Teaching In Monolingual And Multilingual Groups

[mamer 0]

As a language teacher I find myself in different teaching situations depending on the nationalities of my students. Sometimes I teach a group of students who all have the same native language which is different from teaching a multilingual group. I’ll compare the two situations from different angles.

 

Linguistic difficulties

 

Monolingual Group: You can predict and focus on specific linguistic difficulties, e.g. grammar, vocabulary, individual sound problems.

 

Multilingual Group: You have to meet a variety of very different linguistic needs. For example, pronunciation problems are often specific to different nationalities.

 

Language of Instructions

 

Monolingual Group: It might be the case that the teacher has the same native language as the students, or at least knows a bit of it. Here the teacher will be able to use translation as an option. Most modern language teaching methods don’t encourage the use of translation in class.

 

Multilingual Group: Even if teachers are familiar with the native language of some of the learners, they need to be able to convey information to the whole class and can use the language that they teach, the foreign language from a stand point of students.

 

Cultural exchange

 

Monolingual Group: If the teachers are not from the same culture as the learners -then they can exploit this as a source of cultural exchange

 

Multilingual Group: Often the learners come form a wide range of countries and cultures, and there is a high level of interest in this which opens up good opportunities for cultural exchange.

 

Motivation

 

Monolingual Group: Within the classroom the motivation to use the foreign language may be lower.

 

Multilingual Group: The learners need to cope using the foreign language in the classroom and, if in the target language community, to manage outside the classroom using the language that they learn

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I'm curious... do you work to cater to the needs of each individual student (as well as the group as a whole), or attempt to immerse them directly into the new language? I ask this because when I was taking my Spanish classes, our teacher always told us that the amount we learned would be minimal and would take a long time to get anywhere compared to someone who went straight into Mexico/Spain/etc. and had to learn via immersion.

[mamer 0]

In a way I try to simulate immersion by using real life situations as a context for learning where all is done in the foreign language. Still syntax rules, vocabulary and phrases are used and practiced through structured practice activites that move gradually from accuracy to fluency. Catering from students' needs will show in the selection of the content, situations and types of practice.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

In a way I try to simulate immersion by using real life situations as a context for learning where all is done in the foreign language. Still syntax rules, vocabulary and phrases are used and practiced through structured practice activites that move gradually from accuracy to fluency. Catering from students' needs will show in the selection of the content, situations and types of practice.

Ah, got it. My biggest problem has always been with the syntax. It's like english... "I before e, except after c, except in neighbor, weigh" and there's another word too that I can't think of off the top of my head. And then you get to the silent letters and there are hundreds of words that have them (like the b in climb).