IS USING THE TARGET LANGUAGE 90% OF THE TIME IN CLASS ALWAYS THE BEST WAY TO LEARN IT?

IS USING THE TARGET LANGUAGE 90% OF THE TIME IN CLASS ALWAYS THE BEST WAY TO LEARN IT?

IS USING THE TARGET LANGUAGE 90% OF THE TIME IN CLASS ALWAYS THE BEST WAY TO LEARN IT?

Immersion is great for the motivated

The  official ACTFL position  statement recommends that the target language be used 90% of the time in class. It is a good goal, not a mandate. Many teachers feel frustrated and guilty at their inability to reach the goal of 90% immersion, or even 50% or 10%.  Many state that  they don’t know how to successfully use the target language to that degree. They may worry about getting “it all covered” and that speaking all the time in the language will hinder them. Frankly, many teachers don’t have the confidence to use the TL (target language) full time, like in explaining grammar, directions for the activities, or handling behavior problems when they occur.

So should teachers be made to feel like failures for not use the target language the suggested 90-100% of the time? Should they use the immersion no matter their abilities, confidence level, situation and beliefs? Like anything else, there are differing philosophies and guidelines that are debatable. The ACTFL position statement of 90% immersion in the target language does have its pros and cons.

CONS:

1.     Not all teachers have the ability to smoothly and correctly converse and explain grammar, directions and otherwise manage classroom procedures and behavior in the target language.

2.     Some students (more than we’d like) are not motivated enough to pay attention to the constant “blah, blah, blah” of the unfamiliar language. They tune out and are not engaged. Besides not learning, these kids may start causing behavior problems thereby preventing other kids from learning, too. The teacher then is distracted from his teaching or supervising the activity, time is lost and the class atmosphere is tainted.

3.     Sometimes despite utilizing strong visual aides, using cognates, physical acting out, speaking slowly, writing words or meanings on the board and other strategies for understanding, the students may still NOT understand the word, phrases or concept being taught. Sometimes it is more effective and quicker to just say ”salesman”. (Many years ago my daughter had a new teacher who ineffectively used immersion to teach her first - graders Spanish. She came one day and told me she know how to say “wall” in Spanish. “Miércoles” she told me. I corrected her and still to this day wondered what the teacher had done to make my daughter think that. I know that she only spoke Spanish (in monotone) and didn’t use any techniques to aid in comprehension.)

Immersion is not perfect in some cases

4.     Class size and demographics can make it more challenging to effectively teach through immersion.  Many high school classes are 35 and over. Comprehension checks are a lot harder, in addition to behavior maintenance (or anything else, for that matter). Many administrators load up the elective classes. Are the students in the class there because they want to learn or because the parents want them to, or maybe the counselors just put them there since all the other classes were full? In these cases motivation to learn the language can be very low, no matter how dynamic and well trained the teacher is. If the class is in mostly in the target language, these kids can act out even more.

5.     Instructions for the activities or worksheets can be quite confusing or ambiguous at best. Publishers often wonder if they should write the instructions in English or the TL, or both. Some opt for using English for the first semester level  of  level 1 in English, then Spanish after that. I have had students tell me that they didn’t do the homework because they didn’t understand the instructions (written in the TL) Since I know I had explained very clearly what they were to do, I assume that this is just an excuse, but who knows.

6.     If the TL is learned in an uncontrolled, non-academic milieu (T.V, movies, comics,

friends) what is picked up can be incorrect, inappropriate, bad grammar, questionable vocabulary and more. I had some kids (twin brothers) come to my high school Spanish class who had been in an immersion class. Their accents were very good, and their sentence structure was quite good as well. Their grammar was very bad, their vocabulary not well developed and their spelling was lamentable…even though Spanish spelling is rather phonetic. I just wanted to wipe their brain clean and start from scratch!

So, is ACTFL’s position or guideline of 90% immersion   an unrealistic or unattainable goal? No, It’s very effective and certainly do-able given the right circumstances.

1.     The teacher needs to be both competent and confident in his abilities to immerse his students correctly in the TL, and to be able to scaffold sufficiently.

