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American Language teaching is horrible. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5585 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 1 of 44 09 April 2010 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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So horrible in fact, that I'm tutoring kids that have taken YEARS of a language. Maybe I have a thing for languages, or maybe they are not that good at it. I'm not sure but I was was able to correct some of my friends German homework and speaking yesterday when they asked me to. I've been studying German for about 6 weeks or so.
(Michel Thomas, German Self Teacher, like 2 other books, and a TON of German content. Magazines, music, books, newspapers.) I've probably put in 50 hours so far. One of my friends received a 100% on their German test after I helped them. Is American schooling REALLY that horrific? I was amazed at myself to find that I could feel that something wasn't written correctly or didn't make sense. However, when you ask me "What is Genetiv or Dativ?" I would have no idea. I just know how to use it rather than actually explain what it is. Is this even a good thing? Im GroBen und Ganzen, Ich bin sehr gluecklich. :D Ich wunsch', dass ich koennte es lehren. (stimmt das? :D) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6079 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 44 09 April 2010 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's a thread on pretty much the same subject here. The conclusion seems to be that all school systems suck at teaching language. From my own experience they teach you about a language rather than the language itself.
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| Miznia Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5351 days ago 37 posts - 42 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Cantonese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese | Message 3 of 44 09 April 2010 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't have a problem with my high school language instruction (German, French, Russian, Japanese). (Except for a Spanish class when I was 12 which really just put words in word-finds and talk about the language. Teach some random terms.) I think the problem is that if you don't want to learn a language, you won't, doesn't matter how good your instruction is.
edit: no offense meant to those who really did have poor instruction. Edited by Miznia on 09 April 2010 at 6:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5967 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 44 09 April 2010 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, it really is pretty bad, at least as I remember it. No foreign language was required for me until I was fourteen, but now many schools seem to be starting to teach languages (Spanish, more or less) earlier, and to younger students. Of course, that's not a great advantage if the teaching is not good, as the kids will simply start hating it earlier! Many of the kids I tutored felt this way, unfortunately.
It gets better at the university level, but only in advanced classes. The introductory courses are full of students attending only to fulfill a requirement. The pace of the work is faster, but you still don't really learn how the language works as a whole; it's just more piece-by-piece presentation of some concept followed by an exam, followed by the forgetting of it, because you don't get enough actual practice of the topic before you have to memorize another disconnected section of the language for another exam, and so on. But you should be able to get to the advanced level very quickly, and the professors should be thrilled to discover a really dedicated student! Also, there are a lot of opportunities at this level to do study abroad or at least a short visit to your target country/language community. (I'm assuming you mean to study languages at university). Keep tutoring if you can--it's a great way to constantly challenge and expand your own studies while at the same time helping someone else, and you can get paid for it, too, sometimes very well! You already know how to learn on your own, and your example as a successful independent language learner is as important--more important, really, and more inspiring--to those you teach as any factual information you can give them. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5448 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 5 of 44 09 April 2010 at 7:04pm | IP Logged | ||
6 weeks and you are good enough to read native materials? That's insane! (in a positive way) I wish I had that ability... haha. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Saif Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5612 days ago 122 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, French | Message 6 of 44 09 April 2010 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, I think it's that bad. There's no holistic approach to language learning in the
classroom. You get bits and pieces, but that's not nearly enough to achieve fluency. Teachers do not know how to bring it all together. Their focus is based too largely on memorization. Memorize these conjugation rules, now memorize these vocab lists... you'll have a quiz, memorize these grammar exceptions... now write an essay and put together an oral presentation although all you know is memorized rules and basic tourist phrases. That's just not going to work! The majority of high school students forget what they learned after graduation. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5448 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 7 of 44 09 April 2010 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've finished the AP Spanish Langage course with a 4 (which I am not fully satisfied with but still I think isn't a bad score) and even after that I felt that I was a bit deficient in some areas, especially listening and vocabulary. I wish the language teachers had focused teaching more of those things, but in American schools you just don't have much time. Edited by chucknorrisman on 09 April 2010 at 7:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| brian91 Senior Member Ireland Joined 5444 days ago 335 posts - 437 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 8 of 44 09 April 2010 at 7:48pm | IP Logged | ||
It's frustrating for me as well here in Ireland: we mainly focus on grammar about 40% of the time which is way too much. Although a lot of people don't seem to want to learn German, so I wonder is it the education system or them. I bring in German movies for our class to watch to try to help them become interested in German. I can help with vocabulary at school, but my German grammar is awful. I might have to rethink Michel Thomas. I got his Spanish course when I was younger before he died and maybe didn't appreciate it enough. Datsunking (a Datsun is a Nissan in America, right?), do you use the 1987 Self Teacher or is their a newer edition? Also, what are the ''2 other books'' you use? I have lots of other German material already, and enjoy watching Seinfeld in German! There is a guy in my German class who is fluent (and an all-round genius) and I believe he tutors (I know for sure that he teaches flute and other things). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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