The Great Expert Blog

Do you want to learn French? Everyone knows it’s just the sexiest language on the planet, and the ability to speak French is a real plus - if you want to be chic and add a little je ne sais quoi to your life!

Well the best place to learn French is France, of course. But if you only have a week or two free to go there, you need to get the maximum from your time here. Here are a few guidelines about how to get the most from you stay.

Try to find an international class

If you are American and you go to France to learn French with a group of Americans, you will find that most of the time you spend in France will be spent speaking English, and not French. I can tell you from experience that when given the choice, nearly everyone, myself included, will take the easy option. If you join of group where English is not the common language, you will have to communicate in French, and the more you practise, the more progress you will make.

Do some research about France

You might think that you have to go to Paris to find a language school. Of course, Paris is one of the most famous, and beautiful, capitals in the world and well worth a visit. If you are learning English for business purposes, Paris or one of the other major cities will help you to adopt a business-like attitude. If you want to learn French because you love French wines, for example, forget Paris and look for a school in the region of your favourite wine. This will give added motivation to learn. Just think about being able not only to enjoy a glass of wine right there on the territory, but being able to discuss its qualities in French!

Make sure that there is lots of conversation in the course

French grammar is hard. But studying grammar is not the best, or the fastest way to learn a language. The ideal language course will get you involved in living the language, through role-plays, discussions, and games. Ask the school about what’s on the syllabus, and try to find out a little about the teachers. If they are all academic types with only a teaching background, the course might be a little dry. But many teachers of French as a foreign language still have an adventuring spirit, and have taught abroad. These ones will have plenty of interesting ideas to get you talking

Learn as many words as you can before you go

Don’t go if you are an absolute beginner. Spend a year learning vocabulary and how to ask questions. If you know anyone who speaks French, practise with them as often as possible. That way, when you arrive in France to learn French, you will already have a solid foundation on which to build.

Jonathan Lewis is a teacher of English as a foreign language in Provence, France. He learned to speak French the best way - by living in the country and practising everyday. He has a site about that helps students to improve their learning abilities, apprendre anglais, and a blog about learning English. The advice he offers is invaluable for anyone wishing to learn a language, not just French.

Professor Colin MacCabe of the University of Exter School of English says that to truly know a language, you must know something of the literature of a language.

Literature is intellectually stimulating because a book allows a reader to imagine worlds they are not familiar with. This is done through the use of descriptive language. In order to understand, the reader will create their vision of what the writer is saying. In this sense, the reader becomes a performer or an actor in a communicative event.

Using literature versus a communicative textbook changes the learning approach from learning how to say into learning how to mean (grammar vs. creative thinking). Conversation-based programs tend to focus on ‘formulas’ used in contextual situations so there is little allowance for independent thought and adaptation of language. On the other hand, literature-based programs focus on personal interpretation of the language so students begin to experiment with the language. This experimentation can be especially helpful to the students for use in different subjects such as science.

Per Carter and Long, the 3 main approaches to using Literature in a language classroom are:

1. Cultural model

• Based on the notion that literature is the expression of:

• Socio-cultural attitudes.
• Aspirations of individual societies.
• Mythic and universal values.

• Text is regarded as finished product.
• Associated with teacher-centered approach

2. Language model

• Literature is taught for the promotion of:

• Vocabulary
• Structure
• Language manipulation

• Puts students in touch with the subtle and varied creative uses of language.
• Emphasizes language observation.
• Student-centered methodology.

3. Personal growth model

• Concerned more with student’s:

• Maturity as individuals
• Progress as individuals through reading

• ‘Literature for life’ approach
• Promotes individual evaluation and judgment.
• Learner-centered approach.

When adding literature into the classroom remember to choose some good books that students can relate to. Visual books are very helpful to help spark interest in children. For older students, you can incorporate questions into the reading process that require thought and expression from the students. In addtion, set aside specific times for reading. Don’t worry if students don’t respond well when you begin because they will start to enjoy it more (and therefore interact more) as they relate to the stories and experiences shared.

There is a wealth of resources available to teachers to help integrate literature into the curriculum. Some good online literature resources are:
London School of Journalism- English Literature Resources
The Children’s Literature Web Guide
Literature.org - The online literature library
English Literature on the Web
The Literature Network
Bibliomania
Literature Learning Ladders
BBC Arts and Books
U.S. Library of Congress
Click here to view an online presentation about Literature in an ESL classroom

Learning the Spanish language, as with any other language is a daunting task. There is a lot to learn and it takes a long time to do it. However it seems to be further complicated by a fact I just recently learned. There appear to be many different kinds of Spanish. As with English you expect a language to have different dialects and accents. The people in New York Speak a lot differently form the people Georgia or Minnesota. However the basic structure is the same and the vocabulary is the same. The same is not necessarily true for Spanish.

First of all I learned there is Latin American Spanish and there is Spanish in Spain. These two things appear to actually be quite different. Sure the language is the same, most things are the same, but there are many words that are different and there is an entire verb conjugation that is used in Spain that is not used in parts of Latin America. This should not be a problem right; kind of like the English language in England has words for things that are not used in English in the United States. However, if you use a word in the US that someone would use in England 9 times out of 10 people will know what you are talking about. The same is not true when you learn the Spanish language, this I discovered recently.

As any other student of a language would, I bought a Spanish to English/English to Spanish dictionary. Should have been easy enough except for the fact that I have occasionally used words from the dictionary and people have had no idea what I was saying. After consulting with my tutor I discovered my dictionary is a Spanish for Spain dictionary and that was what was causing my problems. Of course this important piece of information was not printed on the dictionary.

Gregory Newell is a web author who’s written about hot to learn to speak Spanish. If you want to learn Spanish language then you might be interested in reading more.