What We Can Learn From Foreign Language Teaching in Other Countries
By: Ingrid Pufahl, Nancy C. Rhodes, and Donna Christian
Center for Applied Linguistics
Summarized by Adeba Sultana
“Compared to students in much of the world, U.S. students lag far behind in their foreign language capabilities.” (Pufahl et al., 2001) In their article, “What We Can Learn from Foreign Language Teaching in Other Countries”, the authors discuss what works in other countries in relation to foreign language instruction and what the United States can learn and apply to improve foreign language teaching practices and outcomes.
Introduction: Foreign language education improvement efforts have been going on for the last decade in the United States. A recent study examined the success of nineteen other countries all over the world in foreign language instruction. Study participants responded to some questions about their methodologies of teaching foreign languages.
What Works in Other Countries: An early start seamed to be the preference of the majority of the countries participating in the study. They claim that beginning foreign language study early promotes achievement of higher levels of language proficiency. In addition to that there has to be a well-articulated curriculum framework which guides the development of an effective system of foreign language education. Rigorous teacher education, effective teaching strategies, strong policies and assessment were some of the other key factors. Comprehensive use of technology was stressed upon by all the participants. The use of internet, TV programs, films computer games, music videos, and interaction and collaboration with speakers of other languages through the World Wide Web and email were some examples mentioned.
What the United States Can Learn From This: Start language education early, learn from others, conduct long term research, provide stronger leadership, identify how technology can improve language instruction, improve teacher education, designate foreign language as a core subject and take advantage of the sociolinguistic context.
Conclusion: Students in the U.S have fewer capabilities in the foreign languages. The study provides valuable insight into successful foreign language education in other parts of the world. The United States can benefit from implementing the information learned through this study.
Pufahl, D, Rhodes, N, & Christian, D. (2001). What we can Learn from foreign language teaching in other countries. Eric Digest, Retrieved from http://webdev.cal.org/development/resources/digest/digest_pdfs/0106-pufahl.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment