You know, one of the easiest ways to help a gamer learn a foreign language is to...right, game. Since my sweetheart wants to learn German and also loves videogames, I have come up with a nice idea to help him: play a great role-playing videogame with lots of dialogue together--in German. I will be there to help him and to translate for him if necessary, but through repetition, he will still expand his vocabulary (and likely his grammar skills). Granted, he won't really learn the right set of words to talk to my parents next month, but his language learning is definitely a nice excuse for me to play more videogames again.
After just a few days of gaming, he is already able to figure out many texts without help. Of course, there is always the odd word he asks me about, or a short text I have to translate for him, but overall, he is doing really well.
So far, we have been playing a round-based game (Heroes of Might and Magic V). This has two great advantages: First, he is able to take his time with any German he comes across, and second, I can use his turns to get some work done. It is fun, and he automatically picks up things like sentence structures and grammar rules--apart from the obvious vocabulary--without having to struggle with it.
At some point, we want to play Neverwinter Nights together, which will require a certain level of German since he can't take as much time as he wants anymore. However, it will teach him more words and language skills due to a larger amount of dialogue compared to mostly short explanatory texts in the game we play at the moment.
Anyway, isn't it just awesome to learn a language by doing something you love?
Language ... the bridge of communication, the magic creator of worlds, the brush and paint of authors. Language is magic. It gives us power. It is something you just have to love.
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Monday, 19 March 2012
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
About Textbooks...
In the near future, I need to choose textbooks for teaching. So what will I look for in the textbooks?
Since I am not the only one who needs to be able to work with them, it is more difficult to find the right ones. On the one hand, of course, I need to be able to work with them since I am the one who will explain and teach its contents to my students, but on the other hand, it would be no use if I thought the books were perfect to work with and my students had no clue what to make of them.
One thing I will definitely be looking for is whether the publisher offers an audio CD to go with the textbook. Usually, those audio CDs include all the units' texts and dialogues, and often some exercises for listening comprehension.
Apart from that, a good textbook needs to have a good balance of texts, grammar, and exercises. It should guide the teacher through the units and make it easy to prepare lessons. It should also have a good grammar section so that students can look up new grammar on their own, for example to repeat it at home.
Last but not least, the contents should be age appropriate. Younger students need young characters and settings that reflect their lives in the texts and dialogues. School settings are popular for textbooks used in regular schools. Adult learners, however, would soon be bored by those texts. They need to be able to relate to the characters and their lives. Settings could range from work environment, travel and family life to more serious topics like history and politics.
I am sure I will find the right textbooks for my purpose, but it may take some time and leafing through a great amount of available books. Thankfully, we have a big bookshop with a huge language department in Berlin.
Since I am not the only one who needs to be able to work with them, it is more difficult to find the right ones. On the one hand, of course, I need to be able to work with them since I am the one who will explain and teach its contents to my students, but on the other hand, it would be no use if I thought the books were perfect to work with and my students had no clue what to make of them.
One thing I will definitely be looking for is whether the publisher offers an audio CD to go with the textbook. Usually, those audio CDs include all the units' texts and dialogues, and often some exercises for listening comprehension.
Apart from that, a good textbook needs to have a good balance of texts, grammar, and exercises. It should guide the teacher through the units and make it easy to prepare lessons. It should also have a good grammar section so that students can look up new grammar on their own, for example to repeat it at home.
Last but not least, the contents should be age appropriate. Younger students need young characters and settings that reflect their lives in the texts and dialogues. School settings are popular for textbooks used in regular schools. Adult learners, however, would soon be bored by those texts. They need to be able to relate to the characters and their lives. Settings could range from work environment, travel and family life to more serious topics like history and politics.
I am sure I will find the right textbooks for my purpose, but it may take some time and leafing through a great amount of available books. Thankfully, we have a big bookshop with a huge language department in Berlin.
Monday, 13 February 2012
Teaching vs. Tutoring
You may wonder whether there is any difference at all between teaching and tutoring. Believe me, there is. Teaching is a lot more free than tutoring. You see, when you give tutoring, you usually focus on the things your student did at school. His textbooks and his teacher determine what you do with him in the tutoring lessons. When you teach, however, you are the one determining what you do, and how you teach it.
Both jobs have their rewards. If you give tutoring lessons and your student looks at you at the end of a lesson to tell you, 'I wish my teacher could explain as well as you do', well, that's definitely a keeper. Or if a student manages to get his first passing mark in a test because he actually learnt something from you which his teacher couldn't teach him. A teacher on the other hand is the one guiding and encouraging his students to learn. He is (or should be) the one to show his students the wonders of books, of science, or numbers.
Both jobs have their drawbacks. Many children who need tutoring don't want to spend their free time with a tutor and their most hated subject. The tutor doesn't have the power to give marks (and to punish destructive behaviour during tutoring lessons that way). The teacher, though, needs to give marks whether he likes it or not. He has to make decisions (and to defend those decisions against parents' arguments every now and then). If a student feels discriminated, the teacher will become the target of parent attacks and complaints. Some teachers are even badly bullied by their students.
Maybe only one of the two jobs is for you, or none; they are quite different although they are both about the same goal: Help others to increase their knowledge. I like both.
Both jobs have their rewards. If you give tutoring lessons and your student looks at you at the end of a lesson to tell you, 'I wish my teacher could explain as well as you do', well, that's definitely a keeper. Or if a student manages to get his first passing mark in a test because he actually learnt something from you which his teacher couldn't teach him. A teacher on the other hand is the one guiding and encouraging his students to learn. He is (or should be) the one to show his students the wonders of books, of science, or numbers.
Both jobs have their drawbacks. Many children who need tutoring don't want to spend their free time with a tutor and their most hated subject. The tutor doesn't have the power to give marks (and to punish destructive behaviour during tutoring lessons that way). The teacher, though, needs to give marks whether he likes it or not. He has to make decisions (and to defend those decisions against parents' arguments every now and then). If a student feels discriminated, the teacher will become the target of parent attacks and complaints. Some teachers are even badly bullied by their students.
Maybe only one of the two jobs is for you, or none; they are quite different although they are both about the same goal: Help others to increase their knowledge. I like both.
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