People who have no experience learning a language on their own will likely all think the same thing at the start of trying to learn a new one. Their only reference point is school, so the words ‘grammar’ and ‘teacher’ will probably be the first things they think of. They’ll search online, find a teacher, and think the problem is sorted. They’ll believe that after a few weeks or months with a teacher in a classroom, they’ll learn the language. Some students will believe that the weekly lessons will be sufficient to learn, so they won’t do any further practicing at home. If a student’s only exposure to the target language is in a weekly lesson and nothing else, I’m afraid to say that this student will not learn the language in a desirable timeframe. It may sound strange hearing that from me (an English teacher), but in my opinion, it’s the truth that needs to be accepted.
What are the problems with
lessons?
Too much grammar - for lots of schools and teachers, grammar is the main tool that is used. I want to clarify that I obviously don’t know every single school and teacher in the world, and there’ll be different styles of teaching, but generally there’ll be quite a lot of grammatical explanations and tasks in the classroom. Some grammar is useful, and I always say it should be used as a reference point to use occasionally, but there may be too much of it in a classroom.
Not enough exposure to the language - in order to absorb the language, we need to be reading and listening. If a student has 2 hours of lessons per week, this won’t be enough exposure time. I say this because the type of language exposure in a classroom may not be the best. The teacher may use their ‘teaching voice’ (where they speak a lot more slowly and clearly than would be found in the real world), and you’ll listen to other students who may not necessarily have a very high level of the language.
Usually too many students - the number of students in a class will vary a lot, but I’d say in general most classes will have 12 or more students, sometimes reaching up to as many as 50. This is likely to reduce the amount of time the student gets to speak, which makes the lessons a lot less useful.
So, are lessons useless?
Definitely not. However, the student needs to understand some things:
The lesson must be one part of your learning instead of the whole thing - outside of the lesson, the student must do whatever they can to use and be exposed to the target language (reading, listening, language applications, speaking to people, speaking alone etc). This allows the student to be more consistent with their learning and may make them more confident and capable of being active in their lessons. A language is not a subject like Maths where the teacher can teach us some rules, bombard us with examples, and then make us repeat them for an exam. We need to absorb the language in our own time.
The 'teacher' should be thought of as a guide instead of a teacher - I prefer to think of language teachers (including me) as guides who can provide language practice, advice, some occasional grammar if necessary, support, and motivation. We can help guide the student through their own language learning process. Everybody uses the word teacher (including me), but sometimes this may give the impression that the students can learn the whole language from their teacher without doing any of their own work.
Lessons should be small and based on communication - The lessons should ideally be in a small class (6 or fewer students) where the main focus of the lesson is on communication and conversation. Some elements of grammar could be incorporated every now and then, but not too much. In these lessons, students will get a lot more time to communicate, allowing them to use the language themselves in a natural way.
Summary:
Some people
will say they don’t have any time to do their own learning, and some will say
they have no control over the type of lesson they have. I can understand both
points, but it’s really important to try to squeeze some extra language
practice in. 15 minutes of Duolingo, reading a few pages of a book, or listening
to a podcast won’t take up too much of your day and, if done consistently, will
make a significant difference in your language learning. If you find yourself
in a class of 50 people, it might be worth
considering finding an online teacher where you can have classes
that are one-to-one or in a small group (I’m not saying this just because
all my classes are one-to-one and I’m trying to advertise myself 😉
). In the smaller classes you can find online, you’ll be able to learn from the comfort
of your own home and have more time in the lesson to use the language yourself.
I don’t want
those who are currently in large, grammar-based classes to feel bad or
demotivated after this. This is just my opinion, after all, and those lessons
are still better than nothing. Some students like the idea of structure in their
learning, and these lessons will generally provide that. Just please try to do
additional work outside of the classroom!
Key vocabulary:
Desirable timeframe – a period of time it will take us that we are happy with (i.e. most people would be relatively happy if they could learn a language in 3 years, however I imagine most wouldn't be happy if it took them 30 years)
It might be worth considering – a more friendly/subtle way of saying "you should consider"
One-to-one – classes
where it is just two people (one teacher and one student)
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