Since we trust that you have worked on the first part of the elwa course 'Sustainable language teaching and learning' before starting this course, we won't explain our understanding of foreign language teaching and learning again. Neither will we introduce the different tools of teacher learning again, since we have already done so quite thoroughly in the previous part. However, we will give all participants the chance to introduce themselves and to get into touch with other colleagues. Moreoever we will include an overview of both parts of the course for all of you to remember what you have read and heard about in part 1.
Generally, many language learners focus a lot on speaking. They don’t spend as much effort on listening. As listening to a foreign language is not as easy at it seems (due to different tones of voice, dialects, origins, etc.), listening is a vital skill for language learning.
I really like the term “listening by heart”. Although it’s obvious that this transforms into spoken language, for example when we first speak or learn a new language in early childhood, this is often “forgotten”, like Steffi says the focus lies on speaking.
The importance of not needing know the meaning/spelling of every word, but being able to understand the story/text anyway gives a lot of freedom and helps me to refocus regarding the outcome of language teaching.
2 Comments
Generally, many language learners focus a lot on speaking. They don’t spend as much effort on listening. As listening to a foreign language is not as easy at it seems (due to different tones of voice, dialects, origins, etc.), listening is a vital skill for language learning.
I really like the term “listening by heart”. Although it’s obvious that this transforms into spoken language, for example when we first speak or learn a new language in early childhood, this is often “forgotten”, like Steffi says the focus lies on speaking.
The importance of not needing know the meaning/spelling of every word, but being able to understand the story/text anyway gives a lot of freedom and helps me to refocus regarding the outcome of language teaching.