Speaking English in class is bad. USING English in class is very good practice indeed. There’s an enormous difference. Recently, a teacher wrote on a well-known e-mail list for foreign language teachers: Why are the students writing English in Spanish class? IMHO, you are making them pass through the English (brick) wall to get to […]
Posts Tagged ‘Using English’
The mythical “wall”
Posted by Terry Waltz on November 12th, 2012
Posted in Methods, Outside Forces 
Tags: Comprehensible Input, Novices, Using English 
Comments Off on The mythical “wall”Immersion and the Older Beginner
Posted by Terry Waltz on March 20th, 2012
What exactly is Comprehensible Input? Does it mean “just getting the student to understand pretty much what’s going on, enough to get the point of what’s being said”? That is not the type of CI that is most effective in language acquisition — because if it were, immersion programs would work. The ACTFL Position Statement […]
Posted in Methods Tags: Comprehensible Input, Immersion, Using English Comments Off on Immersion and the Older BeginnerImmersion Looks Better, Though
Posted by Terry Waltz on July 13th, 2011
Let’s not forget: immersion means being underwater. And novice language learners don’t have gills. An observer of a TPRS-based Chinese class recently commented (using words to this effect): This is a great program. But you should use less English. You use too much English. If you want to give instructions that are complicated, you should […]
Posted in Methods, Outside Forces Tags: Culture, Fluency, STARTALK, Using English Comments Off on Immersion Looks Better, Though