Soon, ACA Explorers will begin a series of community gatherings in order to start the wheels in motion of unrolling the program from just English classes to something much more all-encompassing. Think Campfire.org
In the presentation, of what will be a crowd filled with Colombians who at best speak a few words of English but even then likely with a thick accent. English, unlike Spanish, is not that easy for anyone to pronounce.
To start things off, I plan on introducing what is universally common in language classes across the globe and which represent by far the worst way to learn and/or acquire a language. They are popular in high schools here in Colombia and they are popular in high schools teaching Spanish or French in USA. So what is it I am talking about? What is the worst possible language exercise a student could do?
Fill-In-The-Blank Verb Worksheets == The Worst Way to Learn A Language
You can see how difficult this would be, even for native speakers. I certainly couldn’t fill it all in without señor Google. You had been being? Of course, Google is also rife with back-and-forth discussion regarding the legitimacy of some of those word forms with to be, but again there are arguments on both side, and those are all correct grammar.
I won’t go into that grammatical argument because this isn’t going to be a presentation on linguistics. The point I am trying to make is that the successful completion of this table has nothing to do with any kind of second language acquisition whatsoever.
It’s the language equivalent of continuously doing pull-ups. You’ll only get better at being able to do more pull-ups.
For example, knowing all the forms for past perfect is:
- Not going to help you communicate any easier and EVEN WORSE
- Could end up hurting your fluency, making you translate using your second language, as opposed to thinking in it
Death to the Grammar-Translation Method of Language Acquisition!
Following in the footsteps of Krashen and the importance of the Input Hypothesis, ACA follows systems like Total Physical Response and the Natural Method. The grammar-translation method has fallen by the wayside. And good riddance!
So are you saying not to do these verb charts? Then how do you suppose you learn grammar at all?
I don’t! ACA stands by teaching grammar inductively. Through experience and learning the new word form in context and in real practice. Not ever needing a label for the verb tense. Rather focus on the use of it. Grammar is Universal, and we have Noam Chomsky to thank for that idea. Grammar comes by itself. To all of us. Language follows certain rules, across countries across cultures. Our brains fill the grammar in automatically. And we get slowly better and better at it.
‘You don’t learn a language. You get used to it.’
Everyone has acquired at least one language already in their lives. And we didn’t do it memorizing verb tables! We do it by living it.
You don’t wake up one day, look at your self in the mirror, have a sudden epiphany, and yell: ¨That’s it! I know (fill in the blank, Spanish, English, whatever). No test will tell you, to any real level of self-satisfaction, that you’ve finally reached some mythical stage called fluent.
You just slowly get used to it until suddenly you realize it just comes naturally. And you can’t even remember what it used to be like before you knew it and could really communicate within it.
