Hello, everyone. I’m Chris. I’ll add stuff about me to the about me section soon. For now I’m just going to talk about my topic.
Here I plan to discuss Language Education. The focus will be partly on language teaching methods and partly on the expression of complex ideas through writing in a second language. I chose this topic because I am a German major, English minor, have taken Spanish, and am currently starting French. I enjoy languages quite a bit.
I think it will be fun and beneficial for me to discuss teaching methods of second languages. My current favorite teaching method (without researching) is the immersion style. This is where the English (or whatever is the first language) is not spoken at all in class, only the language that is being taught is being used. This makes it hard to learn at first but students can achieve mastery quicker overall. Once I’ve done research, my views may change, but this is the current style of my French class and I like it quite a bit.
The Second Language writing topic should also prove quite interesting. I have trouble expressing my ideas through writing in German. It must be quite difficult for ESL students to complete writing assignments. I’d like to find some strategies for circumventing this barrier to well written essays.
The RSS feeds I will be using in this blog are as follows:
BBC News | Education | UK Edition http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/education/rss.xml
ESL ESL news posts http://eslgfx.net/rss/news_default_www_de.xml
language and education – Google News http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=language+and+education&ie=UTF-8&output=rss
NPR Topics: Education http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?id=1013
U.S. Department of Education http://www.ed.gov/rss/edgov.xml
Hopefully I can find articles relating to second language acquisition with these feeds. I may have to change or add some in the future. I hope others are at least slightly interested in my topic. I know I’ll enjoy writing on it.
4 responses so far ↓
1
Ashley
// Sep 24, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I wanted to let you know that the topic you have chosen to write on is quite interesting, and I’ll most definitely be reveiwing your posts. I, too, am fascinated with language teaching methods, ESL, and foreign languages in general. Your title quote (Language is power, to teach language is to empower) is outstanding. Where did you find it?
I’m also quite thrilled that you’ve begun taking French courses. Like you, I’m an English minor but with a French major. I would encourage you to take a look at my blog (as quite a bit of French can be found within it); there should also prove to be some links to articles that you might find helpful. In fact, my first post delt with an article that briefly touched on the topic of language immersion. As much as I’m an advocate for immersion programs, I’m just as worried about it’s negative effects on young children. You said that you are currently enjoying the strictly-French method of teaching in your class right now, which is great, but I would argue that you are mature enough/old enough to understand its benefits. When it comes to young children, even though they are quicker to adapt to these language changes, those who are more timid may go into a state of withdrawl and fall very behind on language acquisition, as well as other topics. I hope to explore these negative effects a bit farther in my blog. If I come across anything interesting, I will send you the article. Until then, keep up the good work on such an outstanding topic!
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Ashley Stein
// Sep 24, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Hi Chris!
I wanted to leave a comment that your topic is very interesting. I, too, took an Italian class that was completely in Italian, regardless that on the first day I only knew maybe five words starting out with absolutely no background of this immersion style. I finished the class with an A, and because it was only a beginner’s course, I was able to write and read very well in Italian, and speak moderately well, as those were the prospective goals. I’m interested to learn more about what you find on this topic, and how you learn with your French class. An interesting article popped up in my reader, and I wanted to share it with you. Have a great day! http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/16/MNENRUUAS.DTL
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