by John Fotheringham | Sep 25, 2011 | Education, Methods, Rants |
Language schools can be a wonderful place to learn more about your target language, meet fellow learners (who can become both study partners or even lifelong friends), and get your linguistic and cultural feet wet before (or even while) immersing yourself in a new culture and foreign tongue. However, language schools can also be a major impediment to the very goal you go there to achieve: learning a foreign language as quickly and efficiently as possible. This may come as a shock to those who have been conditioned to believe that classrooms are the only place, or at least the best place, to learn a language. Read on to see the top ten disadvantages of formal, classroom-based language learning.
by John Fotheringham | Sep 24, 2010 | Education, English Language, Motivation, Psychology |
You often hear people say that certain words are “difficult”, but I don’t think this word applies to languages. Instead, I suggest you use the word “unfamiliar” instead. Read on to see why…
by John Fotheringham | Sep 9, 2010 | Education, Methods, Motivation, Psychology |
Most adults fail to learn a foreign language no matter how many years they sit in a classroom or live where the language is spoken because they spend nearly all of their study time learning “about” their target language instead of the language itself. This is the critical difference between “studying” and “learning”.
by John Fotheringham | Nov 11, 2009 | Education, Methods, Rants |
In recent years, grammar mavens and traditional language educators have been up in arms against a perceived attack on “the righteous study of grammar”. These defensive claims always perplex me considering that nearly all language classes still spend the vast majority of class hours teaching and testing grammar rules…
