Colombia travel » Language Learners

7 Reasons Why People Hate Learning a Foreign Language

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:20:20 +0000

Which Foreign Language?

It’s been said on other occasions that a key question people ask when thinking of learning a foreign language is “which foreign language should I try to learn?” Reasons for wanting or needing to learn a foreign language can be almost as many and as varied as the number of people themselves. Family, ancestry, employment, business, education, travel, adventure, romance and other personal concerns all may have their respective roles in the decision to learn and continue learning a foreign language.

With literally thousands of spoken languages in the world besides some of the major ones like English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, Italian, Japanese and German, obviously there’s no lack of choice. But many learners concede, “I hate trying to learn a foreign language”. Why? Here are the top seven of the most commonly given reasons.

The Seven Most Common Given Reasons

1. No way to practice regularly

“I know that learning a foreign language is a valuable skill, but no one I know speaks it and I have no way to practice”:

2. Long lists of vocabulary to memorize

“We get a 50-word plus long vocabulary list each week in class, and I just can’t keep up with memorizing them”.

3. Illogical Grammar Rules

“The grammar and rules of the foreign language just don’t make any sense to me” complain a number of foreign language learners.

4. Pronunciation Difficulties

“Whenever I try to speak in class everyone laughs at me because I pronounce my words badly, they say”.

5. Bad Foreign Language Teachers

Our foreign language teacher is absolutely horrible. She hardly seems to know the language herself. She really shouldn’t be trying to teach us”.

6. Not Enough Available Resources

“So what do we do with it (a foreign language)? We don’t have any good tapes, videos, songs, movies or games. For me, it seems like a waste.”

7. Foreign Travel is Too Expensive

“Hey, I’d love to visit a foreign country where the language is spoken, but I can’t get a visa”: “Even if I could get a visa, I’d never be able to afford the airfare and hotels.”

Lower Affective Filter

If an English as a foreign language teaching professional is going to do an effective job, these are but a few of the many possible difficulties and objections that may have to be overcome. Only then can the learners’ Affective Filter be lowered or compensated enough for both teacher and learner to get the most out of any language learning efforts.

By: Larry M. Lynch

A Perfect English as a Foreign Language Writing Lesson

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:13:17 +0000

Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking

If your English as a Foreign Language learners are anything like mine, then many of them don’t like to write in English. But since we wish to empower our foreign language learners with all four of the basic language skills, writing needs to be included in our class lessons. So, how can writing be introduced in such a way as to inspire interest and facility to our EFL classes – that is the question.

One approach that has worked for me is to have my EFL learners write a “travel” piece about the city, region or foreign country we are living in. This exercise is usually called something like, “A Perfect Day in Bogota”. For a longer written piece or an assignment, you could use, “Three Perfect Days in Barcelona” or “A Perfect Week in Quito” or wherever it is that you live.

Generally, learners love to brag about their city. By allowing them to boast about their favorite activities and places in the city, you can not only get them to write with enthusiasm, but glean some insight into their personal likes and preferences. I’ve even gotten more than a few “hot tips” on unique places or events that eventually panned out into some of my own haunts.

Procedure at a Glance

The learners write a description of their favorite local hotels, restaurants or places to eat, interesting sites to visit, unique slants on local festivals, holidays and other events. Preferred night clubs or discos, and types of music along with days and times to go, help to round out the writing.

Instead of insisting on a particular “format” or style, I’ve found it useful to allow a variety of expression in this area. Learners can use “bullet points”, narratives, essays or advert-style formats and writing. Depending on the level of the learners, I may precede the writing lesson with a class on order of adjectives, paragraph structure, the basic five-paragraph essay or a brief study and analysis of travel ads and travel articles or columns from an English language newspaper.

To Be or Not To Be

For a different type of approach, your English language learners could write a poem about their city, region or country. Often these prove to be both insightful and humorous.

Consider this slightly “tongue-in-cheek” example:

“The Feria de Cali”

Waves of December heat

are here to meet and greet

those “Gringos” who dare

our Feria to share,

while dancing to a Salsa beat.

Parades of slender, bronzed beauties abound,

as classic antique cars are found

In ten days the Feria ends

with sugar cane sweet tastes

and aguardiente-filled friends

You’ll sadly leave less heavy

than a pink and green ’57 Chevy.

Okay, so Shakespeare it’s not, but the poetry writing process worked for the learners.

The next time you’d like to “squeeze in” a bit more writing into your English class, try a variation of these ideas. You may be more than pleasantly surprised at the attitude of the learners and what they ultimately produce. Don’t forget to read aloud and post the more interesting examples. If you give the writing as an out-of-class assignment, your learners can include photos, graphics and perhaps “realia” in their writing as well.

By: Larry M. Lynch

How to Use Web Quests to Promote Extensive Reading in EFL and Foreign Language Learners

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:42:36 +0000

Do your language learners read enough? Do they even like to read? How can you get them to read more in English or another target language? An all too common problem in foreign language and EFL learners is a lack of extensive reading in the target language. Extensive reading has numerous benefits for language learners. Some key benefits include:

• Development of vocabulary in context

• Extensive use of grammar in context

• Exposure to authentic language

• Exposure to idioms and expressions of the target language in context

• Continuing development of learner interest in a variety of topics

To avail themselves of these and other featured benefits derived from extensive reading however, learners must in fact read – and read a lot. But learners will rarely jump into a heavy schedule of reading unless they both understand its benefits and enjoy what they read. So, stimulating their interest first is paramount to success. Here’s what you can do.

Use Web Quests

One useful and fun way to stimulate or facilitate extensive reading is by using learner-centered web quests based on topics of interest to them. An online web quest is not unlike an electronic scavenger hunt. From a starting site or page learners go successively to additional pages to read and gather facts and information. There can be comprehension questions, charts, graphs, and / or exercises at each stage and a more comprehensive evaluation at the end of the web quest. Learner responses to exercises and evaluation activities are commonly sent to the teacher by e-mail. There are online sites that can be used to facilitate the process or a web quest can be set up using a word processing program like MS Word. Two useful teaching-oriented sites online for piloting web quests are:

• Blackboard.com at: http://www.blackboard.com/

• Quintessential Instructional Archives (QUIA) at: http://www.quia.com/

Online Readings
The online readings can be any of a broad spectrum of formats or topics:

• News and sports

• Technical

• Literature

• Articles and stories

• Business

• Occupational topics

• Humorous

• Special Interest

• Travel and culture

• Food

• Nature, geography or Animals

• Technology, Computers

Topic Selection

Topics should be selected and included based on the needs and interests of the learners. With careful selection and a three to five station web quest, learners have both the opportunity and desire to do more extensive reading in English or another foreign language.

F*r*e*e Sample Available

For a sample web quest for you to try out for yourself or your learners, if you have questions or need help, e-mail the author using “web quest sample” in the subject heading. Good Luck. I look forward to hearing from you.

By: Larry M. Lynch