Teaching English Abroad - Methodology

January 24, 2006 12:05 PM

How do people teach English abroad in places where they don't speak the local language?

All the foreign language classes I've ever taken have relied heavily on my ability to understand English, for vocabulary lists, explanations of the rules of grammar, etc. How do they get around that?

posted by leapingsheep to writing & language (17 comments total)

I imagine it would be similar to the French immersion summer program I was in as a child. You simply start speaking in a simple form of the language. You can name things, motion for verbs, etc. People start to learn the context of the natural language.

For example, my French teacher would enter the class and say, "Bonjour, Classe." And then he'd say, "Bonjour, Monsieur Leblanc." If we didn't repeat that back to him, he's say, "Repetez. 'Bonjour, Monsieur Leblanc." After a day or two, we knew what to do and we sort of knew what "repetez" meant because he said it any time he wanted us to do something. He'd also use lots of repetition and pictures and motions.

By the time we moved on to more advanced grammar, we had a basic vocabulary.
posted by acoutu at 12:15 PM on January 24, 2006

How do special instructors teach non-english speaking students in the states?

There is a developed course of study on this topic (English as a Second Language).


Info on ESL
posted by jne1813 at 12:20 PM on January 24, 2006

I took a 5 day a week Japanese course in college and hardly ever spoke a word of English. It was so frowned upon, the teacher would glare at us and say things in Japanese that she probably wouldn't say to someone who spoke the language.

I learned more Japanese usage in two weeks than 4 years of high school level language instructions ever taught me.

Acoutu is correct, it's all about complete immersion.
posted by rabbitsnake at 12:22 PM on January 24, 2006

How do kids learn to speak?
posted by phrontist at 12:46 PM on January 24, 2006

When I taught English to junior high students in Japan, we never spoke Japanese, ever.

We used tons of pictures, tons of repetition. It was an immersion type thing where they were expected to read the textbook for grammar explanations and so forth--on their own--though that class did already have a relatively decent grasp of the English language... but it wasn't conversational.

When I taught kindergartners, however, there was no book. We simply repeated words... colors, weather, animals, etc. Also no Japanese in that environment either.

We also did conversation tables with the older students where we would make them spend an hour a day speaking English with an instructor. Usually I would sit with 5 - 7 students and just speak to them. Though their vocabulary and grammar was in most cases horrid, they were expected to make an effort to say something--anything--and each week there was improvement.

Conversely, when I was learning Japanese it was much the same... total immersion, no English spoken whatsoever. If we didn't understand we could look it up or try and ask the teacher in Japanese... the great thing about immersion is that it forces you to concentrate on your own studies outside of class, and kicks the English crutch out from beneath you. Worked well for me.

Also, with immersion, it seems to be logarithmic type learning. At first the curve isn't so steep and it takes baby steps to get moving, but as time passes it becomes much, much easier to get the grasp of concepts, and exponential gains are made.
posted by dead_ at 12:49 PM on January 24, 2006

Also I just remembered, that when foreigners teach in another country, their afternoon immersion lessons, or "conversation classes," are typically supplemented by a morning grammar and vocab class taught by a native teacher who uses very little English.
posted by dead_ at 12:51 PM on January 24, 2006

I worked as a teacher in a school in Switzerland and their rule was that everything was to be done in the language being taught, even for absolute beginners. As acoutu says it's all about repetition and sign language. You don't get onto grammar for quite a while - you tell them what to say, but not why.
posted by jontyjago at 12:54 PM on January 24, 2006

In addition to the above responses: when I taught English in Japan, I team-taught with a native Japanese speaker.
posted by Jeanne at 12:54 PM on January 24, 2006

I found it strange you saying "All the foreign language classes I've ever taken have relied heavily on my ability to understand English", because all my English classes ((I am Brazilian and live in Brazil, and learned English when I was a teenager in a private language school) were conducted in English and all students were expected to express themselves in English only. Some teachers would even speak in Portuguese occasionally, but most didn't even speak the language, only English. My wife and friends experience learning English (in different language schools) and French is quite similar. So, I always thought the modern foreign language teaching method prescribed the "goal language"-only approach.

