missforeignlanguageteacher.com

So, you’ve looked over the vocabulary in the current chapter of your foreign language textbook. You recognize most of the words, even if you haven’t memorized very many of them yet. Hopefully, your instructor will speak to you in the target language and use those words so that you can practice hearing them in context. Then, you might read something that contains a lot of those words. Ideally, you will do an activity (or two, or three…) to reinforce all of those 180 vocabulary words that you need to know for the upcoming quiz. That’s great, but is that all it takes to learn new vocab? Looking at it, hearing it, reading it and saying it a few times? Nope.

Looking over vocab before class is a good idea, and a good instructor will provide lots of opportunities for you to practice. But most of the work is up to you. You may need to say the words out loud, or write them over and over. If you are a visual learner, a picture dictionary might be a good idea.

Make it easier on yourself:

• Don’t try to learn all the new words at once. Make it your goal to learn a few words each day. Then, as you increase your vocabulary, start reviewing daily. It will be hard at first, but it will get easier with practice.
• The Rule of Eights: saying a new word once isn’t enough to engrave it on your brain. Say each word (or write it) eight times in a row before going on to the next one on the list.
• Make connections to things or people that are important to you. For instance, adjectives like ‘pretty’, ‘tall’, and ‘intelligent’ will mean more when connected to your current celebrity crush.

For serious memory tricks, check out
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTIM_10.htm

I once read an evaluation written by a student who was trying to give me some constructive criticism. What she really did, though, was explain the main cause of the dissatisfaction felt by many students in her class. (I say ’she’ and ‘her’ because I know who it was; I recognized her handwriting.)

She started out with “You are a very nice person” (obviously softening the blow), then added, “but your job is to make Spanish class fun”.

WHAT?!

My job is to teach the Spanish language and the cultures of Spanish-speaking countries. In pre-school, learning is supposed to be fun. In kindergarten, learning  is supposed to be fun. But college-level courses are supposed to teach you something. Period.

That’s not to say that I don’t like to have fun in my classes; I often include interactive exercises, games and songs in my lessons. Some topics (the past tense of irregular verbs, for instance) are just not fun, but you have to learn them anyway. If you don’t, you will sound like a doofus when you try to speak. (At the very least, your grade will suffer.) If you hang in there, we will do some activities that will reinforce those irregular verbs, but I can’t make the grammar fun, even if I stand on my head.

I started thinking about the classes I’ve taken. I made a list of the top 5, and I can’t say that any of them were fun. What do you think?

Spanish Conversation: two days a week of conversations about pre-selected topics, plus we had to record our exams. That made me so nervous that I would get a stomachache. Then, every Friday we had pronunciation practice.  Each time we practiced two consonants and one vowel and had to repeat, repeat, and repeat until our jaws ached.

Hitler/Fascism/Third Reich: lectures and so many notes that I got hand cramps. And there was a simulated air raid staged by the professor on an unused floor of the building. That was terrifying (and probably illegal).

History of the Spanish Language: lectures, notes and hand cramps again. Plus the occasional random tirade by the professor in which his face would turn purple and we would wonder if we needed to call 911.

Escritura (graduate-level writing course in Spanish): writing, revising, proofreading and critiquing other students’ work in class, more revising…I’m bored just writing the description, but the professor was dynamic and knowledgeable, and I learned a lot.

African American Womens’ History: the professor was on a lot of committees, and she was absent more often than she was in class, so she made up for it by adding to the reading list. But when she was in class, her lectures were fantastic.

Those are the classes that I remember vividly and that taught me the most. A big shout-out to Professors Scalise, Allshouse, Renahan, Amores and Bankole. Your classes were amazing, informative, fascinating, and thought-provoking…but definitely not fun.

I asked some other higher-ed instructors (not all foreign language teachers) about offering extra credit. Most sided with me and said that they just don’t do it. Those who do give extra credit will only do so if it is available to the entire class, not just one student who is insecure about his or her grade.

It is acceptable to offer extra credit for attending events that are somehow related to the course content. For example, it is reasonable to offer extra credit to Spanish students if they attend a showing of a film in Spanish. They have to provide their own transportation, pay for their tickets, and spend an hour or two of their own time engaged in an activity they might not do otherwise. But they have to do something to prove that they were actively watching the film, not sleeping, texting, or listening to music on their iPod. In my experience, only a small percentage of students take advantage of such offers for extra points, and they are usually the ones who would want to do those extra activities anyway.

