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Chamchiman
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
Location: Digging the Grave
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 Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 2:00 pm Post subject: Is this idea SO crazy that it just might work? |
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I teach only two grades at my public school - 5th and 6th. (The other foreign teacher teaches 3rd and 4th.) The 5th and 6th graders come to my classroom twice per week throughout the school year.
From a language acquisition perspective, would it be better for the 6th graders to come four times per week in the first semester and then not at all in the second, and then have the 5th graders come four times per week in the second semester (after having not come at all in the first)?
What does the education research say about this?
Thanks. |
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Atavistic
Joined: 22 May 2006
Location: How totally stupid that Korean doesn't show in this area.
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 2:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Learning a language is NOT like riding a bicycle. You need constant practice. From a language learning perspective, what would make sense is them coming in DAILY for the entire year. |
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sojourner1
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Location: Where meggi swim and 2 wheeled tractors go sput put chug alugg pug pug
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Why not just split up the class time equally where you have 5th 2 times a week and 6th 2 times a week? |
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QbertP
Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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| This terrible computer has erased my post 4 times. So all I can say is I've done it. Don't do it. |
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D.D.
Joined: 29 May 2008
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:41 pm Post subject: Re: Is this idea SO crazy that it just might work? |
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| Chamchiman wrote: |
I teach only two grades at my public school - 5th and 6th. (The other foreign teacher teaches 3rd and 4th.) The 5th and 6th graders come to my classroom twice per week throughout the school year.
From a language acquisition perspective, would it be better for the 6th graders to come four times per week in the first semester and then not at all in the second, and then have the 5th graders come four times per week in the second semester (after having not come at all in the first)?
What does the education research say about this?
Thanks. |
Bad idea. My school in China did this with packing all conversation classes into 1st and 2nd year with none in the last two years. By the time the students finished the couldn't remember how to speak English. |
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Chamchiman
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
Location: Digging the Grave
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:49 pm Post subject: Re: Is this idea SO crazy that it just might work? |
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| sojourner1 wrote: |
| Why not just split up the class time equally where you have 5th 2 times a week and 6th 2 times a week? |
That's what we already do.
| D.D. wrote: |
| Chamchiman wrote: |
From a language acquisition perspective, would it be better for the 6th graders to come four times per week in the first semester and then not at all in the second, and then have the 5th graders come four times per week in the second semester (after having not come at all in the first)?
What does the education research say about this? |
Bad idea. My school in China did this with packing all conversation classes into 1st and 2nd year with none in the last two years. By the time the students finished the couldn't remember how to speak English. |
Interesting. (It's likely that they had little or no exposure to English conversation outside your classroom, just like my students.) Thanks for that firsthand anecdote anyway.
The "father of second language acquisition theory" might disagree with you though. When I took the TESOL course with Rod Ellis in Busan this summer, he suggested that having kids come regularly for a short period of time would be better (from a language acquisition perspective) than coming at less frequent intervals over a longer period of time. At the time he kind of just mentioned it in passing, and he didn't quote any studies. It didn't come back to me until we started talking about next year's schedule last week. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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For over three years I worked at a hogwan where half the classes I saw three times a week, and half the classes I saw twice a week. The classes I saw three times a week learned MUCH MORE than the classes i saw only twice a week. It was amazing what a difference one day a week made. Every year two identical beginner classes would slowly morph into the well behaved and English comfortable talking class and the other one, the less engaged, less participatory slower class. There was no A or B level class like at my present job. All started at the same level, some just had parents who paid more for an extra hour with the waygook at the hagwon, and they indeed got their money's worth!
So, if going from 2 to 3 classes a week can have such a big impact, going to 4 or 5 days a week with the waygook can be tremendous. I'd love to have the same students 4 to 5 times a week. On the flip side, I can't imagine having any success if I had them only once a week, which some public school waygooks have as a regular thing, spread thin across the student body. |
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Chamchiman
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
Location: Digging the Grave
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:49 pm Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
For over three years I worked at a hogwan where half the classes I saw three times a week, and half the classes I saw twice a week. The classes I saw three times a week learned MUCH MORE than the classes i saw only twice a week. It was amazing what a difference one day a week made.
So, if going from 2 to 3 classes a week can have such a big impact, going to 4 or 5 days a week with the waygook can be tremendous. I'd love to have the same students 4 to 5 times a week. |
Thanks for the reply. Your situation and mine are a little different though.
Imagine that you taught the students four times a week for a year, but then not at all for a year. How do you think your students would do then, compared to the kids who came twice a week for two years.
(The problem for me is that I have a fixed number of periods per year, and am wondering if spreading them out or cramming them together is better.) |
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