Boris Johnson on Mandarin (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Boris Johnson on Mandarin
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

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EnglishEagle
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4575 days ago
140 posts - 157 votes

Studies: English*, German

Message 57 of 57

29 October 2013 at 4:26pm | IP Logged

I'm With Stupid wrote:

EnglishEagle wrote:

For me, French isn't a language that I enjoy, I do not currently wish
to learn it. I think after being forced to partake
in French lessons year after year, I have no desire left to learn French. Also, almost all of our lessons are taught in
English and we were are made to fill out grammar exercises and memorise verb conjugations. For me, this is NOT
fun and we hardly ever do any speaking in class. We are just given word lists and expected to memorise them. Also I
think it is partly due to the lack of enthusiasm of the teachers.

I'm amazed that it's still taught in this way. Even when I learned French in school (95-00) this was way behind what
the latest research said was optimal. It's like they don't have even the most basic knowledge of how to effectively
teach a language. Obviously the conditions aren't optimal, but there's no reason why the vast majority of classroom
time (99%) shouldn't be in the target language (especially in French, where half of the words are just English words
pronounced differently). The basic English teaching qualifications get a lot of derision for being just 4 weeks long,
but based on accounts I've heard, it seems to be based on sounder methodology than the PGCE that takes two years
to complete. I'd be interested to compare a DELTA qualified English teacher (that's a 4-week course + minimum of 2
years classroom time + 12 week course) to someone who's done their PGCE and year's supervised teaching.

I'd be interested in asking you a few more questions, if you don't mind answering.

- How much classroom time is spent speaking in French in pairs or groups?
- When you answer questions (for example a listening or reading exercise) are the questions in English or French?
- How many of the classroom instructions are given in French? (e.g. open your books, turn to page 70)
- Are there any rules in class about when you're allowed to speak English/have to speak French?

Very recently we got a new teacher whose style of teaching is slightly different. However, when I wrote this post it
was based off the teaching I have received over the years as our class. We have only had a couple of lessons with him
(our previous teacher went on maternity leave) so he replaced her a couple of weeks ago. The teacher whom just left
(who was my teacher for 4 years) - I really didn't enjoy her teaching style.

1) A lot of the lesson were in English, such as what work we had to complete etc. If anyone had a question it would
be in English and the response in English. Out of a whole 1 hour lesson I would say that 5-10 minutes was spoken in
French. We rarely do partner work, but if it is partner work it would most likely be in French.
2) Normally we listen to an extract in French and answer in English (occasionally French). Sometimes its connect the
numbers to the letters and see if you've got the answer right.
3) The only time I can recall the teacher speaking in French is when she tells us page numbers for book exercises. An
example of a snippet of a lesson 'Girls, please turn to page soixante and complete the exercises on that page, you
have cinq minutes to complete it'.
4) There are no rules to when we can or can't speak English or French.

Our new teacher (although I don't think he's taught me enough yet for me to comment on his style of teaching). He
seems to be a lot better, for example I asked to go to the toilet and he asked me to ask in French and more orders
are given in French and overall a more enthusiastic teacher. I only have him for a couple of months until I leave to
go to sixth form. It was a shame I didn't get him earlier as a teacher!

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