·      Does he have native or near native fluency for the level he teaches?

·      Does he use clear and simple visuals and physical actions and gestures well to explain?

·      Does he speak at a speed that is both realistic and simple enough in the beginning for comprehension?

·      Does he check frequently for understanding?

·      Will he allow some kids to translate in some cases to clarify meaning?

(Some people don’t think that should be allowed as it makes the non-understanding students rely too much on others instead of figuring it out himself.)

Spanish Snappy Sayings  For the Spanish Classroom

2.     The class should be a manageable size. I don’t know the correct number, but I do know that a class of 35 will have different outcomes in motivation and performance levels than a class of 25. It is INSANE that so many schools do not factor this in when assigning large numbers to language classes.

3.     The behavior expectations need to be explained clearly one way or another either with actions, pictures  or even in English (orally or in writing ) on the first day.

4.     You may need administrator support for having an immersion  class. Even though this methodology is wildly accepted as being one of the best, there still can be complaints with the students or parents.

5.     Parents should be informed that  the teacher intends to use the TL almost exclusively. Often the students will complain that they don’t understand anything and that they want to be taken out of the class. Sometimes the administrator will tell the teacher  stop using the TL so much. (Yikes!)

PROS:

1. Students will learn grammar, vocabulary and syntax effortlessly as they did as babies.

2. Generally, 1000 hours of language contact is needed for near fluency (the number depends on many variables). Having the teacher and later the student speaking only in the TL will help the students reach fluency faster.

3. If the teacher is:

·      comfortable and is competent in  providing comprehensible TL instruction full time

·      knows how to deliver comprehensible input

·       the students and other conditions and variables are optimal…

            …the teacher should use the target language 90+ % . It’s the most effective way to learn a language.

 But what if, for the reasons explained in this blog, the teacher won’t or can’t?

TRICK YOURSELF AND YOUR STUDENTS INTO USING THE TARGET LANGUAGE UP TO 90 % IN YOUR CLASS.

That is the subject of my next blog. Sign up and you will be notified when it is ready. Thank you, Lonnie

    

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Should We Use Movies, Videos and Films in the Foreign Language Classroom?

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Should We Use Movies, Videos and Films in the Foreign Language Classroom?

Using films and videos of all types are great audio input for the FL class

There are some teachers that are proud or even smug that they don’t show movies or videos in the classroom. There are others who show way too many movies or videos, and even worse - they have no front loading, worksheets, or follow up discussions or writing activities. They seem to use movies as time wasters or “babysitters’. To answer the  title question, yes, we should use movies, films and videos in the foreign language classroom.  However, there should be good reasons and some specific strategies when they are shown.

Why? - Why should we show movies and videos?

• Movies and videos are very entertaining both for there visual and auditory content.
• Both the teacher and the students enjoy that they are receiving language education in a calming and low energy manner.
• Some movies present cultural insights

• the constant and authentic (usually) auditory input
• It’s a great way to reinforce vocabulary, sentence structure, pronunciation, and grammar
• If the movie is familiar to the students (They may have seen it a number of times in English or their native language), they will not have to pay attention to the story line so they instead can listen to and learn how to say the familiar lines in the TL (target language)

Which Types of Videos Should You Show?

There are many authentic films available

Which ones?  Should they be cultural? Should they be related to the culture of the language being studied? Should they have a lesson or a moral? Can they be fun and light? Should they be only short ones or can they be full-length movies? Can they be in English (native language?) Yes to all.

• There are very good movies, new and old, that are in English but that teach culture in some way. El Cid, Man of the Mancha, Evita, travel videos for example can be shown in the first year classes. The follow up activities can be in the Target Language if need be.

