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[Song&Dance]

Why teach oral English when it simply does not work?

If you understand the difference between language learning and language acquisition, you can change what you are doing and inspire even the most unmotivated Chinese student to speak comprehensible English.

LANGUAGE LEARNING
The concept of language learning is linked to the traditional approach to the study of languages and today is still generally practiced in high schools worldwide. Attention is focused on the language in its written form and the objective is for the student to understand the structure and rules of the language through the application of intellect and logical deductive reasoning. The form is of greater importance than communication. Teaching and learning are technical and governed by a formal instructional plan with a predetermined syllabus. One studies the theory in the absence of the practical. One values the correct and represses the incorrect. There is little room for spontaneity. The teacher is an authority figure and the participation of the student is predominantly passive. In the teaching of English in Brazil, for example, the student will study the function of the interrogative and negative modes, irregular verbs, modals, etc. The student learns to construct sentences in the perfect tense, but only learns with difficulty when to use it. It's a progressive and cumulative process, normally tied to a preset syllabus that includes memorization of vocabulary. It seeks to transmit to the student knowledge about the language, its functioning and grammatical structure with its irregularities, its contrasts with the student's native language, knowledge that hopefully will produce the practical skills of understanding and speaking the language. This effort of accumulating knowledge becomes frustrating because of the lack of familiarity with the language.
Innumerable graduates with arts degrees in English are classic examples of language learning. They often are trained and theoretically able to teach a language that they can communicate in only with extreme difficulty. (Krashen)

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Language acquisition refers to the process of natural assimilation, involving intuition and subconscious learning, which is the product of real interactions between people where the learner is an active participant. It is similar to the way children learn their native tongue, a process that produces functional skill in the spoken language without theoretical knowledge; develops familiarity with the phonetic characteristics of the language as well as its structure and vocabulary, is responsible for oral understanding, the capability for creative communication and for the identification of cultural values. Teaching and learning are viewed as activities that happen in a personal psychological plane. The acquisition approach praises the communicative act and develops self-confidence in the learner.
A classic example of language acquisition involves adolescents and young adults who live abroad for a year in an exchange program, attaining near native fluency, while knowing little about the language in the majority of cases. They have a good pronunciation without a notion of phonology, don't know what the perfect tense is, modal or phrasal verbs are, but they intuitively recognize and know how to use all the structures.
Second language acquisition occurs when comprehensible input is delivered in a low-anxiety situation, when real messages of real interest are transmitted and understood. � we learn best only when the pressure is completely off, when anxiety is zero, when the acquirer's focus is entirely on communication; in short, when the interchange or input is so interesting that the acquirer 'forgets" that it is in a second language. (Krashen)

[Song&Dance]

Now this is more like it!

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=64200&start=15

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:22 pm Post subject:


________________________________________
...............so Let's get a bit more convenience in having access to these materials. The stuff is all out there on the net now at the following locations.


CHINA EFL: HOLISTIC ENGLISH
The revolution has begun but the long march lies ahead.

A major research paper involving 11 foreign teachers at 6 colleges and universities in four provinces of china report the results of implementing an English acquisition program designed exclusively for Chinese college students.

http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/holistic-english-1.pdf

http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/holistic-english-2.pdf


it's there for the downloading and free!

Cheers
TangWolun.

我英文学生不想猴子！！！

[william wallace]

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Don't be saying such profanity here on Dave's ESM Cafe

[Anda]

Things are so funny here as I tried at one institute to teach using lets call it a "LANGUAGE ACQUISITION" method but parents were allowed into my classes to watch! Result I had lost all my students within a week. Next institute I would not allow parents to even look through a window to watch that alone come into the class. Result no loss of students and very happy parents two semesters latter on. Now my boss has me at the main home branch as it has less students and parents are not commenting on how happy they are with the teaching.

The problems here in China have much to do with parent�s expectations of how their children should be taught.

Parents think that their childrens brains are dead like their own so they can't comprehend that more than a few words or sentances can be so called taught in one lesson. Revision is of course is not needed either as how can a Chinese forget what he / she has already learned. So is life!

To add to this I have to change my teaching method for high school students as they won't work with me properly when I use DVDs the way I do with younger children. So even by high school here in China their brains are becoming fixed on how they think they should be taught.

