Diane Ankenmann's List: AIM related

• The real problem is that we're teaching students complex grammar and vocabulary, but not teaching them how to communicate. And we don't teach language in the way that students actually learn it organically.
• People communicate with statements like "I want," "I can" or "I have to." But because "want," "can" and "must" are irregular verbs in French, they are usually not taught in the first few years of standard French programs.
• Six years ago I walked into a classroom at a Vancouver elementary school and heard the Grade 2 students speaking French at a level my Grade 12 students weren't even close to achieving.
• The classroom belonged to Wendy Maxwell
• I studied her method in my own graduate work and, rather than teach grammar out of context, I now teach language and grammar through story, in the same way parents teach their children by reading to them.
• Maxwell's program, which is taught in 3,000 schools across Canada, includes a pared-down vocabulary of about 900 words that are necessary for basic fluency. Students work through the list in a systematic fashion, but not by memorization. The gestures that go along with every word, somewhat like sign language, allow students to use both the left and right brain. Also, students gesture and say each word as the teacher says it out loud, to maximize language use time.
• Educators in Europe and Asia are interested in Maxwell's approach and the curriculum is being modified for use in Spanish classes, English as a second language programs and First Nations language programs.
• We learn French in Canada because it is a live spoken language here, irrespective of its international status (which is undergoing a major eclipse). And the form we should learn (and train our ears to) is the Quebecois variety.
• In regards to the kind of French to teach, not sure about "Québécois" or "Français" French. As in English, there is such a thing as International French
• It is also important to understand the relationship between the local forms of the langage and its international framework.
• As whether or not we should learn one language or another, it all depends! If the sole reason to learn a language is business (making money), then, yes, Chinese or Hindi makes more sense than French. If it is for travelling purposes, Spanish would win after English in the number of countries could visit French ... French makes actually good sense according to this http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm. And, if our purpose is to get more out of life by learning another language (get other poiunts of views,...), a strong case could be made for French again, although Arabic would help in terms of reducing racism. Locally, of course, Punjabi and Mandarin would make a lot of sense.
• BTW, another good reason to learn another language (and often overlooked) is the empathy that one gains towards second-lanmguage speakers when one tries to learn a second language).

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