Beloved, interesting movies in Spanish
offer good audio input but no culture

• Disney or Pixlar movies (of any culture) are great because they are enjoyable, they have priceless auditory input, and are usually familiar to students of all ages. "El Rey León", "La Bella y la Bestia", "Congelado", "Mulán", "Valiente"

• There are movies that are cultural, enjoyable and in the target language. For Spanish, these include “El libro de la vida", "El Norte", "El camino hacia El Dorado",  "Las locuras del emperador" ,"Diario de motocicleta"  and more. Many of these DVDs are available at Red Box, Net Flix, or companies like Applause, Carlex and Teacher’s Discovery. Be sure to view the movies, especially if they are rated R or NR. Most schools require parental permission to view such movies, if they give permission at all. Also, some parents will not allow even their teen-agers to view any non-G movie and  berate you for wanting to show such a movie. (Unfortunately, I have experience with that!)

Subtitles– I don’t usually show a movie unless I feel that the students at that level can understand it to some degree. If the movie shown is cultural and way above the level of the students, sure, by all means, use English sub-titles. Be forewarned, that often the  target language sub-titles do NOT match what is heard (in the TL). That may not bother the lower level students, but the upper levels are confused and their attention is misdirected. Occasionally if the language heard is either very hard vocabulary, heavily or regionally accented or full of dialect or slang, I will put on the English subtitles. If nothing else the students are receiving some TL.

Is There a Special or Suggested Way to Best Use Videos in the Foreign Language Classroom?

How – If the video you are showing is an educational video  (El Desfile de las Cholas en Bolivia, Landfill Harmonic in Paraguay) the optimal time has been proven to be 11 minutes. However if it is full movie, there are various ways  to take full advantage of movies’ language teaching attributes:

• There should be some preparation, or front loading for optimum viewing. You could write important, interesting or repetitive vocabulary from the movie. I prefer to write the words in the TL (as heard on the movie) and have the students look them up before the movie. It’s a good idea to check that the students have the correct meaning or nuance.

• You can have them listen for those words (or certain words) and give them a prize, smile, point or bragging rights when they point them out.

• Have sheet of simple questions, ideally sequential. You may want to warn the students when that question is coming up. You can also replay that section.

Cute G-rated yet cultural movies

• The questions at the lower level should be easy, present , present progressive, true/false, lists, maybe simple past. The higher levels can have questions in various tenses, including future (anticipatory questions), conditional (alternate endings or actions), subjunctive (era important que…)

• Sequencing activities, write words they hear for lower levels, group summary(written or oral) as a whole class or small groups, crossword puzzles using the vocabulary and/or characters, true/false, fill in the blank sentences or paragraphs, mini-research about subjects introduced by the movie, coloring pages of scenes, or characters if available.

• The upper level classes can write more advanced pieces or even essays. For example: After viewing "Mulan" can write a compare and contrast paper about Mulan compared to  Joan of Arc; Viewers of "Evita "can write an opinion piece about Evita - did she help or harm Argentina?; "Bajo la misma luna" can stimulate conversations or papers on immigration, mothers leaving their children for good reasons etc.

• Some movies are based on fact, or contain some fact. It’s good to discuss (or have the students think for themselves) what is fact, what is exaggeration, and what is total fantasy. The movies Pocahontas, The Road to El Dorado, and some others are good for that.

How often: The frequency with which you show movies depends on the level. I show only a few movies at the lower level (but quite a few short videos) . At the upper levels I show  more movies because they are able to understand more and therefore able to benefit more from the awesome auditory input.

In conclusion, don’t be afraid to show purposeful movies , but try to avoid the temptation to just pop it in with no prepping or post activities. Movies, videos and films can be great listening and cultural assets in the foreign language classroom.

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How to Use Music in the Foreign Language Classroom for Maximum Effectiveness 

I have written in previous posts about the importance of using music in the classroom and which songs or chants to use for which reasons or situations. This post is about how to use music effectively and for maximum benefit for your students. Although singing in class one of the ways to use music, it is by NO means the only reason to use it. A few teachers shy away from using music either because  they don’t sing well or they say that they can’t get their students to sing. (After reading this blog post, they WILL be able to happily and successfully use music in their class)

Use Music to Introduce Genres or Specific Songs

Play the same song all week (or song of the same genre) everyday as the students walk in. They are learning incidentally at this time. On Friday talk about the genre.

