I think that homework in foreign language classes is
appropriate to assign after a lesson.
One of the best ways to learn a language is to practice, however you
cannot expect students to know how to do something before you explain it. In other classes like history or science,
pre-reading may be useful before a new lesson, but it is all at least in a
language that students understand.
Having students do language homework before they know how to do it would
just confuse and frustrate them. That being
said, a student that comes to class already frustrated would be unlikely to
participate or engage in the learning process.
They might think that the new language will always be too difficult or
that they will never understand it. For
those reasons I do not think it ever appropriate to assign homework before an upcoming
lesson that will teach students something new.
As for assigning homework after learning a concept, I
think this is perfectly acceptable. With
the current education system we have, students are only practicing or speaking
a foreign language for 45 to 60 minutes a day, five days a week. This is not enough time for many people to
develop a deep understanding of language concepts. A bit of extra practice is necessary. This is where homework can be very helpful. For example, if students learn to conjugate
verbs in class, they very well may forget how to do it by the next class or
over the weekend. If homework is
assigned, then students will be able to practice the concepts they learned in
class and a continuous learning process can occur. I do not think that homework has to be
assigned every single night, but based on how the class is doing. As a teacher you will be able to tell what
students are struggling with and what they need more practice with. These are the types of things that should be assigned
for homework and then worked on more extensively in class. Overall, in my opinion practice is the only
thing that will improve language ability and therefore homework is definitely
important.
As for the video, I do not think I would show it to my
students, but I would give them some of that advice. I would not show it to them simply because of
the mention of listening to music. In my
school we have to tell students to put away their music to listen to instruction
all the time. I wouldn’t want them to
confuse listening to music while doing homework with listening to music during instruction
periods. I do however allow my students
to listen to music when they are working individually because it certainly does
help some people.
I agree with you on your thoughts about homework. As you said, homework is very important in a foreign language class. In many schools, especially in the younger grades, foreign language class is only taught a few days a week. This being said, students are learning in class and often times forgetting the information by the next class because they are not every day or even that long. Homework helps students to remember what they have learned in class.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that homework does not need to be assigned every night or every class, but just when the teachers sees it being beneficial to the students. With that being said, I think if a teacher always plans and assigns useful, beneficial homework, one could argue that homework should always be assigned because it will always benefit the student. I agree with what you said that homework should be assigned based on how the class is progressing with certain concepts. I think the teacher should always have a homework assignment planned, but if the class is doing really well with a certain concept, I think the teacher could give them a night off, or could just shorten the assignment so there is still some practice, just not as much.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as a teacher, whose class is about to begin verb conjugation, I agree with you that students need to learn in class, and reinforce what they have learned through homework. However, I think that a little introduction to new concepts is not a bad thing. In my class, I have asked students to read only three pages in order to have a brief overview of what we will be covering. I would never ask students to do complicated exercises before teaching the subject in class, but in some cases a simple assignments could be helpful.
ReplyDeleteI agree that homework is a great addition to the little amount of class time that students have. Even in college we have, what, three hours, tops. That is not enough time to a) cover all the material and b) practice as much as we should be doing. I think that giving students homework, in most forms, is a great idea to continue this learning outside of the classroom and form habits for the students of using the language outside of the classroom.
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