As a high school and college level French teacher, I have seen a variety of "learners" when it comes to picking up a language. Some of my students need motivation like a language partner to practice with, others watch youtube videos in the target language or listen to music. What kind of learner are you? Do you need visual aids? Do you use drills to memorize vocabulary/grammar? Do you have to do a hands-on activity (kinesthetic learning)?
Personally, I am a hands-on learner. I have to have a challenge before me and a task to complete in order to push myself further in my learning.
Tell me about yourself?
-Elle
If I use the classical way only, I will learn so much grammar and words but it'll be useless since I wasn't trained to hear them. If I only use the conversation approach, I'll just forget everything after class.
I study Chinese :) i guess that's also a reason I need the classical way (for the characters).
Hi:)
My perfect mix to learn is this:
1 Studiyng grammar rules (by books or watching video)
2 watching english subtitled movie (or clips)
3 talking with iTalki people
Grammar: By myself, with a book, without inference, in silence. This also goes for things like maths, physics. Teachers nowadays seem to focus on new ways of learning. More interactive. Not all students are the same though. The old fashioned 'boring' way of learning is still best for me. Conversation: I from Europe, a small country. We used to go on vacation to France, and I could watch Belgium French television. So I just learnt French from that. Conversation in class is just useless though, my fellow students spoke so slowly I got bored. As a teacher, you only have to provide me with the tools. A good book. A source for conversation and speech like television, internet, radio. I will do it myself. Some teachers in high school (and some other students) did not like me for that. I never showed up in class. Then passed the exam while other students that attended all the lessons failed.
Veronica, that is a great process! It allows you to practice two modes of communication (interpretive with movies/reading and interpersonal with conversational).
Do you work on presentational speaking/writing? This would be practice in expressing yourself and being clear to an audience (whether listeners or readers).
Antony, that's really interesting. I have had students like this; they are able to teach themselves and really need to be challenged in order to grow. If a task is too easy, it can become boring or feel too forced. However, you also learned with audio-visual aids (french/belge TV?) I really do think it is important to have conversation practice, but it must be at your level. An important skill to learn is "<a class="spell" href="https://www.google.fr/search?q=spontaneity&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNue_zkvPYAhWM2qQKHS1zBHYQkeECCCQoAA" id="fprsl" data-ved="0ahUKEwiNue_zkvPYAhWM2qQKHS1zBHYQkeECCCQoAA" style="">spontaneity</a>", because we can never truly predict what will happen in a conversation.
