Language teaching
Language teaching is the activity that deals with the acquisition of skills in second or foreign languages. Language teaching is a branch of applied linguistics.
General information
Globalization has created the need to know how to communicate in different languages. Knowledge of languages is extremely important in areas such as tourism, commerce, international relations, science and the media. Many countries such as Korea (Kim Yeong-seo, 2009), Japan (Kubota, 1998) and China (Kirkpatrick & Zhichang, 2002) have implemented educational policies to teach at least one foreign language during primary and secondary education. Some countries like the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore use a second official language at the government level. According to the GAO (2010), China has placed special emphasis on teaching the English language. On the other hand, in the United States, learning Spanish is increasingly important.
History
The use of the second language has been very important throughout all time, historians comment that since ancient times, among primitive men there were already changes in the language from one tribe to another, which often prevented the communication between these and greatly influenced the nomadic culture of the time since it was very difficult to communicate with others when one did not even know what was being said or what was meant.
The origins of modern language teaching lie in the study and teaching of Latin in the 16th century. That language was for many centuries the dominant language of education, religion, commerce, and government in much of the Western world, but it was displaced by languages such as Italian, French, and, by the turn of the century, XVII, for English. John Amos Comenius was one of many people who tried to reverse that situation. He composed a course for learning Latin that covered the entire school curriculum, culminating in his Opera Didactica Omnia, 1657.
At the end of the XVII century, European universities show themselves to be in a more than moderate decline, even detached from life intellectual and religious, immersed in the teaching routine, of what were previously achievements of humanism. Those of Halle, Leyden, Oxford, Padua, and Uppsala can scarcely be excepted; among the Hispanic ones, Valencia, Zaragoza, Lima, Mexico, which can be considered, with those, at the head of the world university movement, while the others incorporate the good of the new movements and trends of the time.
The change of dynasty, the guerrillas and the Napoleonic system will encourage the Hispanic universities to decline a bit with respect to the old and new English and French-speaking European ones, in which the fruits of university students and the Education begins to become the fundamental part for the exit of decay through a true scientific evolution. From the threshold of the period, Newton's thought will dominate in the sciences and in the so-called natural philosophy, while Locke dominates in morality and psychology; the social, political and pedagogical disputes develop around both; It is true that they come from the end of the previous century, but it is in this one that they triumph and the consequences are felt.
Thus we have, as far as Newton is concerned, a development of mathematical and mechanical principles. In the first half of the century there are advances in celestial, solid, hydrodynamic, optical and acoustic mechanics; since 1750, thermodynamics and electricity, due to the development of chemistry and experiments. In the previous period, people went beyond Aristotelian physics; the empirical path of observation and verification when passing to medical teaching will also bear excellent results; new disciplines and professions will be born from the utilitarian sense of society and the state: engineer, economist, diplomat.
Literature and humanities are also expanded. Studies on classical and modern languages enter the university, while those of law are promoted again. French universities will resist censorship after censorship, although the encyclopedia will end up winning the game. The currents on the story will not be incorporated either. With regard to the schools, expelled by the Jesuits, who had the best, they are reduced to a few, where the collective, corporal education will continue, which will lead to the revolution. As for the right, only in 1775 did he put the "gentes" that of Paris. With regard to the theological faculties, it is thought of suppressing them since the Tridentine seminaries already existed. Their university libraries are nil.
Among the British, that of Edinburgh is Lockian in 1741; since 1708 she has held a chair of Foreign Language and Political Law; a little later Public and Scottish; Oxford and Cambridge introduce modern languages and national literature, although without many students, because it is not practical and instead is in the German taste. Both will have modern history chairs, with foreign language teachers, in order to serve the state; its twenty scholars were destined for the diplomatic career -for the first time the school appears-.
The German universities, where Latin lasts longer as a scientific and teaching language, introduce German -Kiel and Könisberg, language and literature- and oriental languages; history since 1732, with the reform of the empress, according to its various branches -ecclesiastical, civil, universal, imperial, national, dynastic-, and studies on auxiliary sciences begin. The Dutch University of Leydem is not far behind and inaugurates a course in Islamic history, bringing together precious collections of oriental manuscripts; its university library becomes famous, as it even lends abroad.
Albert D. Freedman
Annually at King's College (350 5th Ave # 1500) in New York, professors of literature, Spanish and French meet on September 3 to commemorate the Higher Council of Languages where they recognize the work initiated from ancient England of the Foreign Language teachers in which they sought to serve the state and aspirants to diplomatic careers and which today is one of the most important teaching activities in the world, teaching to communicate through all existing tools and languages to contribute to the globalization process. Some students from the Faculties of Languages and Teachers, led by Professor Steven D. Boldenhauer toured the surroundings of the Empire State as did the most renowned French teacher at the institution, Albert D. Freedman, who died on September 3, 1998, who demonstrated singular passion for foreign languages and great devotion to their teaching, and managed to publish a book with the university press a year before his death called "The World has just one word". That is why this and other universities in the United States and England celebrate the official day for the teaching of foreign languages every year, as a commemoration of the death of Albert D. Freedman and as recognition of the work of thousands of teachers worldwide who They are dedicated to breaking barriers and facilitating communication and socialization of each one of the people that make up this great universe.