So, actually, I have no problem with this type of extra credit. The kind of extra credit that is unfair is the kind that will give a student a higher grade than what they deserve. I’m referring to the student who does not put any effort into completing assignments, or who is not capable of comprehending, speaking, reading, or writing a foreign language well enough to meet the criteria for the grade that they desire.

The topic is extra credit. A moot point since I don’t give it. I will bend over backwards to make sure that my students get the credit that they deserve: I will take late assignments if there are extenuating circumstances; I will allow students to take a quiz or exam early if they are going to miss class; I will even let students take a quiz or exam late if they have proven to me that they are serious about my class. That includes but is not limited to:  arriving on time; having their books, paper and a writing instrument ready; not texting during class; taking notes rather than doodling; answering when called on; asking intelligent questions; making the effort to turn assignments in on time; doing assignments with integrity (that means not cheating); and behaving in a respectful manner toward me and their classmates.

To be worthwhile, an assignment has to assess some aspect of language learning. That means that I have to grade it. I grade a lot already: homework, quizzes, exams, compositions, plus I consider attendance and participation when calculating final grades. Why should I have to grade something else? (Teachers, no matter the level, do not live for grading. Just thought that I would let you know.)

If one student is given extra credit, then every student should be accorded the same right. Not only is that a lot of extra grading (grr), but it makes all of the other assignments lose their value. Why bother doing your best on the composition if you can get extra credit and make up the points? Why study for the quiz if you can do an extra credit assignment and still have a high grade?

Are there ever legitimate reasons for giving extra credit? If a student is in the hospital or is otherwise incapacitated so that they can’t fully participate in class–sure. Otherwise, no. And I won’t read your report on Mexico.

Numbers. You need to know them in a foreign language for things like addresses and phone numbers, money, or just getting to the right page in your language class. But numbers are tricky; you may be able to count to ten, but what about higher numbers? I notice this all the time in my classes, when I direct students to a particular page and notice a few fumbling around, uncertain as to exactly what I want them to look at. (I should clarify that I say the page number in Spanish. I know–a totally unreasonable thing to do in a Spanish class.)

Numbers are normally taught in first year language classes, but if you’re continuing with intermediate classes, speaking the language, or just listening to it, you will hear numbers frequently.

In order to remember numbers, you need to practice numbers. The mechanics of counting in another language can be explained in one or two lessons, but once you’ve memorized how to count to 100, you have to practice with all the individual numbers, and there are a lot of them.

The best way is to count: 1,2,3…; even numbers; odd numbers; multiples of 3, 5, 10, etc; count backwards…

Another way is to focus on all the numbers that have a particular number in them: 3, 13, 23, 30, 33, 43, etc. Then choose another number: 8, 18, 28, etc. When you are reading (newspaper, labels, price tags) and see a number, take a second and think about how to say it in the target language.

In other words, practice. Then you won’t be fumbling.

In “You’re Gonna Make Mistakes. Might as Well Learn From Them!”, I mentioned that the best way to learn something in a foreign language is to do it the wrong way, and then the humiliation will do the trick. Sometimes, though, someone else’s humiliation will do just fine.

My husband’s aunt was visiting relatives in Italy, and thought that she was doing a great job conversing in Italian. She grew up speaking English, but knew enough Italian to get by. Or so she thought.

The aunt–we’ll call her Zia–was speaking to one of her cousins and his friend, both avid skiers. She meant to ask them if they skied together often, but confused two similar words in a particular dialect of Italian. One means ‘to ski’ and the other refers to poultry excrement. You got it, chicken, um, poop. Basically, Zia was asking, “Do the two of you chicken **** together often?”. Neither one would answer her, so she asked again, several times, each time louder than the last. Finally, someone took her aside and told her to be quiet.

Poor Zia learned the hard way, but now I know that the word for ‘to ski’ is ’sciare’.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090911/pl_afp/useducationobama

Students buy term papers instead of–gasp–writing their papers themselves! And professors are on to them! This happens in foreign language classes as well as English lit or history, since even an elementary language class syllabus can include a writing assignment.

No, we foreign language teachers don’t enjoy torturing our students (usually)–we want to see if you can communicate in the target language. That means putting ideas together and expressing some original thoughts. I know that it’s frustrating because you can express yourself so much better in English. It becomes frustrating (ok, painful) for me when you try to write the essay first and then translate it into the second language.

