TEFL Joao Pessoa

Since you permit writing an article based on my own experiences, I will in fact talk about my experiences as a learner of other languages under different methodologies. No matter what methodology is used, there is immense value to the student in repetition and in pattern sentences. Even though I first began studying Mandarin in 1964, and can barely read my own chinese handwriting anymore, one thing I do remember. What I remember is some of the pattern sentences that our Mandarin teacher had us repeat, as well as pieces of the dialogues that we memorized. Similarly, when I began studying Danish in 1985, and attended a school named KISS, they had their own methodology. It was nothing like the Yale University Mandarin methodology. One feature it did have in common with the Yale system, was having a set of pattern sentences to memorize for each lesson. Those sentences still go through my head, and serve me in good stead today. When I attend meetings in Danish today, I can still hold my own, and I owe it to the pattern sentences. I do not owe it to intellect. I do not owe it to having a quick understanding of grammar. I do not owe it to understanding phonetics. What I owe it to is those carefully selected pattern sentences. My accent in Danish is still pretty bad, even though I'm rather fluent, but the pattern sentences are just fine. So whatever the secret is between the different methodologies, I don't think it's intellect. I think it's habit formation. Habit formation occurs on different levels. The habit formation associated with pattern sentences, helps you express yourself by squeezing your thoughts through the patterns you know. That's not the only kind of habit formation. There is also phonetic and phonemic habit formation. If a student is to be successful in speaking a new language, he needs to acquire new habits with regards to the sounds of the language. In some cases he needs to learn new sounds which he had not even imagined existed before. Once he painstakingly learns to pronounce these sounds, he needs to form the habit of making them frequently and easily, even effortlessly. Practice, practice, practice. Intellect and analysis are all very interesting initially, when the person is trying to take apart the mechanics of how the sound is made. However, once that is clear, repetition is the name of the game. The other common factor that I see across methodologies besides habit formation through learning patterns and repetition, is avoiding the use of the students home language. I was pleased to see that this course discourages use of any language other than english in class, because I am convinced that that is the best way to help the student learn. I will never forget one day in the street running into Iranian student Ahmed, with whom I shared only one common language: Danish. We were delighted to see each other, even though we came from very different backgrounds. We had both endured all those Danish pattern sentences together and they had been effective both for Ahmed and for me. What was especially lucky for Ahmed was that practically no Dane in his vicinity could speak Persian. I was not so lucky. When you're learning a language like Danish you will initially often have an accent. Denmark is a small country, a little over 5 million in population. english speakers may be accustomed to hearing heavily accented english and to make whatever mental adjustments they need to make in order to understand the stranger. People from small language communities are not accustomed to hearing heavily accented speech. Because it was easier for them, sometimes Danes would just shift into english and “help” me. This taught me the importance of never speaking the student’s native language and never giving up on a student who is trying to speak the language he is studying. In closing, let me say that comparing different language learning systems I have been exposed to, I see habit formation as extremely important, You can find this approach in multiple methodologies. Equally important is staying exclusively within the language being learned