Sunday, September 16, 2012
Language Teaching Effectiveness
From my experiences, a teacher can really effect your learning of a foreign language. One of the most effective (positive and negative) aspects of teaching is the amount of speaking in the target language is done by the teacher. In my freshman year French class, my professor spoke usually would only speak French and at a native speaker's fluency. This was frustrating for most of the class, because she would continue to repeat the same phrase over and over hoping that would help us understand. I believe that it is important to speak a lot of the target language, but not too much over the learners level of understanding. I also think that when students are having a hard time understanding the message the teacher is trying to convey that some use of their native language as well as body language is extremely helpful. On the contrary, I also took one year of French in my senior year of high school, and that teacher rarely spoke French. When she did speak French, she had a very American accent. In this classroom I felt like we weren't challenged to learn the language subconsciously. I wish we listened to some tapes of native speakers to get a better understanding of the language.
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I like what you said about body language. It's great to have a teacher who is not worried about embarrassing themselves and will run in place and jump up and down numerous times if that's what it takes to get the students to understand what the words mean. It's definitely very helpful.
ReplyDeleteI think that your experiences are very good examples of the i+1 concept, making sure that the input is at and a little bit above the students' levels of understanding. Your freshman year professor really should have taken an assessment of the level of the class and readjusted the input to better support comprehension and improved learning.
ReplyDeleteI agree that students to get stressed out when the teacher speaks over the student's heads when they are in a introductory language class. If a teacher cant slow the target language down until the students are ready then the students will get nothing out of the lesson. Students need to be comfortable with the basic concepts before they can formulate sentences.
ReplyDeleteBody language and charades are so important when it comes to teaching students while trying to avoid breaking the target language. My Russian professor will use stuffed animals to play out verbs we don't understand, or make facial expressions to help us get the right meaning. This method is so valuable because it allows the students to associate the word with the meaning, rather than associating it with the English word. It's very stressful not to understand what the teacher is saying, but when they stop and help you guess the meaning without just giving it to you, it is much more satisfying than simply being told the answer.
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