Foreign language courses are key to graduating high school with either an advanced or IB diploma, and can be useful later in life. To many, this may seem like an inconvenience, especially if they do not speak the language. But the challenge is exacerbated when the curriculum has obvious flaws.
Each unit has its own rhythm to it. This rhythm normally starts with a brief introduction new vocabulary and then a look into the new grammar rules that are used alongside the vocabulary. Overall, this seems simple enough of a concept for most people with good study skills to pass without having to stress over the little things, and that may be true, but it would be beneficial if there was more aid with memorizing vocabulary.
The course itself does not help the students in memorizing both the grammar or vocabulary, which are the two most important elements of the class. But, even if it the curriculum does not mention help with memorization, the main focus of at least a portion of each class should aid the students in that section. Without a basic understanding of the vocabulary one would not be able to pass the quizzes, let alone the PALS tests.
However, memorizing the vocabulary has its problems for even the most studious of students as each vocabulary list seems to have a random selection of words that just happen to have a similar subject. This makes harder for many to make a cohesive argument or conversation when it come to the speaking PALS and speaking the language overall.
Along with the vocabulary, the grammar itself may be confusing in the way in which it is taught. A way to fix this would be a more indepth view into the grammar and how it works. This would provide students with more experience with the grammar, making assignments easier.
Studies have shown that after the age of 11, learning new language becomes significantly harder. This is where the difficulty in grammar and vocabulary comes in, since students are supposed to understand a brand new language just by being given a brief explanation and a few worksheets for practice.
The teachers themselves also need to change the way they teach, not only because the curriculum itself is flawed, but because most speak english for most of the class. This is a surprise since it’s a requirement for teachers of IB language courses to speak in the class’ language the whole time. In order for someone to learn a language, they actually need to hear the language and that is not happening as often as it needs to. Without hearing the language at a consistent rate, one will not be able to get comfortable with it.
When it all comes together a lot of changes need to be made to the curriculum and the classes themselves, because without these changes more students will continue to struggle through their language course. It is not fair overall for the students to have their understanding and view of a language changed because of a flawed system of teaching. Once the necessary changes are made, language classes can become a class many look forward to each day and benefit from greatly in life.
Teacher counter-point from French teacher Matthew Hanlon
In some classes teachers don’t speak the classes language for the whole class. What is your reasoning for this?
I think each teacher has their own balance of how much they speak in English versus how much they speak in the target language. For example, talking about the different parts of the IB exam, IB students don’t need to know that in French, it’s just confusing and would cause more anxiety for me to say all of that in French.
Why isn’t there a major emphasis in helping the students memorize the new vocab list or an in-depth look into the grammar itself for each unit?
So rather than a really intense session where you repeat the word five times and repeat the next word five times, we take a look at it and then return two or three times in the unit and see it in different ways.