Use Music to Create an Atmosphere

Play a few songs as the students (or you) get organized or as they do bell ringers. These songs can be of any type. Soft and soothing instrumentals help settle the students down and the more lively kind wake them up and get them ready to fully engage in the lesson. There have been some classes that like soothing songs so much that they unanimously begged me to play them during the final.  Of course, they ALL had to agree before I played them.

Use Music to Teach Culture

Matching lyric strips with pictures

Very often songs can help you teach many elements of culture (history, social mores, music types, dances, dialects, foods, animals, plants, and more). You may play the songs as explained above but then teach the songs further. If the song is too difficult to use as a musical listening comprehension exercise,  pass out the lyrics. They follow along as you play it again. Discuss the superficial meaning of the words, then continue to point out the cultural references or have the student research them. (“Los Desaparecidos” from the song Latinoamérica by Calle 13, a song so full of culture that it is the subject of an entire  future post)

Use Music to Teach or Reinforce Vocabulary and Expressions

I usually play a song that has vocabulary or expressions that I have been teaching. Sometimes I get lucky and have more than one word in the song. If the songs have been made up specifically for the classroom, they very often have songs that have as many as 5-8 words form a thematic unit. By using these  songs you get “more bang for your buck” or at least more reinforcement and learning per song. Some examples of good songs (chants) that have a lot of these thematic words per song are :

(Spanish) Tengo hambre
(French) J'ai faime
(Italian) Ho fame
(German) Gut und Schlecht

 Once you chose your song you have MANY choice for how to use it the best way to fit your and your students’ needs:

1.   Visual  listening comprehension.

Physical fill-in-the-blanks
 cloze activity for songs

·      Have students draw or cut out provided pictures form some words form the song. (4-8). Play the song. When the students hear the words pictured, they raise the cards. 

·      Alternately, you can give big colored cards to a  few students and have them raise them when they hear the words in the song.

·      For some songs, you can pass out big colorful cards and have the kids listen to the song, arranging themselves in the same order as the song. This activity may require that you play the song 3 times or more. That’s a good thing because the more they hear it, the deeper the song (and the reinforced words) get  into their heads. Many of the songs

·      You can get images and put them up on the interactive whiteboard and have them appear when they are sung . Thus is a very flashy exercise, but less engaging as the visual/physical ones above.

·       After completing any of the activities above, you can pass out sentence, phrases or word strips  (from the song ) for the students to pair with the pictures individually, by walking around the room to find their “partner”, or putting them on a wall or board.

Some songs that include pictures with the MP3 and exercise packet are:

(Spanish) El tiempo
(French) Le temps
(Italian) Il tempo
(German) Das Wetter

3. 2. Have the students count how many times they hear a certain word or phrase in songs that are very repetitive (Eres tú - Mocedades)
   
   
   3. Perform an action when the specified word is heard. The actions can be  standing up, clapping, or doing a physical action or gesture. (I like to use the Tex-Mex song El pantalón Blue Jeans by the Texas Tornados when I teach clothing, and I usually make the kids with jeans on stand up when they hear the words “Pantalón blue jeans”)

    4. Listening comprehension and writing

Student filling the blanks in a
musical cloze activity

• Play the song and have the students write the missing words from a cloze sheet that you make up. Sometimes, if the song is fast or the words are difficult, I’ll write the words in random order on the board.  Almost all of the song packets that I sell have these fill-in-the-blank sheets,  small pictures for many of the songs , and other activities or exercises. (I have these in Spanish, French, Italian, German, ESL, and Arabic) 
• 
  



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•      

• For a variation of the normal written cloze activity, you can have lines of the song written up in bigger writing on strips. The students can either arrange these strips on a table, the front of the room, or tape them in order on a wall.

• You may enlarge the whole song sheet, with certain words or phrases left blank. Pass out the missing words or phrases and let the students tape them on the correct blank.

