[unschooling] Foreign language learning
Elsa Haas
I mentioned in an earlier post that I once developed a method for learning
foreign languages, and a couple of people have said they'd like to hear
about it, so here goes.
I came up with this method because I was thinking about how to help my
(adult) beginning English students in their one-on-one private classes, when
I was living in Madrid. I wanted to put myself in the place of a beginner,
so I looked in the paper for somebody who was giving private lessons in some
language I'd never studied or had any other experience with. I found a
Russian teacher (and native speaker of Russian - very important).
I equipped myself with a tape recorder and asked her to come to my
apartment. I told her I wanted her to narrate my actions in Russian. I had
her talk to me in Russian only. I didn't speak at all, at first.
I would, for example, put my hand on top of my head, then put my hand on the
table, then put a book on top of my head. She had to say, in Russian,
something like, "You're putting your hand on top of your head, now you put
your hand on the table, now you're putting that book on top of your head."
(Note that minor variations in phrasing crop up, like putting things in the
present or the past tense, adding "now" or not, etc. The important thing is
for the person to speak naturally.)
I recorded all of this. Then, after a few minutes, I'd play back the
recording, trying to do what I had just done again, in time to the
recording. If I got it wrong, she'd gesture to me.
The entire process was under my control. Sometimes I relied on my memory for
what I'd just done, and other times some word would seem to leap out at me
and I'd experiment with whether it might mean "hand" or "head" or whatever.
The "teacher" had no way of judging how much or how fast I was learning,
which took all the pressure off me. Then, at my leisure and on my own time,
I'd play back the recordings I'd made - sometimes while doing something else
like washing the dishes (in which case I'd just let the sounds of Russian
wash over me) and sometimes listening more intently and trying to figure out
specific things. At some point I played back some bits to her and had her
write them out so I could get a feel for how they looked.
We went very quickly from a kind of rigid "you-narrate-what-I-do" thing to a
kind of conversation, with little drawings back and forth when we didn't
understand each other. I can't tell you how many sessions we did together
before I began to spontaneously say a word here and there in Russian, but it
wasn't many.
I continued with this method for a few months (even though none of my
English students found it at all helpful) because I enjoyed it so much.
Later I bought a couple of Russian children's books, and one of those "in 20
easy lessons" paperbacks, but the main method continued to be her speaking
in Russian, and me gesturing and employing the few words and phrases I knew.
You really should try to get a native speaker.
It should also be someone who's willing to take on a fairly passive role. My
teacher did some odd things at first because she wasn't used to this. Within
the first few minutes of the first class, she launched into an explanation
of why she was using a certain preposition in the phrase, "You walk over to
the wardrobe" (I only realized this much later, when I was listening to that
first tape after having learned enough Russian to have an idea of what she
must be saying).
She also started off by saying, for example, "I put the book on my head"
instead of, "You put the book on your head". (She must have been trying to
get INSIDE my head, in an effort to help me learn faster - again, I only
figured this out later on, and I was confused about "I" and "you" for some
time after that.)
The English students I suggested this method to hated it. They wanted to be
passive. They felt I wasn't earning my pay if I didn't sit them down and
have them do exercises, and correct them. Or they felt too panicky when they
didn't immediately understand everything I said.
If anybody on this list tries this method, please email me privately about
how it goes. (I'm going to be on and off he list, so I might miss a post.)
If you want to get an email when I (someday) write up the notes I have on
this method (and on my experiences in teaching English as a second language
in general), and get it published somewhere, let me know this, too, and I'll
put you on a list.
I originally mentioned my method in a post suggesting that Sarah Carothers'
daughter learn Spanish (or some other very phonetically consistent language)
to see whether she might gain confidence in her ability to improve her
reading and writing in English (an extremely phonetically inconsistent
language).
I've always wondered whether anyone has compared the statistics on
"dyslexia" in various countries (it didn't seem to claim as many sufferers
in Spain as here, when I lived in that country).
Elsa Haas
foreign languages, and a couple of people have said they'd like to hear
about it, so here goes.
