Hey something I can actually comment a bit on. I currently work in a preK-12 foreign language school. The students focus on learning English, however they also study other subjects in English and...
Hey something I can actually comment a bit on. I currently work in a preK-12 foreign language school. The students focus on learning English, however they also study other subjects in English and learn other foreign languages in high school.
This article nails it when talking about my students learning process. They can imitate my accent and other English teachers accents very well and learn words and grammar implicitly, but if you teach them a grammar rule, they are going to make mistakes for awhile. Honestly, you could just stick some toddlers in a room with native or near native speakers everyday and they’d probably come out with knowing a decent amount of the language for their age. They wouldn’t really understand how it works, but they would be able to speak and communicate fairly well. However, adults understand the rules and you can just tell them, practice it a few times and they’ll mostly get it.
This article reminds me about that proverb about planting trees. “The best time to start is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”
Thanks for your comment. I actually started learning piano in university when a friend casually affirmed that I wasn't too old pretty much paraphrasing your exact comment. I really think there's...
Thanks for your comment. I actually started learning piano in university when a friend casually affirmed that I wasn't too old pretty much paraphrasing your exact comment.
I really think there's such an emphasis on the young being able to learn things that people give on learning when there's really no reason too.
One aspect of my job is to monitor and observe teachers who are teaching primary aged children English. While they are a little older than your bunch, some students are very good at mimicry,...
They can imitate my accent and other English teachers accents very well and learn words and grammar implicitly, but if you teach them a grammar rule, they are going to make mistakes for awhile
One aspect of my job is to monitor and observe teachers who are teaching primary aged children English. While they are a little older than your bunch, some students are very good at mimicry, despite never having heard English spoken natively before, while others have settled in with the normal accent of most of the people who share their L1. That being said, many of them can do the vowels of rarer accents that Northern English and Northern Irish throw at them. It is neat to listen to them.
However, adults understand the rules and you can just tell them, practice it a few times and they’ll mostly get it.
I mainly work with older students who are good at grammar exercises but terrible at using grammatical structures in spontaneous speech and writing. They continue making the same mistakes despite the fact that they can accurately produce the needed grammar in isolation. Effectively they keep the grammar compartmentalised in a section of their brains that they only access when they need to do a specific exercise. The gap between practice and production is quite large with some students, but I think they just need someone to actually do error correction, rather than saying "that's good enough".
I would say around 12-16. Young enough to be able to absorb the material, but old enough to work hard on it and be able to go at a faster pace than, say, a kindergartner.
I would say around 12-16. Young enough to be able to absorb the material, but old enough to work hard on it and be able to go at a faster pace than, say, a kindergartner.
Hey something I can actually comment a bit on. I currently work in a preK-12 foreign language school. The students focus on learning English, however they also study other subjects in English and learn other foreign languages in high school.
This article nails it when talking about my students learning process. They can imitate my accent and other English teachers accents very well and learn words and grammar implicitly, but if you teach them a grammar rule, they are going to make mistakes for awhile. Honestly, you could just stick some toddlers in a room with native or near native speakers everyday and they’d probably come out with knowing a decent amount of the language for their age. They wouldn’t really understand how it works, but they would be able to speak and communicate fairly well. However, adults understand the rules and you can just tell them, practice it a few times and they’ll mostly get it.
This article reminds me about that proverb about planting trees. “The best time to start is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”
Thanks for your comment. I actually started learning piano in university when a friend casually affirmed that I wasn't too old pretty much paraphrasing your exact comment.
I really think there's such an emphasis on the young being able to learn things that people give on learning when there's really no reason too.
One aspect of my job is to monitor and observe teachers who are teaching primary aged children English. While they are a little older than your bunch, some students are very good at mimicry, despite never having heard English spoken natively before, while others have settled in with the normal accent of most of the people who share their L1. That being said, many of them can do the vowels of rarer accents that Northern English and Northern Irish throw at them. It is neat to listen to them.
I mainly work with older students who are good at grammar exercises but terrible at using grammatical structures in spontaneous speech and writing. They continue making the same mistakes despite the fact that they can accurately produce the needed grammar in isolation. Effectively they keep the grammar compartmentalised in a section of their brains that they only access when they need to do a specific exercise. The gap between practice and production is quite large with some students, but I think they just need someone to actually do error correction, rather than saying "that's good enough".
I would say around 12-16. Young enough to be able to absorb the material, but old enough to work hard on it and be able to go at a faster pace than, say, a kindergartner.