5. Grammar reinforcement

• If a song uses a lot of certain grammar structures (future, preterite, future) you may want to further the usefulness of the song’s grammar by having the students make up original sentences using the same structure used in the song. An example is after hearing and writing the words to Cielito lindo  (..Canta y no llores..), the students write other pairs of words  and write affirmative followed by negative commands.

6. Extend the song by making up more verses or wring or presenting orally a narrative about the circumstances of the song. Who is singing it, why, to whom is he singing the song etc.

7. Change the tenses of the verbs used, the person  (from “I” to “he”, “she”  etc.

Some good songs for reflexive verbs and tense/persons changes are:

( Spanish) Esto es lo que hago

(French) Voici ce que je fais

(Italian) La vita mia

(German) Mein Tag

8. Have volunteers act out the song. It’s fun especially if it is romantic, which includes most of them.

9. Sing the song! Kids usually can’t wait to sing if they’ve heard it enough times and completed some activities. I have NEVER had a group of students at any age not sing songs when introduced in some of these ways. Sometimes I ask them to sing only parts of the songs, or have half of the kids sing one part, the other half sing the other half.

10. The line from Cielito Lindo  song expresses my philosophy.

“Canta y no llores, porque cantando, Cielito Lindo, se alegran los corazones.” (Sing and don’t cry, because singing, my beautiful heavenly one, make the hearts happy.)

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WHAT ARE THE BEST SONGS FOR TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES?

I strongly advocate the use of music in the foreign language classroom (See my previous blog post) not only because it is so fun and engaging, but also because music is so very effective. However, not all music works for all levels. For example, songs that are:

Mariachi musicians like those on "Mariachi y Más" 

•  too hard (very difficult vocab)
•  sung too fast for the level
•  have nasty, street or too dialectical vocabulary
•  incorrect grammar
•  nasty or otherwise inappropriate (drugs, crime…) content
•  nonsensical
•  just plain bad

… will probably not help your students learn much. Using the right kind of music and at the right time and level helps music work its magic much more easily.

There are some music snobs that insist that only “real” songs be played in their classroom. I LOVE using authentic music in my class, but at the lower levels it is harder to find music that fits all my criteria. The general sequence and criteria of the types of music I suggest for optimum usage are:

1. Simple rhymes, rhythmic “ditties” or mini chants. They are very easy, fun, and they help at the very beginning lower the affective filter, help with pronunciation, pre-teach (incidentally or purposely) grammar and simple word order.

Musical Echoing

Some good mini-chants or snappy sayings can be found in various languages. Click below:

Spanish Snappy Sayings

French Snappy Sayings

Italian Snappy Sayings

2. Simple children’s songs (check for nonsense or surprisingly difficult words)

3. Musical chants that teach or review elements of your lesson (grammar, vocabulary, other content)

      Some unique musical chants in various languages can be found by clicking on the links below:

       

 Musical Arabic

 Gesang, Rhythmen und Reime ( in packets)

Canti, Ritmi e Rime

Cantos, Ritmos y Rimas

Cantiques, Rythmes et Rimes (in packets)

4. Educational songs made up to teach something. Many people, mostly teachers, make up cute and appropriate songs. Listen to them before you buy. I have heard many that are bad, forced translations of English songs, very amateurishly recorded, sung by children (which doesn’t work well for older students although children’s songs sung by adults do), sometimes even with horrible accents.

Italian musician like those
on Canti, Ritmi e Rime

5. Popular or traditional songs that accent something by its constant repetition or perhaps weird yet cool way of expressing it. Sorting through all of the songs out there in the Spanish, French, Italian, German world can be daunting task  but worth it if you find the right good and powerful song.

6. At upper levels (4 or AP) I go more for culture, beauty and especially songs that represent the country’s heart and soul. I don’t mind using older, classic songs that EVERY ONE, no matter the age form that country knows and loves.

Andean musicians from "Gira musical
por el mundo hispánico"

7. Sometimes songs without words can also be played for their mood altering qualities (calming, exciting, danceable) or used to discuss the many musical genres available in the country or even the typical instruments used.

