|
 |
A class that "works"? | ||
Tags: Class Learning | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3940 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 1 of 29 11 September 2013 at 7:31pm | IP Logged | ||
|
So I'm 100% sold on the whole "learn a language on your own" thing. I have learned so much in the past three
months that I'm kind of stunned, to be honest. But what about language classes? I'm thinking about the typical "just for interest's sake" course - a couple of times a week for 3 hours at a time. My Dad took a class like that last year and is starting a new one next month. I'm not convinced that it's the best use of his time - but maybe it can be, if it's properly formatted? I teach intensive immersion courses, but those are completely different - I have my students for 6 hours a day for months at a time. I'm just less convinced about the part-time classes offered in community centres and education centres. While I've never taught a course like that, and I don't expect that I ever will, I'm curious now about how something like that could be organized so that it *is* the best use of a student's time. The problem with a language class, of course, is that there are multiple learners to one native speaker. By definition, this can't be the most efficient format for learning. I'm curious though - what kind of group language learning do you think would work for you? Even if it wouldn't be your first choice, what do you think could be useful? Thanks for sharing your thoughts! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6952 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 29 11 September 2013 at 7:48pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The best class for a foreign language that I took for interest was my introductory class in Polish.
The usefulness of it was that my instructor was very well-organized and often could balance instruction on grammar with activities in class that would force us to interact with her or each other (i.e. the students) in Polish. It also helped that she assigned a decent amount of homework every lesson or two which she would then take up in the following lesson thus keeping us on our toes. No one wanted to be shamed very often into admitting that he/she didn't do the homework. Another benefit of language classes is that under the right conditions you can make friends with other learners and/or their friends/SOs and gain encouragement from them or learn from them. A couple of my teachers always encouraged us to ask questions based on their experience that for every person asking the question outright, there's at least a few other people in class who are either too shy to ask or never really thought to ask in the first place. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| osoymar Tetraglot Pro Member United States Joined 4532 days ago 190 posts - 344 votes Speaks: English*, German, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Spanish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 29 11 September 2013 at 8:07pm | IP Logged | ||
|
In my college German course, we had separate drill sessions outside of the regular
classes. The instructor would ask a question or give some other prompt and only afterwords point to a student to answer- this way I had to think of the answer whether I ended up getting called on or not. Of course, this still relies on me having the right attitude, but for me it was extremely helpful and I would gladly take part in another class of this type for any language I'm between A0-A2 in. Other than that, I agree that a traditional course is not the most efficient way of learning a language. That being said, for many people there are other elements of the class that are valuable. It can be a source of motivation, or the social element might be enough to make the class more enjoyable than sitting at home with Assimil, and that difference may be enough for them to keep studying, even if their progress is much slower. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 3969 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 4 of 29 11 September 2013 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The advantages of a class would be having a teacher than can help you notice useful language, pick out texts that are of your level (or grade them for you), and pick up on mistakes you can't notice yourself, and having plenty of people to practice with. I certainly don't believe that anyone has to practice with native speakers to learn a language. In fact, in the beginning stages, it can be difficult to find a native speaker with the patience to listen to you butcher the language without paying them. Multi-lingual classrooms are optimal, so that everyone is forced to use the common language to communicate. And real communication is something you get in a good classroom that you don't get practising at home by yourself. Obviously there are plenty of classrooms where this isn't the case, but then there are plenty of self-study materials/techniques that are hopeless too.
I think a major mistake people make is expecting to learn a language purely from a class. It should be just one tool. With intensive courses, you're going to learn something merely by studying so regularly. But expecting to learn a language with two lessons a week and nothing else is a recipe for failure. The other benefit in a classroom is that tasks can be designed that better reflect real life. I saw a great German lesson in which the students had to find flatmates. So they had to read house adverts, agree on what they're looking for in a house/housemate, interview prospective housemates, etc. That's something that's very difficult to do on Skype, with a conversation partner, or with self-study books. In fact, task-based learning is a particularly effective method (especially in multi-lingual classrooms) in which the students are simply given a task, and have to complete it using whatever language they have. The teacher circulates, listening for any language that could be improved, and then suggests phrases that could've been used instead. They're drilled, and then the students are given a similar task to do again, and encouraged to use the language presented by the teacher. It's this responding to what the students are trying to say and suggesting ways that native speakers would actually say the same thing that is something a good teacher should be doing. This sort of reacting to students real needs is what makes a good classroom. Another important aspect of this, however, is the recording and recycling of such language throughout the course. It's all well and good to mention a useful phrase in the moment, but if it never comes up again, the students will forget it. Obviously teaching in this way ensures that the most commonly used language will naturally be repeated throughout. Edited by I'm With Stupid on 11 September 2013 at 9:48pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 5880 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English*, Czech*, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch | Message 5 of 29 11 September 2013 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I prefer classes over self-learning material. My knowledge of French, Spanish, and also Dutch and Polish are all due to having spent significant time in classes learning the languages (also all of these were also aided by me going through some self-learning material before or after). This is because as a self-learner I am very unmotivated and usually end up giving up on the material. I actually don't do the homework in class either. Unfortunately this laziness also results in me having some grammar gaps, however for some reason I am able to absorb a lot of stuff just by being in class and listening to the teacher. The best classes are find are the ones taught by a native speaker and completely in the target language (even from the beginning).
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4086 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 6 of 29 11 September 2013 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I personally prefer to teach myself, even to C2 level like I am doing with Spanish, my
only language where I can reach insofar. In secondary school I took language classes, but I felt that sometimes the pace was too slow or not my style In some cases classes are not designed to learn certain things one needs, but rather just to pass the exam or get sufficient marks for the class. I sat four years of Mandarin where there was very little grammar, something I need in my learning, so up to now I can decipher (not read well) parts of newspapers, but barely write a sentence nor speak a coherent sentence that does not sound ridiculously incorrectly grammatically, although I had sufficient marks to pass the class. Of course the advantage with self-teaching is that it costs much less, especially if one needs to transport to the academy/university. If one has an illness, either chronic or acute, it could affect progress in the class, especially in intensive, shorter classes. In primary school I made this "proverb" that seems to serve me well, "One's best teacher is oneself." Edited by 1e4e6 on 11 September 2013 at 11:49pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4418 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 7 of 29 12 September 2013 at 1:17am | IP Logged | ||
|
Classes are certainly useful when you are in the beginner-to-intermediate category but you have to work
outside the classroom as well. I attended a few evening German classes and enjoyed them all but I eventually reached the point where I found I could learn far more from just reading at home alone and speaking with natives online or at conversation meetups. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4047 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 29 12 September 2013 at 8:50am | IP Logged | ||
I definitely made this mistake. I figured that if I took the three semesters of college Spanish that were offered at my school, then of course I would be able to speak Spanish... I'd be able to watch Spanish television and talk to natives and pick up a newspaper and read it. While I know that the foundation I built there most certainly has helped me now, I've since learned that there is so much to do beyond classes. I don't think that most classes would be able to suit everyone, because there is just so much to know. While I may not need to know much about baseball in Spanish, that might be what someone else really wants to learn about. Other people need to know more about computers, or plants, or scrapbooking. While a class can give you the basics (and help with grammar), at the end of the class, most people won't end up fluent. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
