by englisharticles .info
Once you realise that no method of language teaching is going to give you the ability to speak a foreign tongue to business standards in a few weeks, the selection of a system of teaching becomes a simple calculation of time, money and need. There are three levels of language ability – tourist, social and fluent – and the gaps between them are huge. Most of us are aware that the schoolboy German that gets us into hotels and through supermarkets is not sufficient to keep up a pleasant dinner party conversation. Similarly, the ability to join in such a conversation, which is about as much as most of us could hope to achieve, is a long way from a full intelligent grasp of the language and its culture.
For a quick introduction to the basics, I prefer the cassette/book system. Language books alone cannot offer the ecessary pronunciation skills, skills which you are going to need in order to understand, for example, the train announcements on the Moscow underground. Cassettes, however, have proved a great aid for the language student.
The essential requirement when learning a language, even at that level, remains effort. The more willingness the student brings to the task, the easier the course will be. For European languages that effort comes a little easier. The Londoner learning French or the Parisian learning English can readily find newspapers, radio stations and restaurants where the language is used and can thus become familiar with that culture before his visit. If the tongue is to be Tamil or Serbo-Croat, the task is a little more difficult. With languages such as French and German, it is also possible to listen to, or record, the BBC Schools programmes, which are always helpful. There is no question, however, that the best teaching, and obviously the most expensive, is in the classroom, the very best being a one-to-one teaching basis,that is, private tutoring. For this, you will be paying a few hundred pounds per week and it is important to check carefully on the chosen place of learning. Language teaching attracts some dishonest establishments. Watch out for the school that promises an ability to ‘reach the moon’ after a couple of hours in the language lab!
For a quick introduction to the basics, I prefer the cassette/book system. Language books alone cannot offer the ecessary pronunciation skills, skills which you are going to need in order to understand, for example, the train announcements on the Moscow underground. Cassettes, however, have proved a great aid for the language student.
The essential requirement when learning a language, even at that level, remains effort. The more willingness the student brings to the task, the easier the course will be. For European languages that effort comes a little easier. The Londoner learning French or the Parisian learning English can readily find newspapers, radio stations and restaurants where the language is used and can thus become familiar with that culture before his visit. If the tongue is to be Tamil or Serbo-Croat, the task is a little more difficult. With languages such as French and German, it is also possible to listen to, or record, the BBC Schools programmes, which are always helpful. There is no question, however, that the best teaching, and obviously the most expensive, is in the classroom, the very best being a one-to-one teaching basis,that is, private tutoring. For this, you will be paying a few hundred pounds per week and it is important to check carefully on the chosen place of learning. Language teaching attracts some dishonest establishments. Watch out for the school that promises an ability to ‘reach the moon’ after a couple of hours in the language lab!
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