I came up with this method because I was thinking about how to help my
(adult) beginning English students in their one-on-one private classes, when
I was living in Madrid. I wanted to put myself in the place of a beginner,
so I looked in the paper for somebody who was giving private lessons in some
language I'd never studied or had any other experience with. I found a
Russian teacher (and native speaker of Russian - very important).
I equipped myself with a tape recorder and asked her to come to my
apartment. I told her I wanted her to narrate my actions in Russian. I had
her talk to me in Russian only. I didn't speak at all, at first.
I would, for example, put my hand on top of my head, then put my hand on the
table, then put a book on top of my head. She had to say, in Russian,
something like, "You're putting your hand on top of your head, now you put
your hand on the table, now you're putting that book on top of your head."
(Note that minor variations in phrasing crop up, like putting things in the
present or the past tense, adding "now" or not, etc. The important thing is
for the person to speak naturally.)
I recorded all of this. Then, after a few minutes, I'd play back the
recording, trying to do what I had just done again, in time to the
recording. If I got it wrong, she'd gesture to me.
The entire process was under my control. Sometimes I relied on my memory for
what I'd just done, and other times some word would seem to leap out at me
and I'd experiment with whether it might mean "hand" or "head" or whatever.
The "teacher" had no way of judging how much or how fast I was learning,
which took all the pressure off me. Then, at my leisure and on my own time,
I'd play back the recordings I'd made - sometimes while doing something else
like washing the dishes (in which case I'd just let the sounds of Russian
wash over me) and sometimes listening more intently and trying to figure out
specific things. At some point I played back some bits to her and had her
write them out so I could get a feel for how they looked.
We went very quickly from a kind of rigid "you-narrate-what-I-do" thing to a
kind of conversation, with little drawings back and forth when we didn't
understand each other. I can't tell you how many sessions we did together
before I began to spontaneously say a word here and there in Russian, but it
wasn't many.
I continued with this method for a few months (even though none of my
English students found it at all helpful) because I enjoyed it so much.
Later I bought a couple of Russian children's books, and one of those "in 20
easy lessons" paperbacks, but the main method continued to be her speaking
in Russian, and me gesturing and employing the few words and phrases I knew.
You really should try to get a native speaker.
It should also be someone who's willing to take on a fairly passive role. My
teacher did some odd things at first because she wasn't used to this. Within
the first few minutes of the first class, she launched into an explanation
of why she was using a certain preposition in the phrase, "You walk over to
the wardrobe" (I only realized this much later, when I was listening to that
first tape after having learned enough Russian to have an idea of what she
must be saying).
She also started off by saying, for example, "I put the book on my head"
instead of, "You put the book on your head". (She must have been trying to
get INSIDE my head, in an effort to help me learn faster - again, I only
figured this out later on, and I was confused about "I" and "you" for some
time after that.)
The English students I suggested this method to hated it. They wanted to be
passive. They felt I wasn't earning my pay if I didn't sit them down and
have them do exercises, and correct them. Or they felt too panicky when they
didn't immediately understand everything I said.
If anybody on this list tries this method, please email me privately about
how it goes. (I'm going to be on and off he list, so I might miss a post.)
If you want to get an email when I (someday) write up the notes I have on
this method (and on my experiences in teaching English as a second language
in general), and get it published somewhere, let me know this, too, and I'll
put you on a list.
I originally mentioned my method in a post suggesting that Sarah Carothers'
daughter learn Spanish (or some other very phonetically consistent language)
to see whether she might gain confidence in her ability to improve her
reading and writing in English (an extremely phonetically inconsistent
language).
I've always wondered whether anyone has compared the statistics on
"dyslexia" in various countries (it didn't seem to claim as many sufferers
in Spain as here, when I lived in that country).
Elsa Haas
Sarah Carothers
Thanks, Elsa! Please add me to your list of contacts and also, I appreciate your sharing this method. Sounds like it would be a *lot* more fun than workbooks and grading imo!