Methodology
The learning of second languages is an object of study of applied linguistics. There are many methods of learning languages. Some of the methods that have been used to teach languages are, for example, immersion, audiolingual, direct, eclectic, grammatical or oral.
The needs of today's society lead us to use a more interactive, participatory methodology, where oral skills are given more importance than written ones, so that people learn to use the language, above knowing your grammar. In addition, it is a proven fact that learning to speak the language acquires a command that later allows access to written texts. For this reason, in some places modern methods are used even for learning ancient languages that are in disuse (for example, following the Polis method).
The introduction of computing in education has significantly influenced language teaching with the development of multimedia applications such as multilingual chats, virtual courses, dictionaries, discussion forums, virtual grammars, automatic translators...
On the other hand, the introduction of the mobile or cellular device is giving a new way of teaching that is called m-learning. In this use, we can benefit from a large number of applications designed to facilitate the learning of foreign languages, such as Duolingo or Babbel.
Among the technological tools labeled as 2.0, blogs, wikis and content syndication (RSS) stand out for their pedagogical value. These elements facilitate the collective creation of knowledge and encourage the participation of members from all over the world in common projects. The blog can be used first of all as an electronic class journal, where the teacher includes references to the given sessions and also adds homework and deepening exercises that complete a unit. Typically, the integration of audio and video files allows students to listen to podcasts or videocasts and complete exercises interactively. They are then sent in the form of comments to the blog so that the teacher can correct and return comments to the students.
Intercomprehension
Intercomprehension is the ability of speakers of different languages to understand each other. One of the objectives of the application of intercomprehension in language teaching is that the speakers do not need to speak another language, they only have to understand it, each speaking their mother tongue. A real example of intercomprehension is observed between the speakers of Scandinavian languages or between those of Swiss German dialects. One of the great advantages of intercomprehension is that it preserves linguistic plurality since it does not force the speaker to have to stop using their mother tongue.
In addition, the context of globalization under which multilingual organizations such as the European Union are created, has promoted this approach among educators who work with Romance languages. Although borders have been eliminated within European territory, linguistic fragmentation is one of the main challenges facing the European Union in order to achieve greater cohesion. However, the proposal for intercomprehension between Romance languages would seek to make a speaker understand different languages such as Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Italian, French or Romanian with a much less effort than that applied to the comprehensive learning of a language. Therefore, the European linguistic fragmentation would be considerably reduced.
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the innate ability of human beings to learn more than one language. In the last decade applied linguistics in games has studied how when we learn to play and develop a series of strategies, attitudes and skills that make it easier for us to learn a new language, since the procedures are common, even though the concepts are different. The CLIL approach proposes that on the basis of multilingual competence and an adequate planning of the curricula through the integrated teaching of languages and contents, greater success is achieved with less effort in the development of communicative competence in a variety of languages. See integrated curriculum article.
Language teaching approaches
Language teaching approaches are the fundamental principles that govern the planning, design and implementation of language teaching programmes. Over time, various language teaching approaches have been developed and applied, each with its own theories and methodologies.
One of the most popular and widely used language teaching approaches today is the communicative approach. This approach focuses on developing oral and written communication skills in the target language. Instead of focusing on memorizing grammatical rules, the communicative approach focuses on active practice of the target language through authentic communication. Students engage in classroom communication activities that reflect real-life situations, such as group discussions, role-playing, debates, presentations, and mock interviews. Language teaching materials used in the communicative approach often include authentic dialogue, newspaper articles, videos, and other resources that reflect real situations.
Another language teaching approach is the audiolingual approach, which focused on repetition and imitation to develop oral skills in the target language. This approach focuses on the repetition of grammatical patterns and the memorization of vocabulary and grammatical structures. Students listen and repeat dialogues and language patterns, and practice substitution and transformation exercises. Language teaching materials used in the audiolingual approach often include audiotapes, textbooks, and structured practice exercises.
A third approach to language teaching is the task-based approach, which focuses on completing tasks in the target language. This approach focuses on the use of the target language to complete concrete tasks, such as giving instructions, making recommendations, giving presentations, and other tasks that reflect real situations. Students work in groups and in pairs to complete tasks, which encourages collaboration and interaction. Language teaching materials used in the task approach often include task instructions, discussion guides and other resources that reflect real situations.
These are just some of the most popular and widely used language teaching approaches today. Each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice of approach depends largely on the teaching context and the objectives of the program.
Industry
Language teaching is a global industry that develops in both the public and private sectors. Practically all the educational systems of the different countries include in their primary and secondary study programs the teaching of at least one foreign language (usually English). Along with the public system, there is an important private activity, both academies and private teachers, dedicated to language teaching. This private activity was estimated in 2008 at the EU level at a value of 1.6 billion euros per year.
On the other hand, the teaching of English is increasingly being recognized as an important source of income for English-speaking countries. The number of educational institutions offering English language programs for international students has experienced rapid global growth in recent years. For example, a Canadian government study revealed that international students (close to 137,000 enrolled in language courses) contributed more than $8 billion in 2010 to the Canadian economy.
Finally, there is also a thriving industry around publishing books and methods for language learning. As data, in 2015 the publishing sector of the United Kingdom exported a value of 1,420 million pounds, of which two thirds correspond to academic, educational and language teaching materials. It is also worth noting, in recent years, the growth of other formats for self-learning languages, such as specialized websites and computer applications for computers, mobile phones and tablets.
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