Foreign languages in (Anglophone) schools (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Foreign languages in (Anglophone) schools
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

35 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Icaria909
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5592 days ago
201 posts - 346 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 33 of 35

26 March 2013 at 1:45am | IP Logged

I am sorry to hear that so many people have such horror stories. Language classes in the
USA range so much. Each individual state has its own expectations about how languages
should be taught and the gradual breakdown of the public school system into
charter/magnet/private schools further fragments the standard language learning
experience. I live in Iowa and there are multiple public and charter schools that feature
bilingual education programs K-12 in Spanish and Mandarin. My experience has been that
only the kids from these early immersion programs learn these languages to truly
meaningful levels (except the language majors at the University who manage to travel
abroad). Things are changing here for the primary and secondary schools, so maybe there
will be improvement in the future.
1 person has voted this message useful

PillowRock
Groupie
United States
Joined 4735 days ago
87 posts - 151 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 34 of 35

26 March 2013 at 11:37pm | IP Logged

tarvos wrote:

I can tell you that of all the things I learned at school I don't even use 1%.

I would argue that the point of schooling is, for the most part (note that I'm not using a universal phrasing; there are exceptions), not to make the students remember a huge list of facts for the long term. Rather it is to teach them to think. The specific intricacies that students analyze and dissect tend to be the *means*, not the ends in and of themselves.

Remembering the exact date of the Treaty of Westphalia for the long term is not important.
Learning to understand discussions of patterns, trends, and cultural influences in the continuum of history (or better yet, formulate a well reasoned argument yourself, as is done in essays for history classes) is.

As for the idea that the study of history in general is something that is of no real use ......
That calls to mind a line of dialog from a TV show that I used to watch:
"It seems that no one reads Santayana any more."
1 person has voted this message useful

PillowRock
Groupie
United States
Joined 4735 days ago
87 posts - 151 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 35 of 35

26 March 2013 at 11:41pm | IP Logged

wber wrote:

I've always felt that European variety is always spoken faster than their North American counterparts. <snip> Latin American Spanish vs European Spanish.

I think that this is an over-generalization. Speech patterns vary quite a bit across different regions / countries within Latin America. Some of them are very rapid, indeed.

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