TESOL revolution
A huge change in the way English is being taught in Oregon, apparently:
“Schools have begun explicitly teaching the grammar, rules and structure of English. And they are doing it in a carefully ordered way, making sure that students don’t miss any of the building blocks of how English verbs are conjugated, words are ordered, conversations are expected to proceed and sentences are constructed.
‘For a long time, we just read to them and exposed them to English and figured they would pick it up just like native speakers do,’ said Danelle Heikkila, who directs the English Language Learner program for Gresham-Barlow schools.
‘But the state has asked us to . . . make sure that we teach them about English, about the rules and forms and structures of English.’”
So the revolution is: teachers teach rather than “letting students discover themselves through the language” or some such
And the results?
“Across the state, nearly 9,000 students passed the state English exam in 2006-07, demonstrating they had reached fluency in reading, writing and speaking English, the new report shows. Fewer than 4,000 students reached full proficiency the year before, according to state figures. ”
“The state report, released Wednesday, shows that more than half of students who were taught English as a second language for at least a full year advanced one point or more on the state’s five-point English proficiency scale. The state had expected 35 percent of students would progress that much.”
So finally common sense makes itself heard in American TESOL. Just in case you think that the idea that teaching grammar is being a fascist is completely dead, have a look at how many people who supports TBA and CLIL (both potentially useful if done with a good dose of common sense) think that error correction is a Victorian way of stifling your students’ creativity.
See the original story here.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
[...] tip to the TEFLtastic blog and a post about a TESOL revolution [...]
March 10th, 2008 at 12:37 am
What parallels do you believe this revolution has for the teaching of say, Spanish as a foreign language? While I do give my students opportunities for producing language – speaking and writing – I do believe that a solid foundation in the structure is what facilitates proficiency. At least this was true for me in my own second language experience.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Although this one result is hardly proof of anything (and in true science, unlike the pseudo-science of Applied Linguistics, the emphasis is more on disroving than proving theories), it would suggest that you are following exactly the right approach. Me too, so we can all give ourselves a big pat on the back for not swallowing the PC nonsense against grammar teaching that some people were swallowing before, often the same people who fought a dogmatic and discredited campaign against phonics.