Firstly a brief introduction, I am currently living in Dnipopetrovsk in the Ukraine where the main spoken language is Russian rather than Ukrainian. I have been living here for 3 months now and had some basic knowledge of the language via a audio book but nothing more. My level is probably the equivilant of an elementary student in the TEFL world.
Many people say that living in another country is the best/quickest way to learn another language. I am certain this is true, but only if you take that opportunity. If you want then you can in affect have a lesson every day in the language and due to the large need to acquire the language to communicate. However If you happen to have people who speak some English around you then you only need acquire the most basic of language for shopping or other such functions.
So with my basic knowledge of Russian the ability to listen for gist [get a vague understanding of what people are saying] wasn't to hard pick up and advance. As such it is usually easy to get an idea roughly what someone is talking about. In fact sometimes it is surprising just what I can understand and how few words I need to know to be able to do this. Obviously being in real situations it is sometimes easier than others to pick up what someone is telling you.
An example, I went to the supermarket, the tills weren't working and I was told to go to a different isle. The only words I managed to pick up from what the checkout girl said were "not working, go and I'm sorry." everything else was from context, body language and seeing that the isle hadn't moved for a long time!
This skill is so useful for starting to enlarge my vocabulary that it can't be understated. If you know the context that you are talking then picking up what a word means is possible. If not then you need someone to translate.
I can Identify three different ways that I have learn't words out here and how they occurred. I believe all three can impact the way we teach to help people learn new words.
The first is the traditional model, I wanted to learn the words for Cutlery, having been told them once I had forgotten what they were so when the opportunity to learn them arose with a bi-lingual speaker [who happend to have a cup with him] arose I decided to find out the words. This time I made myself use them in a sentence when speaking to him. [I like a big cup of coffee, do you like a big cup of coffee etc] (interestingly I was actually trying to work out how adjective endings work and then ended up learning cutlery as a spin of) and I reinforced this by using an action for each one [raising a cup, stirring my cup, cutting some food, lifting a fork with food on] I can recall these words easily now and managed to remember them straight away. This is similar to how vocab may be presented in a course book during a lesson where students are drilled, then made to produce the language through various stages. It works well and is a great way to personalise language use when done right.
The second actually arose from hearing a word in many different circumstances and wondering what the word was. The actual word was "Davi" which means give/lets depending on context. In actually fact I'm starting to think that there isn't an English inequivalent but those are the words we use instead. After hearing it many times I knew it well enough to ask a teacher what the word meant. She explained its meaning and from that point on I knew it. I had already remembered the word I just needed to clarify it's meaning. Straight away it went into my usage and language.
What can we take out of this for teaching? Well firstly hearing something in different context can be hard to gain a proper understanding of it's meaning. Secondly words don't always translate exactly and this is why simply providing a translation of a word isn't great. Finally it is possible to expose students to certain words can prepare them to learn them. Hence the benefits of not grading texts in receptive skills.
Finally there was the word "to watch" [smatreets] which again I had encountered many times at my salsa class but in this case I hadn't actually acknowledged what the word was and certainly wasn't concious of it at all on these occasions. I then subsequently encountered it during a conversation with one of the Russian speaking teachers but didn't put too much effort into remembering it. However when I next went to the salsa class I couldn't help but hear it! The instructor was saying it all the time and I recognized the word and meaning. This is how I know he was using it before as he said it all the time! Because of this subsequent encounter I remembered the word very well.
What I take from this is that words need to be presented repeatedly, it is no use to have a word come up in a lesson, a student hear it, try and remember it and then not present the language again. Instead if a word arises through natural conversation it is much better to make sure we bring it up again. This is particularly relevant for Dogme approach which focuses on meeting the students perceived language need and equipping them with the vocab they want. With such words coming up it may be along time before a second encounter of the language would arise. As such it is worth making a note of these new words and bringing them up again in the next lesson to help people remember these new words.
Right that's the start of that. Please comment and I will edit and then republish with amendments.
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