[eslstudies]

[william wallace]

Direct translation heading towards the Olympian test called gao kao, and then on to 10 years of study to become a low intermediate English speaker -at best!

[Leon Purvis]

And the point is...?

[un]

The point is...
Holistic English is playing an important role in "raising the bar" in our
FT-in-China profession.

We can:
*find schools/programs that will allow us to teach
by creating WholeBrain-based/communicative/constructivist learning environments.

Of, course, it can be counter-productive to use such words to our school bosses, so we just can mention "Holistic English" and the "movement" for methods/materials which are more:
*successful
*effective
*efficient
*time-saving
*money-saving

As folks test-out/ evaluate the Holistic materials...free-is-good...then they/we can pass Feedback to the process...
...perhaps in the spirit of Open Source...

However, now that I'm the MovieMagic guy
at an Intensive CrazyEnglish SummerCamp,
I can confidently and edu-entrepreneuringly state:

China's youth are ready for the ever-more cool...
We shall see/hear...

[eddy-cool]

I was much more comfortable with the Acquisition part of Song and Dance's first post; the 'Learning' part was simply too abstract and too opinionated.

Acquiring a second language means learning and practising: Learning what's new, and practising it until it no longer is. Do they do that in Chinese schools? No!

I don't agree with the negative view on writing taken in that first post. Do you know how you can help your memory best? It is by writing down what you are visualising in your mind. Helping studentsw 'see the language they are speaking' helps them get to grips with the phonetics, grammar and the semantic functions of correct writing (spelling, for instance). The more they have to write the more they can fortify good English - provided their English on the paper is accurate enough. The more they utter bad English the more they are reinforcing it - hence the spread of Chinglish.

To give you an example: Souvenir shop staff can easily pick up a new word such as 'T-shirt; tourists involuntarily teach them the word when they ask 'do you have a T-shirt'?
Trouble is that the phonetic rendering of 'T-shirt' is confusingly similar for Chinese to 'tissue'. In relevant shops you get routinely asked, ' want a tissue'? (though 'T-shirt' is meant).

The onus to identify the intended meaning within a given context then remains with the listener, and most westerners do so, leaving the mangled English pronunciation of the Chinese as bad as it has always been. Try spelling - but spelling requires the listener to mentally represent the letters. There is bound to be confusion (ever wondered whether the letter 'L' or 'R' are understood correctly? I happen to know they misunderstand them quite regularly).

Writing T-Shirt, followed by a phonetic transcription /t/i:/sh/oe/r/t (pardon my using alternative letters for phonetic symbols not found on my computer keyboard) helps the student enormously; compare 'T-Shirt' with 'T/i/sh/ju/ - and most middle-school kids see the difference - but they can hardly hear it without this graphic help.

Ever wondered whether '16' translates as '60' in Chinese English?

Only when the intellect understands the huge semantic differences can the mind form the right reflexes that go with spontaneous speaking.

We seldom do that in our classes, and Chinese teachers are totally overwhelmed with such tasks - but this is a way to progress multiple times trodden by successful oral trainers/instructors. Of course, you need to be familiar with phonetics and how Chiense phonemes differ from English ones.

[vikuk]

[un]

RE:
*

[un]

Eddy-Cool and Vikuk

Use of movie segment w/English subtitles...that's one way

"Real Messages of Real Interest" (Krashen)

[william wallace]

Direct translation is great if you want to learn about the classic languages.

[eddy-cool]

[Anda]

I used videos in Korean as my only teaching tool for two years at a middle school. Students got me for one class hour a week and Korean English teachers for three or four class hours. Result students went up 20% above the provincial average on average.


I would run the video continuous and get students to repeat simple statements after me. Latter on I would teach questions and answers.

Here in China I have taught elementary students at my part time job for one year again once a week and they get two hours with Chinese lady teachers plus what they get at their public schools. Result most can carry on a simple conversation in English. Here I use DVDs and stop start similar to flash cards. I use Chinese subtitles with English speaking. I employ the same method as in Korea but with stops.

This method works up into middle school but not so well after that as student cooperation is harder to get teaching like this.