I believe that there are a variety of methods that teachers
need to use to really get through to all their students. The most effective foreign language
teaching is
Total Physical Response is so important in the foreign
language classroom, but I am not saying that it is the most important. This has an emphasis on listening
comprehension, which emulates the way that we all learned our first
language. I believe that the way
we learned our primary language is the best and most effective way to learn a
language. It’s not very practical,
however, to be immersed in the target language 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
unless you are abroad. That being
said, it is best for teachers to emulate this kind situation as best that they
can. Completely immersing a first
year student, however, can create stress and not accomplish much at all. Based on appropriate level, the teacher
speaking in the target language as much as possible helps that students become
accustom to hearing and understanding it.
I
believe that in addition to the Total Physical Response method, the Grammar-
Translation Method is very useful.
In this method, students learn the vocabulary and grammar before really
getting into the fluency of the language.
I believe that this is the way that most foreign language teachers teach
now. This is good for students to
learn because then they can understand why they must use that word instead of
another or the actual purpose behind the words and language that they are
using.
I
am currently in a literacy class and we learned something that relates to this
topic. When children learn their
primary language, they memorize the language, rather than actually learning
it. This is similar to the Total
Physical Response method of teaching.
Children who are about three years old are capable of conjugating
correctly and using the right words.
At this age, children are able to say, “I ran there” or “I woke
up”. Then, when children are about
6 years old, they seem to regress and will begin to say things like, “I runned
there” or “I waked up”. This is
because they are now actually learning the rules of conjugation and
grammar. They are beginning to
understand that the rule, for instance, that past tense uses “ed”. Although they do not understand the
exceptions to the rules yet, they are learning the rules behind the language
that they are speaking. I believe
that this example represents the need for both methods in the classroom.
Teaching in the target language as much as possible is important so that students can adapt to using all the skills that they have gained, both in foreign language classrooms, other classrooms and throughout life. I think it makes them become better aware of their goal of being able to speak, listen and understand.
I agree that in an ideal world a teacher should speak the target language 24/7, but again, it is not really feasible. I personally feel that if I were a student entering a classroom with no prior knowledge of a language, I would probably want to cry in everything was in the target language and I was getting no explanation or feedback. I think that after awhile it would be helpful and become easier for the student overtime, but there would definitely be that initial shock.
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting what you've said about children developing their native language and how at first they know the proper rules based on memorization and then once they begin to learn the rules, things get mixed up.
I really like what you said about children getting mixed up with grammatical forms when they actually begin to learn what they are saying and why they are saying it because I had never even thought of that before. It's easy for children who are learning their native language or even a foreign language to simply spit back a phrase or sentence that they have learned from their parents or from their foreign language teacher, but once they begin learning more in depth what the conjugations for those verbs are they begin to try piecing it together and try to understand what they are saying and while it confuses them, it's also beneficial
ReplyDeleteWhat you said about children and how they learn their native language. I think that confusion like that is very normal and it would be a good idea to try to avoid that confusion when learning a second language. Granted, most children in the United States do not start learning a second language formally in school until about 6th, 7th, or 8th grade. That being said, I agree that teaching some grammar backgroud is a good idea. At that age students should have a basic, if not well developed, understanding of grammar in their native languages. That can then be used as a basis for beginning grammer in a foriegn language. Students may catch on quickly and then progression to 100% communication in the target language is more within reach.
ReplyDeleteI really like what you said about completely immersing first year students and how that approach may not prove to be very effective. It sounds nice in theory, to just completely immerse students right from the start, but I agree that actually putting that idea into action would probably cause a lot of confusion, stress, and frustration. I definitely think it's important for first year students to be spoken to in the target language most of the time, but the teacher also needs to use their best judgment as to when they should add in a little L1.
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