I generally tend to read ELT blogs rather than ELT magazines: I like the authenticity on the page, the immediacy of opinions, the lack of pretension and love all the dialogues which naturally emerge from readers - however sometimes someone writes something that gives me pause and makes me do a rethink.
This month's Voices, the IATEFL magazine, contains an article written by Ali Bastanfar, a Ph.d student and lecturer of the Islaamic Azad University of Iran, and in it he presents a case for L1 in the language learning classroom.
For 14-15 years now, this is me:
"No Chinese, please."
"Talk around the word if you don't know it, but don't use Span
lish."
"Using German translations is like using a crutch to walk, try to create images - make bridges in your mind instead."
But as a language learner, what did I do?Except for French, (full immersion in Belgium, as a child), every language I've learned, even if it was just survival level (Malay), I used my native English to understand the new one.
Is this a case of
do as I say not as I do?Is this a case of following what the
those-in-the-know decreed as the way languages are learned, training us in teaching certificates, workshops, through methodology books and articles
rather than the way we actually learn languages once we've reached adulthood?
I'm not sure but I think Ali makes a highly important point that we teachers are not dealing with robots but
intelligent human beings and we should be finding new ways of exploiting the benefits of comparison between the L1 (a learners first language) and L2 - it's something I want to explore more deeply in practice.
What do you think?
Useful links related to this posting:Best,
Karenne
Posts
