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American Language teaching is horrible. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5422 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 33 of 44 13 April 2010 at 6:04am | IP Logged | |||||
I'm trying to read all of my dad's finance/marketing/business books (he's a financial planner) because I recently fell in love with finance. I'm also trying to learn other (useful) stuff on my own. @datsunking1 I wish I was you. That car's awesome, I wish me and my dad would build something like that (maybe we will eventually). Hell, I'd love to buy a classic Mustang and fix it up, that's my dream :D I drive a Toyota Highlander right now (it's a 2002, doesn't have problems), which I don't like much. I prefer cars to SUVs. But I prefer my Highlander to my old 1990 Corolla (biggest POS ever) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Smart Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5339 days ago 352 posts - 398 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French Studies: German | Message 34 of 44 13 April 2010 at 7:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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I totally agree with this thread.
I was taught Spanish for almost 7 years and learned nothing during that time. Had to teach myself. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| NativeLanguage Octoglot Groupie United States nativlang.com Joined 5338 days ago 52 posts - 110 votes Speaks: French, Spanish, English*, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Portuguese, Catalan Studies: Japanese, Mayan languages, Irish | Message 35 of 44 14 April 2010 at 2:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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The main problem that I have with language education is that I don't believe languages make sense as subjects.
You sit in Spanish class and you are taught Spanish grammar, Spanish vocabulary and, in most schools now, culture of various Spanish-speaking countries. You need to use the language in a very proscribed way in order to pass that day's requirements and that's it. I think a better way of learning is to utilize the language that you want people to learn while you are teaching other subjects. You don't teach someone to use a hammer by telling them all about hammers and how they are used and the history of their use. You spend 2 minutes max telling someone about a hammer then you hand them a nail and a board. Similarly, if you view languages as tools for communication and start throwing people into scenarios where they need the language, they will catch on much more quickly. Teach a math class or science class in Spanish and people's Spanish is going to improve because they will need the language in order to get by day to day. Of course, this would necessitate a rethinking of most of the schooling process. With the way things currently are, people would just freak out that this was going to mess up their grade in math or science and ruin their chances at getting into a college. Edited by NativeLanguage on 14 April 2010 at 2:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5585 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 36 of 44 14 April 2010 at 2:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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My dream would be to become a profesor of linguistics and never fail ANYONE that wanter to truly learn the beauty of language. I couldn't bring myself to fail anyone that was truly trying and working really hard. It wouldn't be right.
I'm 18, I've played the lottery a couple times, hoping that I would hit all the numbers (I hit 3/6 so far :D) so I could live my life doing what I love. I would honestly teach for free. I wouldn't even care. Being around languages so much makes me really believe that I can truly teach a language out of a classroom and give my students true fluency. I know I'm shooting for the stars...but it can't hurt right? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 37 of 44 14 April 2010 at 2:49am | IP Logged | |||||
Sad part about that is, except for the few grad students you have under you, most won't care. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5591 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 38 of 44 14 April 2010 at 3:59am | IP Logged | |||||
I can't help but wonder what would happen if a foreign language requirement did not exist in the US schools. What if only those who truly wanted to learn were in the class? I think this thread would be a lot different. Those who have had to teach themselves-and were successful-would have had a class with like minded students. Can you imagine what might have been if everyone there really wanted to master the language? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5385 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 39 of 44 14 April 2010 at 5:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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The real problem isn't the motivation of the students--plenty of them don't care, it's true, but most kids will acknowledge that learning another language would be helpful for future jobs and travel.
The problem is that the language instruction is boring and ineffective--so the students now see "learning languages" as a torturous ideal that isn't worth whatever benefits are offered. Some of this is the fault of teachers, but the problem goes deeper than that in my opinion. Plenty of good teachers would change strategies if they could. But most public school curriculum is decided by committee, and the committee has to answer the parent community. The parent community has to be assured that their students are involved in SERIOUS STUDY, and thus insist that their kids be subjected to the same crappy teaching methodologies that they suffered through in school. In addition to SERIOUS STUDY you also have the problem of OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENT, which is a very tricky thing with language learning. What vocabulary and grammar points are memorized vs. which ones fly by a student's head are largely based on their subjective interests, motivations, and goals. That doesn't test very well, though, and SERIOUS STUDY requires OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENT to detect FAILURE. So to make sure they prepare "properly" the students have to drill and memorize lists of vocabulary, even about things they couldn't care less about and would probably never use if they spoke the language. Nevermind that SERIOUS STUDY requires learning about grammar before trusting yourself to make a simple sentence, thus instilling an "editor" that will forever make you nervous about opening your mouth for drastic fear that a native speaker will stop the conversation and scold you because you conjugated a verb into the imperfect second person singular instead of the preterite third person singular. So I don't know. Blaming the teachers or the students is misguided in my opinion. Young people are generally curious about the world as long as they don't have to work really hard for little to no gain. Teachers are specialized professionals who usually get burned out and cynical not by teaching, but by being unable to teach due to classroom discipline and/or bureaucratic meddling. And both of these things fall squarely on the shoulders of administration, which answers to parents. And parents are just people--generally well-meaning but half-informed folks who usually think they know much more about education and pedagogy than they actually do, and for some reason cannot grasp that a teacher and a parent can't use the same strategies to teach and guide children. But in today's education climate they "concerned parents" are calling the shots. I'm not saying involved parenting is bad for education, but the situation needs to be collaborative with teachers, administration, and students. Unfortunately administration and parents have thrown a coup over the other concerned parties in recent decades, to the detriment of all: we have plenty of urban schools that get brand new gymnasiums every five years (usually with some local hotshot's name on the wall) while their teaching staff is disempowered and underfunded. Then they wonder why 30% of the kids can barely read the diplomas they receive. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5422 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 40 of 44 14 April 2010 at 8:49am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't know why I typed that. Do you want to be a language teacher or a linguistics teacher (there's a difference)? It'd be awesome to have a teacher that could actually bring someone to fluency as opposed to bringing them towards hatred of the TL. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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