last response.
The s^dfor the last response now serves to reinforce the next to last response and so on
back through the chain. It should be obvious that no independent evidence of mastery
is required by the child, that he can observe the adequacy of his performance directly as
he performs. ⁸⁹
What seems to be inherent in both of these explanations is a building up of a series of feed forward indicators, points to be observed, a "what to look for" at the end of each mini action. Studies on the delay of auditory feedback of speech gives dramatic credence to the position that speech is guided by expectant listening.
The effects of delayed speech feedback include slowing of speech rate, increased
loudness of speaking, elevation of pitch of the voice, and a blocking of the normal
flow of words that results in artificial stutter. Many errors of articulation appear,
including omissions, additions, and substitutions of syllables or words. ⁹⁰ In summarizing the experiments on delayed auditory feedback, it is suggested that children learning to speak their first language do not imitate adults directly, but rather:
The child can imitate words spoken by others because he already has developed the
ability to imitate himself--that is, to control his verbalizations according to the
feedback signals from prior verbalizations. The first words of infancy and childhood
are not exact imitations of adult words but represent patterns similar to adult words
over which the child already has achieved feedback control. ⁹¹
If one accepts the basic assumptions of the new paradigm, then it becomes obvious that the process of teaching becomes the process of providing the proper nutrients at the proper time. We do not feed a six month old child a sixteen ounce steak. The comprehension approach is not inanely prolonged listening for its own sake. Rather, listening activities are the means for helping students grow in their language capacity in the most efficient manner possible. The comprehension approach implies a building of a network which interweaves a linguistic symbol system and a perceptual symbolic system. Therefore, the greatest care in the construction of a listening program is required, if the comprehension approach is to be a viable alternative to the "A-L" paradigm.
The focus of most of the listening fluency researchers in the field has been on developing