Bilingual Teaching June 5, 2009
Posted by cantueso in bilingual, cartoons, english, language.trackback
For the past 50 years the philosophy has been strictly against bilingual teaching. This philosophy was dictated by the marketing interests of the publishers.
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As a result by now most language teaching books are monolingual with big illustrations. Sometimes, they include a few explanations or instructions in the user’s own language. When English learning became a mass instruction business, monolingual teaching books were the business ideal, and they still are. Most other methods went under.
(Is Assimil the only exception?)
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What is the advantage of a monolingual course?
For the learner: NONE.
For the publisher : monolingual courses are much cheaper to produce. They can be printed, advertised, and distributed in a single version, the same for all countries.
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HOWEVER:
1. The Germans don’t learn English the same way as for instance the Spanish ; the difficulties are not the same at all.
2. Most adults and the more intelligent children can’t learn in a purely intuitive way. They need explicit equivalents or translations.
3. A bilingual teaching book can always be used as if it were monolingual: just cover up one side ……….Top Secret!!!
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I’m sorry, but to my American ear “Assimil” sounds like some kind of hemorrhoid ointment. Or maybe some kind of digestive aid. Of course it was a French invention.
Humor is my defense mechanism for being monolingual. I envy you polyglots, but don’t have the discipline or adventurous spirit to learn new languages.
To David:
Yes, I also think that you would not get very far before opting out.
Most adult men are bad learners. They don’t get the point.
To Cantueso, is it really that great a loss if you lose a language that you have no use for? At the moment I’m learning German and use it regularly speaking with friends and taking part in bilingual conversations (usually my friends speaking in German and me responding in English ;) ) and when I’m away i might watch tv in German which helps me get better and mantain it, but if later in my life I have no way of using the language in my life then I wouldn’t really mind if lost everthing I learnt. After all languages are about communication, to understand and to be understood and if you use them for this then you won’t forget them but if you don’t use them and lose them then why worry?
As a teacher I must say that you do not attach sufficient importance to the gift of improvisation that helps children learn a language, which gift is of no use if bilingual teaching books actually eliminate all guesswork.