If a complete stranger were to ask me this question, I would tell them to immerse themselves. Move to the country where the language is spoken. Well, it isn't that easy to just pack up and ship out to a new country and 'immerse' yourself. However, given my previous experiences with language learning, those have been the most productive and useful learning situations. I didn't start learning (really learning) my second language until I was 16 and went on an exchange. I had been taking French for 5 years prior to my exchange but I can tell you, there was no quality input given to the students. We did a lot of grammar translation and memorization.
Now, as a language teacher, I am more aware of what students should be learning and how they should be learning their second/third language. I would agree with the value of quality input and ensuring that we expose learners to as much as possible. Would I go so far as to say that there is no place for grammar? No, I would not. If it were a complete immersion style classroom/environment, yes, I could see how you would not have to explicitly teach grammatical concepts. However, given limited exposure to the language, I still think that you can teach grammatical concepts in context. I am not saying to teach the rules as a whole (boring) lesson but there are many ways to help students discover why the language is as it is.
For me, I want to understand. One of the frustrating aspects of being an older learner is that you come with a wealth of experience and background in your mother tongue and ideally, you would like to be able to communicate with L2 natives at the same level as you may in your L1. My beginner students are equally frustrated with this as well. They want to communicate complex ideas but do not have the tools necessary to do so at an early stage. For me, I crave to understand the rules so that I can apply them. Why? Perhaps it is my personality, I am not sure. When I took an Arabic class, the teacher was teaching us vocabulary words related to a particular letter of the alphabet. I then asked a specific question as to when we could use a word, and wanted to hear it in a sentence. I then asked about the grammatical concept related to it. She didn't (or couldn't) answer me. I didn't want to be learning random words which were of no use to me. I quit learning Arabic a couple of classes later.
If we even go back 20 years, we didn't have exposure to all of the authentic resources that we do today. Teachers had textbooks and audio cassettes to use in their classrooms. With the internet and accessibility to authentic sources, we are able to provide our students with more quality input. This is a huge advancement from our own learning experiences.
I think feedback is one of the most important pieces of learning. I am not talking a grade either. I want quality feedback, comments, advice, ideas on how to improve and what I need to do. Feedback is an exchange between the learner and the teacher/facilitator so that meaningful experiences happen and the learner can move forward in the direction he/she wants to.
Perhaps you may not agree but these are my thoughts..
No comments:
Post a Comment