Two very cultural and lovely collections of traditional music with good extension exercises and readings are:

Mariachi y Más (7 song Bundle and Book)

Mariachi y Más (16 songs book and MP3)

Gira Musical Por el Mundo Hispánico

Read also:

How to  Effectively Use Music in the Spanish, French, Italian, ESL(and other Foreign Languages) Classroom...

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Using Music (Chants, Rhythms and Rhymes) in the Foreign Language Classroom 

Using music, chants, rhythms and rhymes to teach foreign language is like having a secret (stealth) weapon! Not only does my "research" of 40 years of teaching, prove it; scientific research proves that using music (and singing) is twice as effective as traditional foreign language learning. The words learned through music sticks to the learners brains effortlessly.Even brain research shows that music is great for language learning. Unfortunately not all language teachers have been enlightened as to the efficacy of using music in the classroom. In my many years as a conference presenter, I have met people who don't use music, chants, rhythms or rhymes in their Spanish, French, Italian, ESL , German classroom. Their reasons are that they "don't have time " to do so, they "don't know how to", their "students don't like to sing" and a few other sad excuses. I feel sorry for their students, but I also realize that if they read this blog (and the blogs that follow) they might, fortunately for their students' sake, change their minds. 

WHY USE MUSIC TO TEACH?

Maracas like those used
in Cantos, Rimos y Rimas

ALL HUMANS NEED MUSIC. All cultures throughout the ages have embraced and developed music, rhythms and even rhymes. These range from simple drum beats with gourd maracas to complex symphonies.  As individuals, our love for music and rhythm begins even before birth. We hear or feel the heartbeat and later the breathing of our mother, and continue developing our love further when our mothers sing, say silly things in a sing-song voice and rhymes (“This little piggy went to market…”)

MUSIC IS GREAT FOR LEARNING – Howard Garner writes that music is one of the strongest of the multiple intelligences. I have seen the proof very often in my classes. Sometimes they use the exact phrasing found in the songs. Sometimes a word is substituted, yet appropriate. My young daughter had learned one of my "ditties" or Snappy Sayings and used it quite appropriately when for the first time in a long time, the family was together eating in a restaurant. "Todos estamos aquí, todos estamos aquí, queremos comer sí, sí, todos estamos aquí" She had substituted the "Comer" for the original "aprender". I have been teaching for so long that I get emails from many of my previous students. Most of them state that they learned so much and attribute it to the many songs we used in class. 

Besides being pleasant and very effective, music is also mood and emotion altering. Music can motivate the bored and calm the over - excited. Music lowers the affective filter (or makes people less stressed and more uninhibited) so that even the reluctant learner can and will learn more easily. Special ed. students learn very easily with music. Author and teacher Irene Brouwer Konyndyk in her book Foreign Languages for Everyone  writes (about why music is so effective for her learning disabled students), “ I believe that music embeds learning by bypassing rational cognition.” This might also be why brain damaged, stroke victims and others can communicate by singing their message when they can’t  speak  normally. It helps special need students, but the regular ed. students benefit by learning with music, too.

Conga player like those
recorded in Lonnie's chants

MUSIC AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES -  A lesson taught through music (chants, rhythms or rhymes) is learned more willingly and permanently. I’ve seen and heard students during tests quietly singing parts of songs to access  the needed vocab, phrases or even grammar points. One girl on a student trip to Spanish let the group know that she had a headache by singing part of a previously learned song. “Me duele la cabeza, ¿qué hago yo?" Some of the kids sang back “Toma aspirina y olvídalo”. (From Cantos, Ritmos y Rimas) Will she always sing when she has a headache? No, but because of the chant, she’ll say it correctly.

Upcoming Blogs (Partial list) :

What are the Best Songs for Teaching Foreign Language? 

How to  Effectively Use Music in the Spanish, French, Italian, ESL( and other Foreign Languages) Classroom 

Active Grammar

Old School Methodology or New Tech for Your Class?

Should We Use Textbooks or Not?

Teaching Art Effectively and Actively

Is traveling with Your Students for You?

Reading in the Lower Level Language Classes

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