Thursday, December 23, 2010

Experiences With Foreign Languages

Throughout my entire term in elementary school, I had a Spanish teacher come in to teach the entire class the basics of this language. In middle school and high school, I took a few more courses, but was never able to completely understand the terms that I was being taught. In regards to how I read/write now in Spanish, I can do neither. Because this was not my first language and I was only taught the basics in the past, my fluency with Spanish is not great and I have not been able to keep any knowledge in my long term memory, aside from the simple and popular "hola!"

Because of my experiences with learning the Spanish language, being able to teach my own students this beautiful language is not possible. Unless I was thrown in a culture completely dependent on the language, I don't think I will be able to become fluent in Spanish. However, because I was only taught the basics of Spanish, I know now that basics are not enough. In turn, I know that my students need to be taught more than the simplest information so that the new knowledge becomes embedded in their minds for future references. Even though I can't teach Spanish, I can teach science and English information, during which extra information is key to remembrance, rather than full dependence on the basics.

The following link is a video that gives tips when teaching a foreign language.

Learning and Teaching Foreign Language

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