LL-L "Language learning" 2010.09.15 (06) [EN]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 15 September 2010 - Volume 06
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From: heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>

Subject: LL-L "Language learning" 2010.09.14 (01) [EN]



>From Heather Rendall heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk



Paul wrote:



"It would be interesting to know if bilingual British people, notably Welsh
and those from immigrant families, are any better with other languages than
native Anglophones."



When I began teaching languages in Holyhead, where there was a high
percentage of bilingual pupils, I was anticipating a marked advantage in
learning among bilingual pupils.



In fact I never saw one. Those pupils however who did take to languages like
a duck to water, were the RAF children from Valley, who in their short 11
years of life had on average lived in 3 different countries (usually
Germany, Hong Kong and UK). They seem to have fewer hangups and appeared
more aware of the existence of languages as entities ( rather than as a
lesson subject!)



About 6 weeks into a new term and Year intake, a local boy came up to me and
asked if one could do in German everything that one could do in English.
When I said of course you could; it's their language just as English or
Welsh is ours, he persisted: "What? You mean anything I can say in English,
can be said in German too? " "Yes, " I replied." Absolutely everything."
Even then he wasn't convinced " Even jokes too!"



I think one of the worst 'adverts' we have had here in the UK over the last
3 decades was the 'push' that said anyone can learn a foreign language.
Don't get me wrong - I believe that implicitly BUT children (and adults)
often interpret that as also saying - it's easy! Anyone can do it!



So when they find it hard / difficult/ slow, they judge themselves as worse
than useless because they had been told 'anyone can do it' and they can't.
So they give up the struggle.



If you turn the tables and tell pupils after 3 years of learning that
actually they are making good progress and they are at the level you expect
them to be at, they will be so self critical: " No I'm not good. I'm
hopeless. I can't say anything I want yet. I thought I'd be pretty fluent
after a few years!"



Once you have convinced pupils that the 15 days they are given to progress
from no knowledge to an A* GCSE over 5 years is a drop in the ocean of time
needed for language learning, they start to see they own efforts as 'pretty
OK'. (The equation of time is roughly : max 2hrs a week for 12 week term =
24 hours per term contact teaching/learning time. 3 terms a year = 3 days
CT/L time; over 5 years = 15 days. If you allow at least 12 hours off per
day, it still only amounts to the equivalent of 30 days. And as only a tiny
percentage of our pupils live in an environment where they will receive any
out of school backup i.e. hear any German or French or Spanish etc, they
have to rely almost entirely on contact teaching / learning. I think we do
quite well here in the UK actually and would only wish that we were not so
continuously compared with the ability of the rest of the world to speak
English. How well does the average Frenchman speak German? Or the average
German French? Or the Italian Dutch? Or the Swede Spanish?  -rant over!



So I would beg the GOvt and all bodies supporting language learning to
change the message to " Any one can do it but it takes time and effort"



Heather

Worcester UK



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