A Metaphor for Foreign Language Teaching
by Kenneth Sélin
Talking, First and Foremost
Stating the obvious and studies indicate time and again that for language acquisition (as opposed to language learning) foreign language students have to verbalize as much as possible in the new language. Curiously enough, far too little talk goes on in language classroom where the onus often is on learning well-structured sentences -- perhaps this is thanks to the legacy left by transformational grammar and its author, Noam Chomsky.
Today, the research findings support an interactive approach among all the participants-- with the teacher being only one of the contributing co-members. This team orientation with its emphasis all aspects of metalinguistics makes for a more open and dynamic linguistic environment that is "energy directed" rather than driven by a prescriptive orientation rooted in a false linguistic idealism with all its inherent structural limitations as poignantly expressed by transformational grammar method.
In fact, transformational grammar was an oversimplication -- as was behaviorism -- of the human linguistic experiential capacities to define reality which is to a very large measure determined by the cultural and historical, expressive and reflexive, experiential cultural framework of a people (i.e. a particular culture).
In other words, the micro language (i.e. the language used by an individual) has to be understood within the "temporal/spatial setting" of his/her family and it within its cultural setting. Therefore, family and cultural topics would be ideal topical matter for discussions in a foreign language class as opposed to speaking the the person to talk about him/herself which creates potential situations of vulnerabity not to mention the invasion of his/her private psyche.
Team Approach to Teaching
With a team approach to teaching everyone becomes responsible for the procedural aspects of classroom business and the choice of materials to effectively address a learning topic. The team approach should be collegial in nature where decisions are made on a consensual basis whenever possible in order to enhance and facilitate the internalization process of digesting newly presented material.
A Varied Approach using Multimedia
Today there is no escaping it: multimedia. It's soon to be everywhere to facilitate effective and efficient learning. Why? In my view it capitalizes on the individual's many memory senses making the material presented for consideration and learning more readily "codifiable" enabled by the vitality of speed and dazzling visuals that may reduce anxiety -- or Krashen's affective filter -- combined with its intrinsic attention-captivating "sensorial" appeal.
It's a business marketing axiom: if you want to sell something, you gotta package it right by making it attractive and appealing. Plus the product has to be characterized by a minimum of complexity and be user friendly -- to use the state of the art of PC technological lingo. (And as they say the rest is child's play ... or for the adult, the lambada -- shake-a-shake, move me baby.)
The Art of Foreign Language Teaching
Making the laughing jackasses (the kookaburras) sing in unison is an art of foreign language teaching that takes into account their families and their culture in the course of foreign language discussions and "appetizing" providing age- and linguistic-appropriate teaching material in a varied format that gives them the thirst for foreign languages in general and a want to explore new cultural boundaries.
Don't laugh, but for me, language teaching is the process of enabling a brood of kookaburras to sing new songs in another language that transforms their spirits into flights of fancy.
Hence, my teaching metaphor can be summed up as making (a brood of) kookaburras sing foreign songs.
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Updated: January 14, 1999