Foreign Language and “General Education” Requirements

Yesterday I was invited to participate in a workshop for language faculty at St. Edwards University here in Austin, Texas.  We had an enjoyable discussion and talked about foreign language education and how it fits into our educational system. My take is that in US universities we teach foreign language as if all students were preparing to be language experts and future majors.  The problem is that the majority of our students in beginning classes are not going to major in foreign languages and language expertise is not one of their goals.  A few years ago I surveyed some of our UT students.

UT’s first Upper Division Course for Spanish Majors:  86% of the students had fulfilled the prerequisite through credit by exam (not all 4 semester, but 86% had tested out of at least one semester).  82% of the students enrolled in this course planned on taking more Spanish courses.

UT’s last Lower Division Course for General Education: 46% of the students had fulfilled the prerequisite through credit by exam.  38% of these students planned on taking more Spanish courses.

In other words, our methodology and how we teach our beginning foreign language classes may never affect 86% of these students in our advanced classes.  And, most of the students in our general education classes will not take any more classes after they fulfill the requirement.

It begs the question:  Why do we teach general education language courses as if all students are going to continue to become language “experts”?

Our discussion at St. Edwards focused on how we could include more of the cultural aspects of language learning (more scripts as seen from schema theory–see my previous posts) if we weren’t so concerned about treating everyone as if they were going to be future foreign language majors.

Thanks St. Edwards, I enjoyed our discussion a lot.

Language Learning - Using The Web

I hope this post is not premature.  Currently I find myself in the middle of teaching my first university course that is 100% blog driven.  No paper, no books, tons of posts, tons of comments, lot’s of interaction with the students.  I’m finding the whole experience to be very interesting, both in terms of pedagogy and also in terms of language teaching and language learning.  The course is an advanced undergraduate course for students who are majoring in Spanish.  Basically the course is an introduction to phonetics and a study of the various dialects of Spanish.

First off, here’s the URL:  http://spn346.wordpress.com/

So here are a few initial observations:

1.  Each week we study the speech of a different region of the Spanish speaking world.  So, initially I provide posts with samples from interviews, commercials, or music.  Then in class we review these samples of speech.

2.  Students are divided into study groups.  Each group makes a weekly post of an additional sample of the dialect we are studying and with that post they also provide an analysis of the characteristics.  My students have found some creative examples and they have invented other cool ways to show their analysis. I’m totally impressed.

3.  In class I give mini lectures, and then different study groups are assigned to post their class notes for others.  It has been a really interesting way for me to see what the students get out of the short lectures.  The notes are also a great source for review for our weekly quizzes.

4.  Every week students are required to add comments and analysis to the existing posts (my posts, posts from other groups, posts from their own group).  It’s been a great source for ideas on class discussions.

5.  Every day we learn a phrase in Albanian, which is added to the blog.  One of our students speaks Albanian and I thought it would be an interesting way to reinforce phonetic transcription of sounds.

6. I find myself adding additional posts and pages to help provide background and examples for the course.  This includes things like help in writing phonetic characters, URLs to various related topics, etc.

7. I believe I’ll add a future post about netvibes in general because I am amazed by what that site can potentially mean for education and the way that information comes to us.  In the meantime, here’s the URL to my public netvibes page.  It has also become part of the course:

http://www.netvibes.com/orkelm

So, check out the course blog.  It’s hard to image teaching nowadays without web 2.0 being a gigantic part of the procedure.

How many languages do you speak?

I get this question a lot.  ”Dr. Kelm, how many languages do you speak?”  It is a really hard question to answer because somehow quality and quantity are hard for people to separate.  I don’t want to exaggerate or give a false impression and I certainly don’t want someone to say, “Liar!  I talked to him!  He’s lousy at Spanish!”  So, my basic long answer (which nobody wants to hear) is “Well, my Portuguese and Spanish are my best foreign languages and I feel pretty comfortable with them.  Then my Italian and German are pretty good, enough to get by and I could use them pretty well when I was there traveling.  Catalan seemed harder, but last time I was there I was finally getting the hang of it.  I’ve also studied some Japanese, but I’m pretty rusty right now (but I had a great time speaking Japanese in Japan).  Now I’m studying Chinese and I’m really loving it.”  You see what I mean.  Nobody wants to hear the long answer.

