18 August 2009
Local Authority Adult Education Classes
In an ideal world there would be a selection of courses at every level in every town run by enthusiastic teachers who would present material in exactly the right format for each student.
Sadly it isn’t like that, unless you live in a city or large town or are extremely lucky you will be faced with a long journey to attend a class at an inconvenient time, at an inappropriate level, in an underfunded local authority building with limited parking and a teacher who is frustrated by the constraints placed upon her syllabus and students by the “admin” department.
By the time you have listened to the “health and safety” stuff, learned how to wash your hands properly, been told not to eat, smoke, drink, use mobile phones etc in the classroom, filled in the forms on your ethnic origin, filled in the form on your “learning objectives”, reflected on how these might be achieved, filled in a form for library access in a town 40 miles away, and been warned that if there is the slightest hint of a snowflake falling in the same county you should listen to the radio all day to see if your study centre will be closed – and don’t try phoning because the switchboard operators aren’t allowed to tell you what’s happening – and had a fire drill: the first lesson is over, “sorry about the admin” see you all next week!
PROS
- Socially the classes can be great fun
- You get some access to a teacher if you have questions
- Excellent scones and chocolate cake in the canteen
CONS
- The class moves at the speed of the slowest student
- Increasingly the syllabus is dictated externally
- Assessments and form filling take up too much class time
- There are long breaks that mirror school holidays
- 30 mile round trip each week and need to be early to get a parking space
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Bill Ferguson |
Spanish Teaching Resources Getting good quality teaching and resources
The information I am going to share is an honest account of what I have tried over the past year and my opinions are just that, opinions. I will share my likes and dislikes, what works for me and what doesn't. This is a personal experience, I am not an expert but if you share my ambition of learning to communicate in a third, foreign language, then maybe we can help each other along the way.
According to Friedrich Nietzsche: "One who speaks a foreign language just a little takes more pleasure in it than one who speaks it well. Enjoyment belongs to those who know things halfway."
I think he is right. Its hard to define halfway but I think the fun starts when you know enough of a language to be able to make yourself understood, given sufficient time to think. At this stage you are not merely tolerated but treated as an honoured guest in a foreign country. People see you bravely struggling to speak and understand, and give you credit for trying. They are nearly always kind and supportive.
Go beyond this to fluency and its like a toddler growing up, you are no longer cute and vulnerable. You are competing for resources, in the adolescence of language acquisition unless you have a definite role you are treated with suspicion. Maybe that is the stage to consider moving on to another new language ...
Getting good quality teaching and resources is vital to success: encouraged by an influential book by Harry Ferber I now view language acquisition as a military campaign, I need to use my resources efficiently to overcome all resistance, I need to capture vocabulary and not let it escape. I need to wear down the opposition by attacking daily and not allowing it time to regroup. I need to learn the predictable tricks that the new language will play on me and be ready for them (this means learning grammar). Like any military campaign good quality intelligence is vital. Learning a Third Language My current ambition is to be able to communicate comfortably in English, French and Spanish. I began to study Spanish in 2008. I have been a student of French, on and off, for about 30 years and up to last year ....read more Strategic Planning When I started to think about taking on a third language I realised I had two main worries: firstly I didn't want to lose my second language ...read more Fear of Losing French As I see it there is a simple choice ....read more |
Resources Getting good quality language teaching and resources |
[...] how bad things were. Maybe my comments on KAE were more apocryphal than I realised at the time (http://thirdlanguage.co.uk/adult-education/local-authority-adult-education-classes/ ), perhaps the bureaucracy has worn down the teachers and the hard-to-navigate website has put off [...]