Language education

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Globalize Language education is the teaching and learning of a language or languages, usually as foreign languages. Because English is the most widely studied language in the world, there is a lot of material, from research to commercial resources, about English as a foreign language in particular.

1 Methods of teaching foreign languages
2 Language education in Europe
- 2.1 Foreign language education
- 2.2 Bilingual education
3 Language education in the United States
4 Language study holidays
5 Acronyms and abbreviations
6 See also
7 External links

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Methods of teaching foreign languages

There are several methods in wide use:

Language Immersion puts students in a situation where they must use a foreign language, whether or not they know it. This creates fluency, but not accuracy of usage. See the Berlitz Method.
Tutoring by a native speaker is one of the best all-around methods. However it requires a motivated native tutor, which can be a rare, expensive commodity.
Directed practice has students repeat phrases. This method is used by U.S. diplomatic courses. It can quickly provide a "phrasebook" knowledge of the language. Within these limits, the students' usage is accurate and precise. However the student's choice of what to say is not flexible.
The audio-lingual method has students listen to or view tapes of language models acting in situations. Students practice with a variety of drills, and the instructor emphasizes the use of the target language at all times. The audio-lingual method was used by the United States Army for "crash" instruction in foreign languages during World War II. Despite the documented success of these programs, audio-lingual methods are no longer in fashion.
Grammatic language education instructs students in grammar, and provides vocabulary to memorize. Most instructors now acknowledge that this method is ineffective by itself. This is the method used by many Latin teachers, as Latin is not spoken and has no native speakers.
Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. Despite the widespread failure of CLT to produce excellent results, it continues to be popular, particularly in Europe, where constructivist views on language learning and education in general dominate academic discourse.
Eclectic methods combine the above into a single course of study. These are the most common.
Blended learning combines face-to-face teaching with interactive (and therefore frequently electronic) practice activity which has been a major growth point in the TEFL industry over the last 5 years.

The Pimsleur Method is based on the research of and model programs developed by American language teacher Paul Pimsleur. Pimsleur's interpretation of a century of research into memory -- research which has been corroborated by scientists working in the field since the 1970s -- indicated that certain types of intervals and repetition were necessary for the language learner to efficiently retain new vocabulary and structures. Over a dozen audio-tape programs now exist to teach various languages using the Pimsleur Method; unfortunately, despite the success and widespread availability of such programs, none of them goes beyond level "3," which denotes a low-intermediate level of competence. For more information, see the Wikipedia article on the Pimsleur Method.

Learning by teaching

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Language education in Europe

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Foreign language education

In 1995 the European Commission’s White Paper "Teaching and learning – Towards the learning society", stated that "upon completing initial training, everyone should be proficient in two Community foreign languages". The Lisbon Summit of 2000 defined languages as one of the five key skills.

In fact, even in 1974, at least one foreign language was compulsory in all but two European countries (Ireland and the United Kingdom apart from Scotland). By 1998 nearly all pupils in Europe studied at least one foreign language as part of their compulsory education, the only exception being Ireland, where primary and secondary schoolchildren learn both Irish and English, but neither is considered a foreign language. Pupils in upper secondary education learn at least two foreign languages in Belgium's Flemish Community, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia.

On average in Europe, at the start of foreign language teaching, learners have lessons for three to four hours a week. Compulsory lessons in a foreign language normally start at the end of primary school or the start of secondary school. In Luxembourg, Norway and Malta, however, the first foreign language is learnt at age six, and in Belgium's Flemish Community at age 10. Half of the EU's primary school pupils learn a foreign language, on average.

English is the language taught most often at lower secondary level in the EU. 93% of children there learn English. At upper secondary level, English is even more widely taught.

French is taught at lower secondary level in all EU countries except Slovenia. A total of 33% of European Union pupils learn French at this level. At upper secondary level the figure drops slightly to 28%.

German is taught in nearly all EU countries. A total of 13% of pupils in the European Union learn German in lower secondary education, and 20% learn it at an upper secondary level.

Despite the high rate of foreign language teaching in schools, the number of adults claiming to speak a foreign language is generally lower than might be expected. This is particularly true of native English speakers: in 2004 a British survey showed that only one in 10 UK workers could speak a foreign language. Less than 5% could count to 20 in a second language, for example. 80% said they could work abroad anyway, because "everyone speaks English." In 2001, a European Commission survey found that 65.9% of people in the UK spoke only their native tongue.

Since the 1990s, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages has tried to standardize the learning of languages across Europe (one of the first results is UNIcert).

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Bilingual education

See main article: Bilingual education

In some countries, learners have lessons taken entirely in a foreign language: for example, more than half of European countries with a minority or regional language community use partial immersion to teach both the minority and the state language.

In the 1960s and 1970s, some central and eastern European countries created a system of bilingual schools for well-performing pupils. Subjects other than languages were taught in a foreign language. In the 1990s this system was opened to all pupils in general education, although some countries still make candidates sit an entrance exam. At the same time, Belgium's French Community, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland also started bilingual schooling schemes. Germany meanwhile had established some bilingual schools in the late 1960s.

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Language education in the United States

Most students start learning a foreign language in high school or late middle school. Students are often required to take on average two years of foreign language study in order to graduate. The most popular language students choose is Spanish, due to a real or perceived view that it is becoming a secondary language in the United States (see Spanish in the United States). Other popular languages are French, German, and Japanese. Latin used to be more common, but has fallen from favor somewhat. During the Cold War, the United States government pushed for Russian education, and some schools still maintain their Russian programs, namely Glastonbury High School [1]. Other languages recently gaining popularity are Chinese and Arabic.

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Language study holidays

An increasing number of language students are now combining holidays with language study in the native country. This enables the student to experience the culture and tuition of the local people by taking them out their normal school environment and combine learning with a holiday abroad. Language study holidays are popular across Europe with thousands traveling to the UK alone to learn English.

With the increasing prevalence of cross country business transactions it is now important to have multiple languages at your disposal. This is also evident in business outsourcing their departments to Eastern Europe.

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