Sarah Carothers
Sarah Carothers
----- Original Message -----
From: Elsa Haas
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2001 7:26 PM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] [unschooling] Foreign language learning
I mentioned in an earlier post that I once developed a method for learning
foreign languages, and a couple of people have said they'd like to hear
about it, so here goes.
I came up with this method because I was thinking about how to help my
(adult) beginning English students in their one-on-one private classes, when
I was living in Madrid. I wanted to put myself in the place of a beginner,
so I looked in the paper for somebody who was giving private lessons in some
language I'd never studied or had any other experience with. I found a
Russian teacher (and native speaker of Russian - very important).
I equipped myself with a tape recorder and asked her to come to my
apartment. I told her I wanted her to narrate my actions in Russian. I had
her talk to me in Russian only. I didn't speak at all, at first.
I would, for example, put my hand on top of my head, then put my hand on the
table, then put a book on top of my head. She had to say, in Russian,
something like, "You're putting your hand on top of your head, now you put
your hand on the table, now you're putting that book on top of your head."
(Note that minor variations in phrasing crop up, like putting things in the
present or the past tense, adding "now" or not, etc. The important thing is
for the person to speak naturally.)
I recorded all of this. Then, after a few minutes, I'd play back the
recording, trying to do what I had just done again, in time to the
recording. If I got it wrong, she'd gesture to me.
The entire process was under my control. Sometimes I relied on my memory for
what I'd just done, and other times some word would seem to leap out at me
and I'd experiment with whether it might mean "hand" or "head" or whatever.
The "teacher" had no way of judging how much or how fast I was learning,
which took all the pressure off me. Then, at my leisure and on my own time,
I'd play back the recordings I'd made - sometimes while doing something else
like washing the dishes (in which case I'd just let the sounds of Russian
wash over me) and sometimes listening more intently and trying to figure out
specific things. At some point I played back some bits to her and had her
write them out so I could get a feel for how they looked.
We went very quickly from a kind of rigid "you-narrate-what-I-do" thing to a
kind of conversation, with little drawings back and forth when we didn't
understand each other. I can't tell you how many sessions we did together
before I began to spontaneously say a word here and there in Russian, but it
wasn't many.
I continued with this method for a few months (even though none of my
English students found it at all helpful) because I enjoyed it so much.
Later I bought a couple of Russian children's books, and one of those "in 20
easy lessons" paperbacks, but the main method continued to be her speaking
in Russian, and me gesturing and employing the few words and phrases I knew.
You really should try to get a native speaker.
It should also be someone who's willing to take on a fairly passive role. My
teacher did some odd things at first because she wasn't used to this. Within
the first few minutes of the first class, she launched into an explanation
of why she was using a certain preposition in the phrase, "You walk over to
the wardrobe" (I only realized this much later, when I was listening to that
first tape after having learned enough Russian to have an idea of what she
must be saying).
She also started off by saying, for example, "I put the book on my head"
instead of, "You put the book on your head". (She must have been trying to
get INSIDE my head, in an effort to help me learn faster - again, I only
figured this out later on, and I was confused about "I" and "you" for some
time after that.)
The English students I suggested this method to hated it. They wanted to be
passive. They felt I wasn't earning my pay if I didn't sit them down and
have them do exercises, and correct them. Or they felt too panicky when they
didn't immediately understand everything I said.
If anybody on this list tries this method, please email me privately about
how it goes. (I'm going to be on and off he list, so I might miss a post.)
If you want to get an email when I (someday) write up the notes I have on
this method (and on my experiences in teaching English as a second language
in general), and get it published somewhere, let me know this, too, and I'll
put you on a list.
I originally mentioned my method in a post suggesting that Sarah Carothers'
daughter learn Spanish (or some other very phonetically consistent language)
to see whether she might gain confidence in her ability to improve her
reading and writing in English (an extremely phonetically inconsistent
language).
I've always wondered whether anyone has compared the statistics on
"dyslexia" in various countries (it didn't seem to claim as many sufferers
in Spain as here, when I lived in that country).
Elsa Haas
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]