It is often said that experience is the best teacher. In other words, firsthand experience is the best and effective way of learning and acquiring another language. From my experience, I was able to improve my English more than ever when I visited America and Canada for two months in 2004 and 2005. This is because I had to use English in real communicative settings to communicate with native speakers and people from other countries. I’m sure that many people who still have troubles in learning language in school context can improve their language skills a lot if they are exposed to natural circumstances of the language.
Looking back on my school days, I focused on grammar and vocabulary more than anything else to enter the university and get a good job later. English was just one subject like math and science which I had to study and memorize, not language alive. Through that kind of study, I was only able to enhance my grammar skills rather than listening and speaking skills. Even though I knew the importance of communicative competence in theory, there was always an excuse. I still remember the moment I met a man from Canada when I was a university student. I was so surprised that he really spoke English. English is real! Wow! English is a real language like Korean. To my sadness, I couldn’t follow his speaking speed at all. It was literally twice as fast as far as I thought. What I learned in the classroom context until then wasn’t that helpful to catch what he said although I practiced English using some cassette tapes. In terms of communicative competence, I seemed to stand still or even go backwards as time went by in spite of many years of study. And I realized that there was a limit in my home country to acquire English because real language environment is very different from virtual one. So I wanted to have opportunity to be in the English speaking countries to get face-to-face experiences.
When I visited America in 2004 and 2005, I felt that interacting with others in English surrounded by a lot of new idioms, humors, slangs, and jargons and exposing myself to different culture and environment could be the best way to be a successful English learner. In spite of many mistakes and misunderstanding, those real and vivid experiences to speak English like ordering food in the restaurants and buying some things at the shopping malls improved my speaking and listening skills a lot. From that time, I have been trying to make my English learning fun by watching some English dramas like Monk, Criminal minds, Kyle xy, and Prison break through the internet without subtitle not to lose my linguistic sense. And it really works. But it isn’t enough. I still need at least two or three years of academic immersion to achieve a high-level of fluency in English. That is why I’m here.
In conclusion, everybody knows that successful language learning needs exposure to the language over and over. But there are still some other language aspects like idioms, slangs, cultural nuances, and pronunciation which can only be learned by experiencing it directly on a daily basis for some time. If I need to learn a language to get a job in another country, going to the country to learn the language and experience the culture in person would be the best way to increase my chances of getting hired.
misooksin
[...] http://misooksin.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/the-importance-of-first-hand-experience-in-second-language…From that time, I have been trying to make my English learning fun by watching some English dramas like Monk, Criminal minds, Kyle xy, and Prison break through the internet without subtitle not to lose my linguistic sense. … [...]
cool article.
robes
Yes, a thousand hearings are not worth one seeing. I totally agree with you.
However, when we go back to our job, we will have to teach students who have never been exposed to English speaking settings. In that circumstance, how can we help them improve communicative skills? As you said, I think books and movies are good resources.
For me, it was hard to use these kinds of good resources as teaching materials because the class was primarily aimed at preparing for standarized tests to go to college.
Should I help my students improve communicative skill? or Should I help them improve test scores? I have still no answer to this dilemma.
Hi,Euna!
I know how you feel.
My first school was a hich school.
Although I enjoyed teaching my students there, because of the same dilema you have, I made up my mind to move to a middle school.
I wanted to try many new methods I learned from my graduate school more freely. As you know, middle school teachers have much more freedom to teach. I emphasized the importance of live language and culture. From my experience, I told them English is a language, not a subject like math whenever possible. I asked them to watch some English TV shows with subtitles and write down some useful expressions or what they newly found out as homework. One show per week! At first, they were really confused, but they came to enjoy them very much.
They even asked me they wanted to watch TV shows as their homework for Summer or winter break.
They chose whatever shows they liked and made journals by themselves.
For speaking test, they chose some parts and did shadow reading trying to immitate the pronunciations.
It didn’t take long for them to have much better pronunciation than I expected. It enhanced their self-esteem very much.
Many students think that if they have good pronunciations, they are good at the language. I still don’t have the answer,either. But, one thing is clear. If they have interest in learning live language, they tend to try to get good points to achieve their goals. just like lifting potatoes! Am I a dreamer? i don’t know
I think teacher’s primary role is to encouge studens to have self confidence and give motivation and stimuli as much as we can.
Anyway, many of my students like English and want to study abroad.
Some of them are already studyng in many countries. I’d like to travel some countries with my students some day. Every year, I make that offer to my new students and many of them agree with me. just thinking about it makes me happy. There is no perfect teaching method and teacher. How about just trying to be a better teacher than yesterday?
I know exactly how you feel but from the opposite viewpoint. I wish teachers here would study languages like you do–Euna too.
I took French in a medium-sized high school. My teacher was Native American. He couldn’t speak it himself and just taught the grammar. When I went overseas to attend school in Belgium, I was totally lost. I arrived there the middle of August and wasn’t speaking full sentences until mid-December. I dreamt in French for the first time around New Years. The schools there make the students speak in whatever foreign language they are learning while in that class. They learned so much faster that way.
I learned the hard way. I’m so frustrated now (20 years later) because the language is again hard for me. French in Oklahoma? Yea, right.
Treasure your time here. The more we learn about one another and our backgrounds, the better the world will be.