The essay below presents key principles that I use to guide my language teaching and also explains how I carry out those principles in my classroom.
When it comes to teaching a foreign language, there is no specific recipe for success. It is a process that varies from teacher to teacher and learner to learner. Some language learners can learn a language by simply watching movies in the target language; some can learn through rigorous explicit classroom instruction; some have to be immersed in the target language; some may not ever become fluent users of the language. It all depends on the individual and the makeup of his/her brain or how much that person values learning that language. There are many reasons to learn a language, whether it is to travel, to communicate with native speakers, to learn more about one’s own first language, or to better understand other cultures. No matter the reason, I believe learning a language makes a positive impact on every learner, no matter how small.
I began studying French in high school simply because it was expected to study a foreign language, and French seemed very intriguing to me. Learning grammar was always very easy for me, but vocabulary acquisition took a little more time. I attribute this to fact that I have mathematical brain and was able to see the patterns in the grammatical features of the language. Unfortunately, having a good grasp of grammar is not enough to develop communicative competence. Due to my love of the language, I continued to study at the university level and had many opportunities to practice my listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills. Grammar became just a small part of the language, making me ask myself how important grammar instruction really is.
As I began teaching, I used a textbook to guide my curriculum. It was very grammar-oriented with long vocabulary lists and rules about verb conjugations and adjective agreement. I felt like it took forever to get my students to a point where they could communicate. This frustrated me, and, clearly, it frustrated them. I decided to set aside that textbook and find ways to get students to produce language. I started by asking what they wanted to learn. We brainstormed some useful phrases of their choosing and I helped them translate them. I then had them develop some short dialogues using those phrases. It helped to get the kids more motivated to learn when they had choice and a reason to use the language – the language was now relevant. Ushioda (2011) believes that we need to make language a tool to allow students to express themselves in a new way.
From a pedagogical perspective, of course, this means that we should encourage our students to view the target language as a means of self-expression and self-development. In other words, we need to engage their own identities and interests in our lessons and promote a sense of continuity between what they learn and do in the classroom, and who they are and what they are interested in doing in their lives outside the classroom, now and in the future (Ushioda, 2011, p. 204).
I found that by using a more communicative approach to teaching and offering more choice, students became better language learners.
As a more experienced teacher, I continue to teach grammar and vocabulary, but in a more communicative way. I try to teach the students that the focus is communication, not grammar. While I want them to learn the correct way to use the language, they should not put grammar ahead of communicating. To help promote their communication skills, I have students write journal entries once a week. They can write about any topic of their choosing, and they are not penalized for errors. To try to discourage them from using an online translator, I allow them to mix in English for things they cannot express in the TL. I try to respond to the journal entries in the target language as a way to provide comprehensible input, as time allows. I also assign three short impromptu conversations with me every two weeks. Students can lead, or I may lead the conversations, depending on their comfort level. This is just another opportunity for them to practice the language without worry of errors. I offer some feedback, usually in the form of recasts.
During class, I think it is important to offer a variety of activities to engage all types of learners and keep class interesting and fun. In touch with Gardner’s (1983, 1993, 1999, 2006) multiple intelligences (as cited from Larsen-Freeman and Anderson, 2011), I use a variety of activities to appeal to the logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, body/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, interpersonal, and, of course, verbal/linguistic intelligences. To learn vocabulary, students sometimes draw images or color-code the words. Sometimes they play charades to act out new words. I play songs to repeat certain vocabulary or grammar functions. I often relate sentence structure to a math equation. Interpersonal interaction takes place in group work. We are almost always speaking or writing. Students can also draw on their interpersonal skills while engaging in tasks.
In the past, when working on literature, I would provide students with a list of vocabulary terms, and we would spend a lot of time defining them. I have since learned to use concordance tools such as Voyant-tools.org as a way to teach vocabulary. By showing the students a word cloud, they are able to pick out the words that they are not familiar with, and we can then look at the words in context and decipher meaning. I can put authentic text from a variety of sources such as stories, poems, song lyrics, news articles, etc. into Voyant tools to help students notice grammatical patterns. I can then design lessons to supplement the authentic materials that will help teach grammar and vocabulary, instead of the traditional way of following a textbook curriculum.
I find that if I help students notice certain features in real-world situations, they are more interested in learning about them. I then help them to discover patterns and provide guidance and some explicit instruction before giving them a chance to practice the skills on their own. They can practice through written and spoken work. An effective way to help students practice features or vocabulary orally is throught tasks. While I do not engage in task-based language teaching a lot, I strive to become better at implementing it in my classroom. Ellis (2003) defines a task as:
1. The primary focus should be on ‘meaning’
2. There should be some kind of ‘gap’
3. Learners should largely rely on their own resources (linguistic and non-linguistic) in order to complete the activity.
4. There is a clearly defined outcome other than the use of language (as cited by Erlam, 2016, p. 280).
Tasks offer opportunities for students to effectively use the target language while they reach a specified goal. I believe by using tasks more often in my classroom, I will provide my students with valuable communicative skills while focusing either on meaning or on specific grammar features.
As I am continuing to grow as a foreign language learner, now also learning Spanish, I hope to inspire my students to be good language learners as well. I hope to keep finding fun, motivating ways to engage my students, so that they will find value in learning languages and strive to be their best. With access to tools such as YouTube, I am able to find a variety of input to share with my students, exposing them to various varieties and dialects of the language. This way students learn to comprehend native speakers from various parts of the world, rather than just me. They can also experience language in more rich and meaningful ways when they can see and hear it in real situations, rather than textbook scripted dialogues.
By providing my students with a variety of input, instruction, and guidance, I can help them to see the value in learning a foreign language. While, I may not inspire them all to become life-time language learners and world travelers, I hope to at least provide some insight into languages and culture as a whole and open their minds to new worlds and perspectives.
Ellis, R., Loewen, S., & Erlam, R. (2006). IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK AND THE ACQUISITION OF L2 GRAMMAR. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28(2), 339-368. doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/10.1017/S0272263106060141
Erlam, R. (2016). 'I'm still not sure what a task is': Teachers designing language tasks. Language Teaching Research, 20(3), 279-299. doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/10.1177/1362168814566087
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques & Priniciples in Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ushioda, E. (2011). Language learning motivation, self and identity: Current theoretical perspectives. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 24(3), 199-210. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.msu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/docview/896164267?accountid=12598