Maybe it is because people (especially North Americans) think of a foreign language as an ‘all-or-nothing’ kind of deal.  If you say you speak German, people think you should be able to talk just like a German on every subject and in every situation. Well, I’m here to stay that it ain’t so!

I find it refreshing sometimes to talk to Europeans who speak “all those languages.”  Recently I was talking to a person from France, who of course also speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.  The thing is that his Italian was, well, as jumbled up as my Italian.  But it was cool, because there was no hangup with this notion that we have to have perfect Italian to claim that we “speak” Italian.

My general impression is that people would enjoy foreign languages more if they didn’t have the added pressure of feeling like they are supposed to be equivalent to native speakers.  You will notice that our educational system promotes this viewpoint too.  We generally teach foreign languages as if learners are somehow going to be total experts some day. (Why else would we spend weeks teaching third semester college students about all of the adjective clauses that trigger the subjunctive in Spanish?) My general impression, however, is that the majority of our learners do not need to speak like undercover spies. They would be just as happy having a great time talking about sushi with Japanese friends in Japanese.

So three cheers for those who can enjoy using foreign languages to interact with people around the world, even if they are not “near-native” speakers.  That, by the way, is why I put the picture of me at Tian Tan in Beijing.  I was hanging out in the park where I enjoyed listening to the old men as some played their instruments while others sang along.  Finally I got the courage to talk to them in my limited Chinese.  We ended up having a great time and I had a fantastic experience.  So, how many languages do I speak?  I’m over the hang up.  I speak eight.

Michael’s High School Graduation

Tonia and I are not empty nesters yet, but I will say that one of the strangest sensations I have ever had is that of knowing that my youngest child is graduating from high school.  Michael will be moving on to BYU Idaho in the fall (Devin will be going back to BYU Provo, and Tamara will be returning to a program in physical therapy here in Austin).  In other words, the feeling of not having young kids in school brings a bizarre combination of pride and fear.  There’s a fear of not having any children at home. (What will we do with our Friday nights?  For the past 8 years we’ve gone to the football games to watch Devin or Michael perform in the band.)  Now what?  But there is also a sense of pride in knowing that they are doing OK.

So, although I don’t believe that graduating from high school is necessarily the world’s highest accomplishment academically, I do feel the emotion of the moment because of what it means for the “empty nest.”  Maybe that is why our society makes such a big deal out of high school graduation–it’s the sign that the children will be leaving. And that is exactly how it has left me feeling.  It’s the moment when after 18 years of taking care of a child, it’s time to move on.

Schema Theory in Language Learning, Examples

In my previous post on General principles in learning a foreign language (May 14) I mentioned schema theory and how some feel that learning a language relates to learning certain “scripts.”   We don’t just learn the vocabulary and the phrases, but we also need to learn to follow a given script that people normally use.

 I am writing this post from Brazil, a country that I visit often, usually once or twice a year.  I’ve been speaking Portuguese off and on for about 30 years and I get by pretty well.  Here are three examples of situations where I didn’t understand what was said because of my lack of understanding the “script.”

1.  I was in line to buy some food at a supermarket and when I got to the cashier she asked if I had a discount card for that store.  I wasn’t prepared for that question and so I didn’t understand what she said.  

2.  I was in line to buy food at a different supermarket and the cashier asked me for my zip code.  Again I wasn’t prepared for that question, didn’t understand what she said, and I needed her to repeat it.  When I finally understood what she wanted, I wasn’t sure what to say.  What does an American tourist say when the cashier wants your local zip code? (I have been told that this was for tax reasons).  I ended up blabbing something about being from Texas and how she probably didn’t want my zip code.

3.  Two days ago I was at the bus station, getting a ride back to São Paulo.  ”When does the next bus leave for São Paulo” I asked.   She said, in essence, “The next leaves at 3:00 o’clock and then at 15:20.” Although I am used to military time, the switch between “three” o’clock and “fifteen twenty” through me off, I didn’t understand what she said and so I had to have her repeat it.

In each of these examples it was impressive to notice how I went from understanding 100% of the Portuguese to a whole series of garbled sounds that I didn’t understand at all.  In each case I believe I lacked the “script”  Next time I go to that supermarket, however, I’ll be ready when the cashier asks for my CEP or if I have a discount card.  I think I know the script now.  In terms of language learning, it’s important that we listen for, and practice doing, different types of exchanges (scripts).

