Blog 1 (Unit 4)

     The alerts I set on Google have given me a fair amount of interesting articles on second language acquisition and digital storytelling. One article caught my attention rather quickly by the title “Death to the Language Textbook!”. As a German language teacher, this made me laugh and think back to an awful textbook we had several years ago. I’m pretty sure my colleagues and I have wished death to that textbook before! Thankfully, we now have an excellent textbook which was designed to only be used as a supplemental resource. One of the more interesting points is that this article is an op-ed from the student newspaper of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. It seems to be criticism aimed at the language professors of the university who are textbook-driven with grammar drills and vocabulary lists. The author, student Nero Grok-Gallagher, notes 3 important ways to reinforce language learning, none of which are to keep your nose buried in a textbook.

     First, the teacher needs to instill the initiative in students to actively study and supplement their learning outside of the classroom. Once the class has ended, students need to be interested enough in the language to further their own learning. I have said this to my students on numerous occasions. My classroom is just the beginning in their language learning experience. Only seeing students for 43 minutes a day, 180 days of the year is not going to be enough to teach them a language. They have to take the initiative and search out ways to learn and improve their language skills. 

     This can be accomplished through Grok-Gallagher’s second piece of advice: utilize technology whenever necessary. The author references Duolingo, Netflix, YouTube, and Quizlet as valuable tech tools for students to practice their language skills. Since my school is 1:1 with student Chromebooks, I utilize technology constantly and also show my students how to use these resources and find additional ones. The gamification format of Duolingo is especially engaging to my students and I can tell which students have studied with it on their own due to their advanced knowledge of vocabulary words and phrases.

     Last, Grok-Gallagher states the best way to reinforce language learning is by communicating with others in the target language. This is accomplished by seeking out ways to practice the language, for example join a language-learning community, find opportunities in social media, or travel abroad. As a high school teacher, I encourage my students to communicate with each other in the language outside of my classroom, though due to their age, I do not encourage them to find their own outlets via social media. My school is fortunate enough to have a German American Partnership Program through the Goethe Institut with a school in Gladenbach, Germany. Many of our students do become friends with the students at our partner school and continue communicating long after the official program has ended. Every two years we travel to Germany to give our students that global perspective and immersion in practicing their language skills. This exchange program is in its 24^th year at my high school and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the German teachers and students to Pennsylvania next month, which follows with our students visiting Germany in June.

     I think if the author of this op-ed came into my classroom, he would be pleasantly surprised that not all language teachers instruct via grammar drills and vocabulary lists straight out of a textbook. Like all good teachers, you have to be creative in your instruction using multiple resources and view your teaching as a stepping stone in a student’s life which will provide them with the life-long skills of how to approach learning a language or any subject for that matter.