Foreign language instruction in the U.S.

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I happen to be teaching French today. (Ou et pourquoi je ne dirai pas.)

When my first class entered this morning, I ask them a simple question or two in French. I was met almost entirely with blank stares.

On the teacher's desk, there is a magazine for French teachers. Written in English. So even the students' teacher is not expected to be fluent enough to comfortably read teaching tips in the language he or she teaches.

American foreign language instruction seems geared towards having students become capable of filling in verb endings on tests, not to actually communicating in another language.

Comments

  1. Samson Corwell11:39 AM

    How many subjects do you teach? Is this five now?

    ReplyDelete

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