Monday, May 16, 2011

TPR - the Natural Way to learn language

I know what it takes to learn a language. The spontaneous path of action with words is natural and works the best. The TPR movement is on the right path. TPR stands for Total Physical Response and means exactly what it stands for, learning by totally physically responding to a situation with language. However, getting that methodology into the classroom with 25 students who are apathetic is a different story. If they are not observing or motivated than the best of techniques will not work. There has to be student motivation for any learning. But assuming that you have student motivation, than the learning process can begin. The total physical response of combining language with movement is the quickest,  most automatic way to learn phrases and vocabulary. I think when I use this method, I need to slow it down as I may go to fast for the students. The TPR boards that I have for class are good but I need to write my own script as their script is redundant.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Learning vocabulary in a foreign language

I think that vocabulary learning is a matter of perseverance. If we just took a small number of words like 5 a day, we could learn 1500 words a year. That is quiet incredible considering that most people have a basic vocabulary of 5000 words. By learning 1500 words you would be more than on your way to becoming fluent. So how bad do you want to learn the language? 5 words a day is not that much. What is the best method for learning those 5 words, well each person has to find what works for them. For some it will be graphic visual methods, for some it will be by listening, for others it may be writing them out.