Teaching English As A Foreign Language

My friend Sarah lives about three hours north of New York City, and is teaching English as a foreign language to four young women who work in a Chinese restaurant in the nearby town. They meet once a week, with the girls coming in to Sarah's living room with the delicious odors of shrimp and fried rice trailing them. Sarah finds that audio books are very helpful in this process, for hearing the same words and phrases repeated over and over plants the words very firmly in their minds. The four young women are all smiles and giggles, and sometimes Sarah thinks that her teaching English as a foreign language class is more a game to them. But after she hears that the two audio books she gave them were fought over by the four girls, she realized how serious they were about their studies. When Sarah visited the restaurant and listened, she realized that most of the conversation in the restaurant was not in English, for both the staff and the customers. Sarah was one of the few Americans in the place. The importance of hearing English daily through those audio books was very important, almost as much as her teaching English as a foreign language to them.

One aspect that she truly liked about the audio book was its agreement with her methods of teaching English as a foreign language. Sarah liked to begin with daily conversations, and emphasize the "give and take" of simple conversations. The audio book's structure had the same format, using simple conversations as a tool for correct word pronunciation. It pleased and astonished Sarah that the girls learned a true American sound very quickly, even before they realized the real meanings of the phrases. The first conversations that Sarah had taught were simple waitress phrases, but after the visit to the restaurant she decided that she preferred the audio book's emphasis on simple daily conversations. In addition, the girls got great fun out of "conversing" with each other, and "conversing" with the audio book, and dissolving into fits of giggles. Maybe the humor was a bit obscure, but teaching English as a second language was turning out to be great fun.

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There certainly was a more serious side to this too. Employees of small Chinese restaurants like this who do not learn English simply remain as restaurant workers, and can get moved to other states as the need for employees in those places increases. Having someone teach English as a foreign language allows them to choose to remain in the area if they wish, and increases the girls chances of eventually choosing another career. Whether or not the girls thought about all of this, they did cherish their audio books of English conversation and pronunciation as true treasures. Teaching English as a second language had become an important part of Sarah's life and a very important foundation stone in the girls' lives. Their audio books would probably be a treasured memento for years, long past the time they were needed.

Teaching English As A Foreign Language

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How To Learn A Foreign Language

So many times I am asked while tutoring, how do you learn a foreign language?

It's like learning anything else: by study, repetition, practice and memorization. In my opinion, a language is 80% memorization and the other 20% is learning the grammar, the pronunciation and the culture of the people who speak the language.

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Think back to when you learned something as a child, like tying your shoelaces or riding a bike. You had to practice tying those shoelaces. Riding that bike took practice. When you learned to write, you had to write the letters a, b, c, and so forth, over and over. Well, the same skills are involved while learning a language, but the only difference is now you are an adult and your brain is more developed.

It also helps a great deal to know what kind of learner you are, so that you can tailor your learning to your learning style. There are four types of learners: visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic (learning by touch). Some people learn better by listening to a professor lecture, that would be an auditory learner. Some people do better by reading textbooks, that would be a reading/writing learner. Some are partial to one learning style, some people have all of them or two or three. The important thing is to find out which style you have by taking a learning styles inventory, so you can adapt to them.

Here is one link for taking the Learning Styles Inventory:
http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire

When learning a foreign language, no matter what kind of learner you are, there are ways to fit your learning style(s) into your studies outside of class. They are as follows:

-Visual learner: Make charts and flash cards and review them often. (I must be this type of learner because I have learned three languages fluently by making flash cards.)

-Auditory learner: Tape yourself, or even better, a native speaker, speaking whichever language you are learning and play it back constantly. Or maybe, you can buy an audio program already made.

-Reading/Writing learner: Write out every step you need to take in order to understand what you are trying to learn. Read your textbook over and over.

-Kinesthetic learner: This sounds weird, but it works! Go around your house or when outside touch things (within reason LOL) and say the word for it in whatever language you are learning. For example: if you are learning Spanish, in your house touch a glass and think or say "vaso" or your watch and think or say "reloj." When outside, point to a house and think or say "casa."

I think one reason why some people do not do well in classes is because the way the teacher is teaching does not fit the student's learning style(s). If the professor just stands and lectures and you are a kinesthetic learner, that does you no good whatsoever. So, with a few adjustments here and there, as mentioned above, you can overcome this obstacle and still do well with foreign languages.

How To Learn A Foreign Language

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