 

General principles in learning a foreign language

I’m returning to Austin from Los Angeles where I just attended the Spring Symposium of the UCLA Center for World Languages. In fact, this picture was taken at D’amore’s Pizza, my favorite place in the world to buy a calzone. I was asked to be the keynote speaker and I gave a talk entitled “Language Learning in Today’s World: How Do Universities Fit In?” There was a full slate of presentations from graduate students, lecturers, and faculty of UCLA, all showing the various projects and materials that they are using to teach foreign language.

I have found myself thinking about the factors that really make a difference in learning a foreign language. That is to say, I’ve been learning, speaking and teaching foreign languages for nearly thirty years. It has been long enough to see various academic theories come and go. So here’s my list of the things that I believe enhance the learning of a foreign language.

To begin, experts say that it takes around 500 hours for native speakers of English to obtain an intermediate level of proficiency in category two languages (e.g., Spanish, French, etc.). The estimation is that category four languages (e.g., Japanese) take twice that amount of time. I believe this is an important reality check that people sometimes ignore. Basically it takes more effort and time to learn a foreign language than what most people expect. Put 500 hours in perspective. Most university courses meet for 75 contact hours per semester (and most of those are not actually spent in real study). Even if you are involved in dedicated, concentrated study outside of class, it will still take a long time to get to a true 500 hours of study.

Next, I believe in the importance of providing context if you want to remember words and phrases in a foreign language. The more we can associate language to specific situations and experiences the better we will retain them and the better we will be a manipulating them for other situations. We can all remember the exact moment when we learned or heard some phrase in another language for the first time. Context provides a powerful association between the experience and the language used.

Third, I believe in what the proponents of schema theory suggest. That is to say that our learning of a foreign language isn’t just related to learning the right vocabulary and grammar, but there is a behavioral “script” that society follows for almost all activities. I often give the example of how different the experience of going to a bakery or deli in another country can be. A lot of what goes into foreign language learning is related more to learning the social scripts than it is to just learn the words and the grammar. This is also part of the reason why I accept the importance of learning language in “chunks” or phrases, as opposed to isolated words. Chunking, as it is called, helps us to follow the scripts.

Fourth, I accept the notions of input and intake. Researchers use different words to describe the details, but basically all suggest that it isn’t enough for learners to have input fly by them. It is important that this input sink in, be noticed, recognized, etc. In fact, I believe that one of the most important roles that a foreign language teacher has is that of helping the learners to recognize input. Thus I accept the importance of consciousness raising, noticing, input enhancement, to use some of the terms that are associated to this basic idea.

Fifth, I relate to Krashen’s suggestion for narrow listening and narrow reading. Basically, I believe that repeated analysis, study, and review of small chunks of language are more beneficial than a superficial analysis of large blocks of language. For those that are not advanced speakers, this generally means that the deep study of a two-minute chunk of language is better than a one-time viewing of a 60-minute movie

Finally, I have always been a fan of Schumann’s acculturation model of language learning, meaning that I believe that there are lots of cultural and social factors that affect our language learning. These include such things as the various types of motivation, extroversion, anxiety, etc. In fact, in many ways I am convinced that that the social factors outweigh most others when it comes to real language learning.

The UCLA conference was a great example of projects and teaching ideas that students, lecturers and faculty have created for the teaching of foreign language. Those interested may want to take a peek at their web site at their Center for World Languages: http://www.international.ucla.edu/languages/lab/.

Tamara is branching out!

So this week Tamara decided that she would be willing to sing for a talent show that was offered for the Young Single Adults in her ward.  She asked me to play, and so we performed “Caminhos Cruzados”, giving her a nice bossa nova style.  She did great.

Devin’s home

One of the great things about having a son away at college is that he comes home to visit in the summer.  Last week Devin came home from his year away at BYU.  Here’s a shot of the two of us at a softball game.  It’s a great shot because Dad has the goofy look that says “I’m excited to have Devin home.”

Kelm Wiki, Student Projects

If you go to my student wiki there are links under “student projects” that contain the video clips and comments that students have made from my Spanish Phonetics and Portuguese Grammar course. I believe they are nice examples of how projects from one semester can be used by students in subsequent semester.

http://streamer.cit.utexas.edu/wiki/kelm/

Here’s a shot of my students from the Business Culture class who contributed to the site during the spring semester 2008.