Language homework is important for classes, as we are
practicing learning a language to speak and use in everyday life. There are
hours of practice needed to make sure that we are comfortable producing the
language either in writing or in written text. So for languages, homework is
absolutely necessary.
In my view,
homework is supposed to act as a reinforcement of the points taught during
class that day. It is when teaches introduce literature or new ideas in the
reading that vexes me greatly. The first reason that while it is suitable for
class discussions, such as for English classes, when you are trying to learn it
for a class where you have to apply it such as with a science or language, it
is detrimental if you don’t understand it properly the first time, and it
becomes ingrained in your head that way. For me, this is not a viable way to
learn.
Currently in Arabic, our teacher is having us read ahead
before we learn the material in class. While it does allow the teacher to go
over it more in depth and spending her time explaining it rather than
introducing it, it is one of the greatest sources for frustration for me. Many
times I will read the chapter, follow the drills to come in the next day and
find that I had been doing it all wrong. It makes more sense to be to be
practicing all of this after we have been introduced to it properly.
While the video seems to be a dramatic interpretation of
their tips, I do think that much of what they said is true. First off, students
do have a lot more homework in our parent’s generation. In the case of Korea,
this is almost insane.
I understand your frustrations with reading material and practicing before a lesson has been taught. In college, many professors assign reading that is due the day the lecture the material. From my experience, they use the reading as a foundation and actually highlight important concepts in more dept during their lecture. In many subject this might be appropriate, but in foreign language - I think ti is more detrimental then anything.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Melissa, for a foreign language class, one of the worst thing you can do is learn it wrong. In my opinion, reading about some topic that will be covered later is fine, but actually putting that into practice can have the exact opposite effect.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of having to teach yourself the material prior to the classroom session on it is a bad idea, no matter what the subject. The moment of understanding an idea, when you can finally say to yourself, "Oh, I get it now!", is supposed to be what homework is for, because after having heard about it in class the student gets to practice the very same idea. If they are reading about the idea on their own before having it explained to the, the "Aha!" moment will occur in the classroom instead, and this leaves little room for self-improvement. There is no real growth in this method, and leads to a very boring classroom when everything is just stuff everyone has already read.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what happen in South Korea is real or not, but in China, many senior high school students who focus on preparing for collage entrance examination really spend all day on study except mealtimes and bedtime.
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