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tmp011007
Diglot
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Congo
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| Message 1 of 11 19 February 2011 at 3:35am | IP Logged |
according to x forum and random webpages, "AIM is being used in 4000 schools across Canada, and is rapidly being implemented in schools worldwide"
any idea?
http://gened.mr-brox.com/news/post_part6.htm wrote:
A group of elementary school boys sit cross-legged on the floor at Crescent School in Toronto and answer questions in French with what appears to be a bizarre form of sign language. They gesture energetically with their hands as they say each word aloud -- physically acting out their sentences.
It's part of a workshop to demonstrate a new method of teaching core French being piloted at schools across the country. Teachers who have already implemented the Accelerated Integrated Method (AIM) have had such success they say it will revolutionize the way core French is taught in the classroom. Next month, in fact, Alberta will be adopting the program province-wide in its schools.
Wendy Maxwell gestures to her students. The kids giggle as they mime and say the words, but Maxwell says her technique has them speaking at French immersion levels.
Wendy Maxwell, who currently teaches at York House in Vancouver and formerly taught at Bishop Strachan in Toronto for 10 years, developed the program after becoming frustrated with the current core French programs. She found students rarely achieved fluency even after years of instruction.
"The other teachers I spoke with were struggling with their students," she said. "There was a lack of motivation, minimal fluency and increasing frustration on the part of their students. As well, the parents of the children I taught during the 1990s in Toronto were not happy with their children's progress."
So Maxwell set about creating a more effective curriculum. After much research on language acquisition techniques, she determined that children remember words more easily through hand gestures and can better contextualize new words by acting them out in plays, songs and dances. Maxwell has had remarkable success with her own core French students in the last few years, claiming they achieve fluency on par with French immersion students.
During the workshop, Maxwell demonstrates for about 60 Toronto teachers how hand gestures can help comprehension of a second language. She calls this the gesture approach, and the rest of her AIM program is built around it.
Basically, Maxwell has created a defined set of gestures for a comprehensive list of words that kids use the most to interact. Maxwell makes various signs as she talks in French to the students, who are in Grades 4, 5 and 6 at Crescent School. Their teacher, Sylvia Duckworth, implemented the program last September. They have no problem understanding Maxwell, and immediately follow along happily with the hand signs.
The gestures themselves are pretty simple. The verb manger (to eat), for example, is the motion of bringing food to one's mouth; opening and closing your hand quickly means dire (to say). The kids giggle as they mime and say the words.
Maxwell, who won the 1999 Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, calls the introductory vocabulary Pared Down Language, and emphasizes verbs. In core French programs, the verb vouloir, which means "to want," is not usually introduced until the third year.
"The word 'want' is the first word a baby says," says Maxwell, who developed her word list after carefully listening to children chatter. "We are simulating how a baby learns. We are all programmed to learn a language -- even those who are weak academically learn a language. This program is not about being the brightest in the class."
After students have learned the Pared Down Language, they can start adding more complicated words and expressions. The idea is to learn to communicate at a basic level. Their grammar skills (such as learning the past tense) will be refined as they get more proficient. Kids are not allowed to resort to English during French class.
"In this program, they start by learning the words they need to know to communicate and that have relevance," says Duckworth, who says she hears the boys talking in French in the halls after just one year. "In some regular programs, they start by learning the names of different insects. I don't even know those words."
Studies have proven that the use of gesture helps students remember the subject matter. It also makes the teacher appear more approachable, interested, caring and warm. Maxwell says there is a sense of ease associated with gesturing. She points out that children of deaf parents sign words before children of hearing parents begin to talk.
"Everyone uses gestures to help them get a point across, but by using a defined set of gestures, the use of gesture is taken to a whole new level," says Maxwell. "For me, this opened up doors to communication with my students that I would not have thought possible."
Unlike most contemporary programs, AIM is based on familiar stories and fairy tales rather than themes (like food, sports, hobbies etc). The extensive use of drama and acting is not only fun for the kids but allows for lots of "pleasant repetition" of the same words.
At each grade level, kids work with a fairy tale or play over an extended period of time. After they memorize it, they do various activities associated with the play to reinforce the words they have learned. They might, for example, be asked to paraphrase the story, tell the story from the point of view of a different character or write a journal about it. In this way, the words are reviewed constantly and eventually added to. Many of the plays written for the program are based on songs from CDs recorded by Maxwell's husband, Matt Maxwell, a musician who specializes in French recordings and performances for children.