Maybe you're talking about foreign language classes in regular school - in my regular school English was (badly) taught that way, relying on translations and vocabulary lists and explanation in our language - very little was learnt this way.
posted by nkyad at 1:06 PM on January 24, 2006

The ideal is to never use the students' native language. I was a university lecturer for a few years in Ireland in the Spanish studies faculty. I drew the short straw one year, the beginner's class of Civil Engineers who had to have a humanities module!! I decided to pretend I spoke no English. Pointing, mime, dance whatever worked, I am totally sold on the immersion concept. I would ask in a Spanish accent ? Bono, quien es Bono? betraying an ignorance of popular culture and Irish culture, that just would not have worked anywhere else. I had these engineers falling over themselves to explain to me, looking for assistance to their classmates, all in a way that would have been embarassing for them in any other context. These were Macho Men but by taking on the "idiot" role I allowed them to feel superior and helpful - two things the Irish male is conditioned to do. Remember most probelms with teaching another language is the students fear of looking/sounding ridiculous, but by taking that on board, or sharing it, it worked beautifully. I also played the gender card, I was in a male enviorment and look quite Spanish, they were sold.
My First year Christmas results were the best any beginner programme had ever had ( with a built in corrector for Engineers! After all their social club was called the Cowpunchers, I loved it!)
One day in May just before finals my husband rushed into the class cos our daughter had had an accident. You would not believe how pissed off these guys felt that I was not, in fact, Spanish. They got some great scores but I felt bad. It is entirely possible to teach a language without ever resorting to explanations in the source culture. Really.
posted by Wilder at 1:16 PM on January 24, 2006

I teach ESL, and one of the most annoying questions I get (frequently) is, "How do you teach them if you don't speak [insert language of choice]?" As others have said, there are plenty of language teaching methods that are taught primarily in the target language. Look here...the direct approach, silent way, and total physical response are all methods that use only the target language.

It seems like most foreign languages taught in American high schools focus way more on learning the language through English. This is not to say this is bad approach all the time (there are advantages at times), but it explains why so many people don't understand how languages can be taught even when the students and teacher have little to no language in common.
posted by jetskiaccidents at 2:52 PM on January 24, 2006

I taught in japan for 4 years without speaking the language really at all and i did just fine.

More important question perhaps is how do i keep up my genki-ness, and repertoire of activities!
posted by libertaduno at 2:56 PM on January 24, 2006

My part time job is teaching English in Japan (yes, another one of those), and while I generally frown upon using Japanese at all in my instruction, depending on what I am teaching I may speak a lot of Japanese or very little. For example, I am teaching a 60-year old married couple a lot of travel English and real-world, useful phrases. I only have an hour, so it makes no sense for me to spend 20 minutes trying to communicate meaning when I can do it in 15 seconds in Japanese. (Of course I also write it down, get them to repeat it, use it in example conversations, etc. for reinforcement.)

On the other hand, I practice advanced conversation with another student, and I use almost no Japanese. Sometimes I will explain something very quickly if necessary, but I try to do it in English if possible. I feel that students will progress a great deal more in that way.

But if you only have an hour once a week to teach, you have to make the most of your time and try to make it all stick. So my methods will differ from someone teaching English in a school for 6-8 hours a week or more.
posted by armage at 5:22 PM on January 24, 2006

Native speakers of English often take for granted its ubiquity worldwide. In many cases, children will already know a large number of English expressions: song lyrics, TV or movie catchphrases, internet terminology, and so on. Israel (where I grew up) doesn't believe in dubbing, so by the time English was introduced to the school curriculum (fourth grade back days, nowadays third), I had already spent countless hours listening to English speakers speak and had tacitly developed an ear for the language and its inflections. It's the same pretty much everywhere in the developed world, and it's often a solid enough foundation to build on.
posted by ori at 11:48 PM on January 24, 2006

*fourth grade back then
posted by ori at 11:49 PM on January 24, 2006

Thanks, folks!
posted by leapingsheep at 2:54 AM on January 25, 2006

Beyond level 3 or so, there should be no need for the native language at all. When I took Spanish in highschool, we were penalized if we used English in class.

(I teach SAT prep in Seoul, so my students are way fluent enough not to have a problem anyway)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 3:23 AM on January 25, 2006