My reflection of the speech delivered by Terry on 12/4


Before this speech, I often wondered how to make myself speak English as fluent and accurate as the native speakers. There were lots of classes and ways which emphasized that learners could improve their oral skill effectively in Taiwan, but the results seemed not as obvious as I had imagined. The reason that I care about improving oral skill is that oral is the most direct way to put one language into use. Students in Taiwan spend lots of time learning the other three skills but exclude the most direct skill, and the phenomenon have appeared for decades. Many people seek help from cram schools to improve their oral skill but eventually failed.

Terry introduced his journey and the way he indulged in learning languages in many countries. The way he adopted was called “language immersion”. He went to many countries and live with the locals and travelers from around the world. He learned foreign languages just like babies learn their native languages. Not only do the instructor not correct children’s utterance but also speak with children with love. That’s how Terry learned and gained the ability to speak lots of languages fluently.

After listening the speech, I wonder how I could add language immersion in normal English classes in Taiwan. The teacher could encourage students to express their thoughts in English class, no matter how fluently and correctly the students say. Like how babies learn to speak languages, the teacher doesn’t correct and interfere students’ utterance. What’s more, the teacher should give positive feedback and kind response. Once the teacher creates the atmosphere that students feel free and relax when speaking, they will be more willing to speak English in the class. Students trust teacher, and teacher teaches and speaks with patience and love.

Since I also care about the protection of native language in Taiwan, I think about how to make people speak more native languages in more places, and not just speak to their family members and their neighbors. For example, Hakka Affairs Council promote speaking Hakka in many districts of several cities and counties. Stickers with the emblem “I speak Hakka” could be seen in many places within these districts. Other native language, no matter how many people still speak them, should also be encouraged by similar way around Taiwan. For people speak native languages for daily usage, beginners would feel less stressful because everyone is using the languages with positive emotion most of the time.

The speech makes me think a lot on English teaching and the protection of Native languages in Taiwan. Unfortunately, Terry did not have enough time to share his experience learning Paiwan. That’s what I am interested in. I hope that I could have more opportunity to attend more speeches about language learning in the future, for listening other people’s experience and transfer their thoughts into teaching methods is quite interesting and meaningful for me.

留言

張貼留言

這個網誌中的熱門文章

Reflection of the course and the semester

          During the past four months, I had learned a lot of teaching methods and skills that may probably be used in my teaching in the future. By taking the course and having the big teaching at the end of the semester, I had the choice to check and reflect the teaching methods I had experienced in the past.         Since I always had interest in language teaching, I wrote and record the experience I learned foreign languages since elementary school. In previous blogs, I wrote the process of learning Korean, Spanish, and of course, English. When I recalled those memories of learning foreign languages, I thought about the teaching methods mentioned by professor during the class. Though I only wrote the advantages those teachers had in my paragraphs, I actually think or even tried to modify the contents and teaching methods presented by those teachers when writing. There was no single choice or methods when te...
閱讀完整內容

My English learning when I was a 10th grader student

        In the first year of senior high school, when I became a 10 th -grader-student, I met several teachers that impressed me a lot. I could still remember how their classes looked like and the contents they taught. Among those teachers, I remember my English teacher, who was also my homeroom teacher the most. As a freshman of senior high school, I was not shocked by the high pressure of the courses because I had learned contents of high school English classes when I still stayed in the first cram school, the same one I mentioned in the second blog. Getting scores that satisfied myself was not too difficult for me. But with the help of my English teacher, I thought I learned English with more solid grounding.         The teacher held lots of teaching activities during the class in that year. The first activity I remembered was playing games with kahoot!. I was fascinated by the way we competed with each other a...
閱讀完整內容