"All the class activities are based on the play and because they know it so well, they are confident about the activities," says Maxwell. "They learn because they are enjoying themselves."
Edite Sammons, a French teacher at Havergal College in Toronto, says she was on her way to "teacher burn-out" before she observed one of Maxwell's Grade 2 classes four years ago. She describes the experience as a "renaissance."
"The kids were speaking in full sentences, not only with Wendy but with each other. I had never seen or heard such well developed oral fluency in a core French classroom," she says. "I could not believe it."
She spent a summer practising the gestures in front of a small mirror, and piloted the technique with her Grade 1 class in 1999. She said these kids are now more advanced in French than their older siblings in senior levels, and they are able to read and write stories independently, as well as communicate spontaneously.
"My pilot classes are now in Grade 3 and converse with me and each other exclusively in French during French class," she says. "I do not need to gesture nearly as often to ensure comprehension. It is undoubtedly the most innovative, exciting and successful method of teaching core French that I have encountered in 21 years as an elementary school teacher. I would say every child in the class is successful, every child understands what I'm saying. Even my weakest student who would have been lost in a traditional program is speaking and is able to communicate ideas to me."
Likewise, Duckworth says she was "blown away" when she sat in on one of Maxwell's classes. She admits, however, she was a little hesitant at first to try the program herself.
"Her program seemed so radical that I was afraid I was not going to pull it off," she says. "And I was not sure the boys could handle it. It is a very loud, dynamic way to teach French. I had reservations about whether I could keep them focused and under control."
Instead, Duckworth says she has found her students to be more focused, and their French skills have improved dramatically. She says, after 16 years of teaching core French, she feels revitalized. "As a teacher, nothing could be more exciting. There were almost immediate results with the gestures. It is very heartening. |
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AIM's Wendy Maxwell explaining roots of Gesture in language learning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVt3_gK2go
what do you think? suggestopedia (Georgi Lozanov) is back in the game again? xD
more info??? http://www.aimlanguagelearning.com/index.php/custom_pages/vi ew_page/name/aimoverview
Edited by tmp011007 on 19 February 2011 at 3:43am
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Cainntear
Pentaglot
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| Message 2 of 11 19 February 2011 at 11:42am | IP Logged |
OK, I've had a quick look at the video and here's what I think.
First of all, there seems to be a lot of attention placed on the gesture-based component of the course. To quote Wifried Decoo:
"A new method draws its originality and its force from a concept that is stressed above all others. Usually it is an easy to understand concept that speaks to the imagination.
...
Typical is that such a single idea, which only represents a component, becomes the focal point as if being the total method. This publicity-rhetoric gives the impression of total reform, while often all that happens is a shift in accentuation, or the viewing from a different angle, because many common components remain included in each method."
(Yes, that is my favourite link. I will not apologise for this - I feel this is the single most important piece of writing on language teaching ever. Everyone interested in language teaching or learning should read the full lecture.)
So Maxwell's single idea is gestures, but what else is she doing?
http://gened.mr-brox.com/news/post_part6.htm wrote:
Maxwell, who won the 1999 Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, calls the introductory vocabulary Pared Down Language, and emphasizes verbs. In core French programs, the verb vouloir, which means "to want," is not usually introduced until the third year.
"The word 'want' is the first word a baby says," says Maxwell, who developed her word list after carefully listening to children chatter. "We are simulating how a baby learns. We are all programmed to learn a language -- even those who are weak academically learn a language. This program is not about being the brightest in the class." |
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Or in other words she is introducing modal language much, much earlier. There is a lot of rhetoric in education about "personalising" learning, and usually in the language classroom that's taken to mean speaking about yourself -- hence "my name is ..." "I am .. years old" "I live in ....".
Modal language is by its very nature personalising. When you say you want something, that's immediately personal. When you say that you need something, that's immediately personal.
This sounds like a far more substantial component of classroom activity than the gestures, but the course is still being sold by gesture...
http://gened.mr-brox.com/news/post_part6.htm wrote:
| At each grade level, kids work with a fairy tale or play over an extended period of time. After they memorize it, they do various activities associated with the play to reinforce the words they have learned. They might, for example, be asked to paraphrase the story, tell the story from the point of view of a different character or write a journal about it. In this way, the words are reviewed constantly and eventually added to. Many of the plays written for the program are based on songs from CDs recorded by Maxwell's husband, Matt Maxwell, a musician who specializes in French recordings and performances for children. |
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They're carrying out activities based on professionally designed kids songs.
