Span 679rFascinating stuff about language learning

What is the best way to learn a 2nd/foreign

language?• Well what do we mean by “learn” a foreign

language?

• If you teach a college Spanish class what do you hope your students will get out of it?

• If you are teaching first year middle school students, what do you hope they will be able to do by the end of the course?

• If you take a group of students who have finished Spanish 106 abroad for a semester?

• What would you hope they get out of the experience?

Gov. Version

Interagency Language Roundtable Scale (ILR)Speaking 5 (Functionally Native Proficiency)

Speaking 4+ (Advanced Professional Proficiency, Plus)

Speaking 4 (Advanced Professional Proficiency)

Speaking 3+ (General Professional Proficiency, Plus)

Speaking 3 (General Professional Proficiency)

Speaking 2+ (Limited Working Proficiency, Plus)

Speaking 2 (Limited Working Proficiency)

Speaking 1+ (Elementary Proficiency, Plus)

Speaking 1 (Elementary Proficiency)

Speaking 0+ (Memorized Proficiency)Speaking 0 (No Proficiency)

ACTFL Guidelines

Superior

Superior

Superior

Superior

Superior

Advanced –high

Advanced-Low/Mid

Intermediate – High

Intermediate – Low/Mid

Novice – High

Novice – Low/Mid

What differences do you see?

Why did they replace levels 3-5 with one superior level?

Effects of OPI on Language Teaching

• How do teachers often interact with students differently than interviewers interact with interviewees in the proficiency interview?

• Correct• explain• Interrupt students’ expressions• require complete sentences• generate all topics• simplify the way that they speak to their students• very different than the way they would speak to

another proficient speaker of the TL.

• You are teaching about families and questions with “cómo”

• T: ¿Cómo es tu familia?

• S: Pues una poco loca, estás una familia grande, soy tres hermanos y nos gusta jugaremos deportes.

• T: What might a teacher say at this point??????

• Teachers often focus on accuracy of students’ speech NOT content.

• You are travelling on a bus in Mexico and meet a tourist from Germany.

• You: ¿Cómo es tu familia?

• Amigo: Pues una poco loca, estás una familia grande, soy tres hermanos y nos gusta jugaremos deportes.

• You: What might you say at this point?

What other effect might the guidelines have on teaching?

• Focus on what you do with the language rather than grammar principles.

• One teacher says to students, after chapter 8 you will be able to use the imperfect…..

• Another teacher says, after chapter 8 you’ll be able to share experiences from your childhood, talk about things you did when you were a kid etc.

• Guidelines = organizing principle.

• What does that mean?

• Skill getting• Pseudo

communication• Learning structures• Teacher-centered• Controlled speech• Structured/focused

(predictable)• Complete sentences• Slow rate of speech• Systematic correction

• Skill using• Interaction, communication• Accomplishing tasks• Student-centered• Creative use of language• Open-ended, Spontaneous

activities

• Natural rate when possible• Delayed correction

What are some examples of

skill getting and skill using activities?• Read these sentences

aloud to a partner and Fill in the blanks with correct form of the verb in parentheses.

• Ayer, yo ______ (tener) frio.

• Write three sentences using tener in the imperfect.

• Here is a picture of two people in a market in Guatemala.

• One of you is the woman sitting down selling fruits and veggies. The other is the woman standing up wanting to buy some fruit. You are friends.

• Have a conversation where you catch up on things and make a transaction.

How long does it take?• How long does it take a child to be able to

produce grammatically correct speech consistently in the L1?

• How long does it take big people to learn a foreign language?

Small group activity…..• Group 1: Let’s calculate,

How many hours students in Spanish 101 have by the time they finish a semester, a year, and two years?

• Group 2: Ok, how about missionaries how many hours per day per week per month per year?

• Group 3: Study abroad students for 3 months taking 6 credit hours of Spanish.

• --Now, Where would you place your L2 skills on the ACTFL scale?• Where do you think most high school students who finish 2nd year

Spanish fall?• Where do you think most students in Spanish 205 fall?• Where do you think most returned missionaries fall?

• What does this tell us about taking a language in high school and/or college?

Should people take FL classes?

• Krashen – Acquisition/Learning, what’s the difference?

Why?• Programmatic

differences• -Time on task• -Teacher skill• -Methodology• -Context• -Materials

• What factors can affect how well one learns a language?

• Individual difference• -motivation• -learning style• -age• -1st language• -aptitude• -social distance• -personality• -anxiety • -locus of control• -learning strategie

http://sunburst.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/stylest.html