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Designing a language course | ||
Tags: Language Program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6153 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 16 07 October 2011 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The topic of creating a specific language course has been raised on the forum before, with the unofficial Michel Thomas project the latest incarnation. Personally, I don't think members have the time to commit to a specific language project, worthy as it may be. However, while we may not have the time to create an actual course, we do have the expertise to guide the creation of a course. If you could advise Hodder\Hachette, Living Language, Routledge, or any other course producers how to approach the task, what would your advice be ?
My advice would be, 1. Don't assume a course author can create a course without detailed guidelines. 2. Research what methods work, what styles of learning keeps people motivated, and what actually teaches the language. 3. Research how people actually use courses. I think a lot of courses are created and never tested properly. 4. Record all your audio in proper studios with professional and pleasant voice actors. Keep the native language to a minimum unless it's an all audio course. As far as I know, the students on the Michel Thomas recordings are professional voice actors even if the learning is real. 5. Test the course as it's created with students. Review areas that are confusing or need further clarification. 6. Review the content with native and non-native proof readers. What guidelines and advice would you give to a company creating a new language course ? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6013 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 16 07 October 2011 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's the most important one. Many people succeed despite their teachers, not because of them. It's easy point to individual successes, or even statistics, but if the successful learners aren't doing what you told them to, you need to change your advice.... 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6306 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 3 of 16 07 October 2011 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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* Focus on drills and practice not explanations. Languages are learned not by memorizing or even understanding, but by repeating hundreds of times.
* More input! A few hours of audio is just barely scratching the surface. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mikonai Diglot Senior Member United States weirdnamewriting.bloRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4931 days ago 178 posts - 281 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Swahili, German | Message 4 of 16 07 October 2011 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
I feel I must differ on this point. Drills are all right, but I need far fewer of them if I understand the principle behind what I'm doing. I'd rather be told how something works than told just to do it a few hundred times until I memorize it my sheer force. Maybe this is just a difference in learning styles, but it should be taken into account depending on the type of student the course is created for. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6306 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 5 of 16 07 October 2011 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Sorry, I simply don't believe you. It's like playing a musical instrument, martial arts, or any kind of other skill. You may understand the mechanics of a sport or know which notes should be played, but actually doing it skillfully is a completely different matter. In order to simply speak naturally and without hesitation you just have to practice. No amount of explaining is going to cut it.
3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5567 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 16 07 October 2011 at 9:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Research by people such as Professors Wilga Rivers and Philip Smith and others into drill heavy methods such as the Army method(of which FSI is a benign example) in the mid 1960s found that having the grammatical point being practiced in the drill explained in the learner's native language improved comprehension and usage of the point. Language is not a behavourial response, it is the creative use of syntactical and semantic principles. Drills have their place, in fact an important place, but not at the expense of understanding the basic map of a language. Edited by Elexi on 08 October 2011 at 11:04am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| pfn123 Senior Member Australia Joined 5085 days ago 171 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 16 07 October 2011 at 11:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think this is the point that I would make to publishers: Make material that is as easily adaptable for as many people and as many different methods as possible. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7123 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 8 of 16 08 October 2011 at 2:36am | IP Logged | |||||
This means courses will have to contain A LOT more material, making them more expensive. Consequently, fewer people will buy them and...well, the rest is obvious. Publishing houses are, first and foremost, businesses, and they need to do what makes money to justify their being in the first place. So any course you buy is going to be restrictive to some extent. Or was this another of those 'let's all do it for free' projects? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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