This sounds like a far more substantial component of classroom activity than the gestures, but the course is still being sold by gesture...
I'm sure gesture does have an effect -- but it's not that pseudo-scientific waffle from the video about left and right hemispheres and "combinations of signals".
I'm always harping on about "meaningful learning" vs "rote learning". In far too many classrooms, tasks can be done without fully understanding the words you're using. If the question is "do you like gagaghing?" you know (structurally) that the answer the teacher wants is either "yes, I like gagaghing" or "no, I don't like gagaghing". You can answer without knowing what "gagaghing" is (NB: "gagaghing" is a made-up word -- it doesn't actually mean anything). You can make up even more complicated answers like "no, I prefer swimming", or even "yes, I like gagaghing, but I prefer swimming" but you're still not understanding "gagaghing". Gesture makes it impossible to say a word correctly without understanding (as the gesture will be wrong).
BUT...
There are other ways to ensure understanding. Like building up the vocabulary more slowly.
So in conclusion, I have no reason to doubt that these classes work, but I have no reason to believe they are really "revolutionary" in any way.
EDIT: formatting of URL.
Edited by Cainntear on 20 February 2011 at 10:32am
7 persons have voted this message useful
| Splog
Diglot
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Czech Republic
anthonylauder.c
Joined 5697 days ago
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| Message 3 of 11 19 February 2011 at 2:36pm | IP Logged |
Thank you very much for this link.
They mention four things on the website that particularly interested me:
1: Rather than trying to teach all of the target language (French being the main focus)
the have created a stripped-down version that is much easier to learn yet still enable
children become conversational.
2: The teach the words within that stripped-down in a non-traditional order (e.g.
teaching lots of verbs in preference to nouns early on: they mention teaching "I want
..." straight away - whereas this is apparently often delayed for months or years in
traditional teaching)
3: There is a whole database of gestures associated with the words they learn, which
they say helps reinforce understanding and recall
4: There is a lot of memorisation and rehearsal of whole songs and plays going on,
rather than isolated words and grammar drills and this apparently has increased the
children's speaking abilities significantly
All in all, it sounds very enticing. It is a great shame there is no more information
available (at least that I could find) on these four areas. There are products for
sale, which presumably dig deeper, but I would love to see more information on the
above before shelling out any money.
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Andrew C
Diglot
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| Message 4 of 11 19 February 2011 at 6:56pm | IP Logged |
It looks like a nice way to learn, but it's not rocket science - just understanding meaning through sound and gesture. And there are other ways that meaning can be conveyed - e.g. through pictures/sound/opposites and even the dreaded translation (which I don't see as being a problem). I hope these other methods are not just ignored, because I think variety is important in a language classroom.
Gesture has a place in language learning, but it also has limits. Not everything can be conveyed easily with gestures.
1 person has voted this message useful
| slucido
Bilingual Diglot
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| Message 5 of 11 19 February 2011 at 8:00pm | IP Logged |
Hand Gestures Dramatically Improve Learning
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070725105957.ht m
ScienceDaily (July 28, 2007) — Kids asked to physically gesture at math problems are nearly three times more likely than non-gesturers to remember what they've learned. In the journal Cognition, a University of Rochester scientist suggests it's possible to help children learn difficult concepts by providing gestures as an additional and potent avenue for taking in information.
(...)
1 person has voted this message useful
| leosmith
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| Message 6 of 11 20 February 2011 at 3:56am | IP Logged |
slucido wrote:
| Hand Gestures Dramatically Improve Learning |
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Dramatically = 100%?
1 person has voted this message useful
| slucido
Bilingual Diglot
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| Message 7 of 11 20 February 2011 at 9:34am | IP Logged |
leosmith wrote:
slucido wrote:
| Hand Gestures Dramatically Improve Learning |
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Dramatically = 100%? |
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I don't know. It is the name of the article.
Here you have anothe article:
Gesturing to improve memory, language & thought
http://www.memory-key.com/blog/gesturing-improve-memory-lang uage-thought
Gesturing can change the way you think and remember.
Indications are that it does so by spreading the load on working memory.
Using gestures to augment speech can also help pre-verbal children communicate and develop language skills.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Splog
Diglot
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| Message 8 of 11 20 February 2011 at 10:27am | IP Logged |
I have found the website of the creator of AIM
which includes samples from the DVDs, plus lists of words and phrases taught.
1 person has voted this message useful
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