Even worse is when you use a translation program or pay someone to do it for you. First of all, if you’ve only covered the present tense and your essay includes the past, future and some perfect tenses, it raises a red flag. Second, if you normally talk like “hey man, how’s it goin’?” in class and turn in an essay written in a very formal tone, I’m going to scrutinize it very carefully and compare it to your previous work. (Hey, I’m not trying to deny you your street cred, I just want make sure that you put your time, not your money, into your paper.)

If your issue is that you would rather be out partying than doing an assignment, you deserve to get an ‘F’. But if you want to show what you have learned, you need to do it yourself. I enjoy reading my students’ essays, even if the language is simple, as long as the content is genuine.

Tonight I think that I offended one of my second-level Spanish students. She asked me to repeat something in English, and I said ‘no’. Now, before you think that I am heartless, let me explain. I was reading from the textbook, word for word plus just a few words of explanation.

It’s not uncommon to have students who believe that it is crucial to understand every word spoken in class in the target language. Not only do I disagree, I also think that it would be a disservice to students to let them think that. Most people do not learn a foreign language just to sit around in a classroom with other non-native speakers, doing exercises from a textbook. (Quite a few people take language classes to fulfill a requirement and never speak it once the last exam is over, but that’s another story.)

Usually, the goal of learning another language is to speak it with native speakers, either abroad or in one’s own country. Can you imagine traveling abroad and expecting everyone to translate everything into English? Oh, wait, that’s how the “ugly American” stereotype got started. It’s part of my job to destroy that stereotype!

If you’ve taken the first semester of a language, you should be able to listen for key words (see the earlier “Airport Listening” post), and you need to learn to negotiate meaning. That means using what you know of the foreign language  to better understand what is being said. Even “can you repeat that?” is acceptable if it’s not in English.

So don’t take it personally. I don’t speak English.

I hope that everyone had a great Labor Day! How many of you labored today?

A small, private college where I taught a few classes is proud to say that they “labor on Labor Day”–meaning that they don’t take the holiday off. Classes, labs, and activities go on as usual.

Their philosophy of “learning doesn’t take a holiday” makes a lot of sense when it comes to studying a foreign language. If you’re serious about learning, you need to work at it every day. That doesn’t mean that you have to do grammar exercises and conjugate verbs and do vocabulary flashcards every day–ugh! That would be bor-ing! What it means is that you can really benefit from doing a little language work each day. This could mean reviewing your notes from the last class, doing a portion of the homework assignment, memorizing a few new words…just enough so that you don’t completely ignore the language you are trying to learn.

If you are using a textbook with a website, you can probably find lots of additional activities that are related to the chapter you are on, but that are more fun than exercises and drills. If there are links to real websites in the target language, excerpts from movies or tv, or music, you could find an enjoyable way to spend a few minutes of your free time. If you don’t have access to a textbook’s website, you can find the same type of material by doing a little exploring on your own.

Whether you have a lot of time to devote to learning the language of your choice, or just a few minutes here and there, the key is to work on it consistently, every day. The typical suggestion is that for every hour you spend in class, you should spend an additional hour outside of class reviewing, studying and practicing. Most introductory language classes are three or four hours a week–that means three or four extra hours of language work. (If you are learning on your own, you can tweak this suggestion to match your own pace). I tell my students that this recommendation is a good idea, but not practical for most people. I tell them that if they give me five minutes of review and practice a day (not including time to do assignments or study for exams), I’ll be happy.

Tonight a student asked me how to remember something that just won’t “stick”. I thought about it, and offered a piece of advice based on a personal experience: say the wrong thing in front of a native speaker, realize it (maybe let him/her correct you to such an extent that your face turns beet red), and then you will be certain to never repeat that mistake again.

I’m the first one to say that I’m not perfect, but it was certainly a shock to find out that I was wrong about something that I was pretty confident about. And in front of a native speaker? *Blushes* That’s worse than messing up in front of your classmates.

My example isn’t even that exciting. It has to do with not having sufficient listening skills to follow a conversation. But a friend of mine had a truly humiliating experience. She did not believe me when I told her that the verb ‘coger’ had a naughty meaning in Mexican Spanish (like, a variation of the ‘F’ word). She asked another student–who was from Mexico–what the word meant, and he blushed so much that even his ears turned red. She realized that I had been right, and she turned red. So I joined in and turned red, too. None of us will forget that one.