20th February 2012
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It's International Mother Language Day on the 21st, certainly a topic well worth reflecting on in this age of three or four dominant languages.
A recent article from the BBC, 'Digital tools 'to save languages'':
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/science-environment-17081573?SThisEM
The UN page for the Day this year:
http://www.un.org/en/events/motherlanguageday/
'Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and
developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to
promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only
to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but
also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural
traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based
on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.'
And on the site there is a past Tip with some classroom ideas, 'International Mother Language Day':
http://developingteachers.com/tips/pasttips154.htm
Your students' mother tongue is clearly a very important factor in the classroom. Here are a couple of related past Tips:
Translation
If you are teaching monolingual groups it
is clearly very useful to know the mother tongue of your
students as you can pre-empt some problems they might
have. But actually using the mother tongue as a teaching
tool has been a different story as teacher training courses
used to banish it to ELT oblivion & we used to ignore
the poor student who was desperate to translate, encouraging
them to 'think' in English. Nowadays it is recognised
as a useful & natural tool in the process of language
learning. There is still a case for not using it on the
initial training course as some teaching skills might
not be developed if translation were relied on. Here are
a few translation activities:
1. Same day articles - for news stories
that have international appeal, get hold of copies of
the English story & the students' language story -
newspapers, internet, radio.
- predict the content of the story.
- read the English version & picking
up on any useful language.
- students translate the story.
- they then compare their versions with the mother tongue
version.
- they could also then compare the mother tongue version
& the English versions, looking at style & content.
The shorter the article the better!
2. False friends - picking up on them as
they crop up or in warmers/coolers. There is a
page about Spanish/English false friends on the site.
3. New language consolidation - after the presentation
& before the practice, elicit & have a quick comparison
with the mother tongue version of the target language
to highlight the similarities or differences. This can
be a very comforting stage for the students.
4. To provide variety to your array of techniques, use
the Community Language Learning (CLL) procedure now &
then. Very basically, this involves seating the students
in a circle with a tape recorder in the middle. They have
a conversation, preferably about a subject of their choice
but you could lead into it from the current theme, &
all of their contributions are taped. When they have a
problem, they call on you & you whisper to the student
the English version of what they want to say. They then
say this in the conversation. This technique can be used
at all levels, & is especially useful at very low
levels. If you don't speak the students' language, then
you could do all of this in English although the students
would need a level of English to be able to tell you what
they would like to say.
Before the next lesson, transcribe interesting parts of
their conversation & use it for analysis & consolidation.
5. Word-for-word versions - good for the translation obsessed
student. Give out a literal translation of a short article
or conversation & the students translate it into their
language & discuss how it could be more naturally
expressed in English.
6. Get hold of a copy of 'Using the Mother Tongue' by S.Deller & M.Rinvolucri (Delta) - excellent ideas for the classroom.
Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0954198611/
developingteache
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0954198611/
developingteac0b
The important thing about using translation
in class is that it is used in a principled way - you
know why you are using it, the students know, there are
times when it is OK & when it is not. The alternative
is a lazy use of translation where both the students &
the teacher become reliant on it. Discuss these issues
with your students.
----------
But I don't speak their language!
As an observer of a lot of lessons at different levels of teacher experience I see quite a few with teachers who do not know the mother tongue of the monolingual groups, in this case, Spanish. Communication breakdowns between student & teacher can sometimes seem obvious to me but totally bewildering to the teacher. The teacher is left shaking her head wondering what it could possibly be that the student wants to say.
These teachers are at a disadvantage as having a degree of ability with the mother tongue can help in several ways;
- understanding what the students want to say in speech & writing,
- anticipating what they might have problems with,
- understanding some of the causes of their errors,
- using translation as a tool in the lessons.
But then there is the danger that as we know the mother tongue we make allowances when students express themselves, we know what they want to say & incorporate that in the interaction. If they were faced with native speakers of English, the reaction they get might well be very different. However, the advantages of knowing the students' mother tongue clearly outweigh the disadvantages.
So what can we do if we are faced with a nationality that we have no awareness of their mother tongue? Here are a few ideas:
1. Quickly get hold of 'Learner English' Edited by Michael Swan & Bernard Smith (CUP 2001). This is an excellent reference book, each chapter dealing with a language in terms of pronunciation& structure, together with problems learners might have. To see the review of the book on the site:
http://www.developingteachers.com/books/review_le.htm
Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521779391/
developingteache
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521779391/
developingteac0b
2. Learn the language if you can. If you have moved to a new country the obvious thing is to immerse yourself in the language & try tom pick up as much as possible as quickly as possible. If you are in an English-speaking country, the likelihood of dealing with one nationality is much reduced.
3. Talk to colleagues when you are planning to see if your students will have problems with what you are going to teach. Anticipating can go a long way.
4. Learn from your students. Ask them how certain things are expressed, although don't rely on this as you have no way of knowing if they are right.
5. Possibly insist that your students keep everything in English as there's no way you can tell if they are translating things right or not.
6. When there is a communication problem between you & the students, insist that they clarify what they want to say.
7. Find out not only about the language differences but also the cultural differences.
8. Talk to your students, if they are of a level to discuss it in English, about how useful it is that you are unaware of the mother tongue as you are reacting as any other native speaker, making the students work harder to clarify their messages.
9. With younger learner classes, find the translation for some basic classroom instructions. These might save a lesson with a boisterous group of youngsters.
And then there is the complicated, but incredibly interesting & dynamic, situation of the multi-nationality group.
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The Weekly Teaching Tip is written by Alistair Dickinson at Developing Teachers.com.
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