From spaghetti on the wall, to cereal dumped on the dog, a distraught child because the swiss cheese has holes in it and the feeling of deja vu as you clean your house again…parenting can really strengthen a person and give a new definition to patience. As a teacher, it has opened my eyes even more to what children truly need and why bad behavior doesn’t mean they are bad kids. As a world language teacher, it has given me an in depth look into what language acquisition is truly all about.
I decided to write this post as a way to reach out to world language teachers who are also parents or those who spend a large portion of their time with wee little (mighty) ones, toddlers. I felt, that if I really want to encourage a teacher to teach based on the philosophy of how language is truly acquired, then I needed an example that would hit home. What better example than the journey of helping a toddler learn to talk. The experience is a hands-on, real world example of language acquisition and gives insight into what we, as world language teachers, should be doing with our students in our classrooms. Here are several examples.
FULL SENTENCES
When speaking to my toddler, I have to use full sentences all the time. If not, then I’m only modeling short phrases and baby talk. She will have no other input besides that. If I say “stove-hot”, she will start with “hot” and then work up to “stove-hot”. But that is where she will end. If I say “the stove is hot, don’t touch it”. Then, she will start the same way, “hot”, “don’t touch” but she won’t stop there, she will eventually work up to saying and understanding the whole phrase. There is no reason that in our classrooms we have to simplify language so drastically. We always need to make it comprehensible, such as touching the stove and doing an action for hot. But, we need to make sure we are providing our students the full amount of a language in its every day normal course of conversation state.
REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT
How many times do I have to repeat something before she gets it! My goodness, if I don’t feel I repeat myself all the time. But then, she magically says the word without warning. Our students are the same way. Think about what you do when you want to remember something. How many times do you repeat a phone number in your head? Or have someone remember the first three numbers and you the last four? And that is only seven numbers in your language! Imagine a student who is introduced a long list of vocabulary words that they might not even be interested in. Repeat, repeat, repeat!
READING IS IMPORTANT
As parents, we constantly hear that reading is very important. We are told to read to our children from a young age, even as babies. Do our children understand what we are saying? Are they fully comprehending? No. But then we break the story down, we point out words, we have them repeat with us, we do actions with the words and then play around with the pages and ask them to point out color, shapes, animals and so on. We bring the reading to life and by doing so, they understand. This is the same for the world language classroom and what we can do to help our students understand literature even in beginning levels. We also do not pick a book to read that is only in the present tense as we wouldn’t dare introduce the past tense or subjunctive too early to our kids. Instead, children are presented language in an authentic form from day one, and they do just fine. We, as teachers, need to do the same thing with our students. Check out my blog post, Why Authentic Material? for links and ideas on how to use authentic materials in the classroom right away. I’d also recommend checking out the ACTFL I Can statements for ideas of what kind of authentic material to use in novice levels (go to page 39).
WHAT I DON’T SAY, SHE WON’T LEARN
The other day I was out and about and someone asked my daughter a question. It was an easy and simple question that had no complexity to it, and my daughter didn’t understand. I felt horrible. I felt that as a parent it was my responsibility for what she can understand. What do I need to do? Make sure that I am providing her tons of input and speaking in multiple forms. Let me give you an example. If I say, “Do you like ice cream?”, I can also say that as “Is ice cream your favorite?” “Is ice cream yummy?”. All of those questions elicit the same meaning, but provide additional language. In the classroom, we need to do the same.
CAN’T COMPARE TO OTHERS
I can never ever compare my daughter to another child, and I should never compare my students to one another. Everyone learns at their own pace and certain words are retained more than others. We create schemas in our brain based on past experiences, things that interest us and our preferences. My students do the same thing as they learn languages. Affective filter also plays a role. The more positive I make learning a language to my daughter and my students, the more they will want to learn.
BE PATIENT
Lastly, be patient. Students are sponges just like our children. I have witnessed student’s blossom their second or even their third year. They struggled at the D level, but eventually all the input exploded into an impressive use of the language. Also, they will get there. Students will learn how to speak full sentences and use grammar correctly. We have to think about our children who start with simple words, to short phrases and say things like “Sun, I no like”. We understand, we correct them and eventually they get it correctly. I would never expect my child to speak perfect grammar from day one and nor should we our students. The ACTFL proficiency levels echo this (go to page 6). They model how a student should learn languages, from list of words, to short phrases, to stand alone sentences, to strings of sentences and eventually paragraph length. Use the proficiency levels as a guide when working with students to remind yourself of language acquisition stages.
My goal and hope is that this was helpful to educators and perhaps a reminder of important aspects of teaching a language.