This presentation aims to: 1) describe and explain the modern view of learning a foreign/ second/ world language; 2) relate that view to the "big picture" concept of learning at PSU; 3) relate that view as well to the basic features of GER 10X at PSU.

You can find related information in the basic course description and on the course "FAQ" page. General information about the teaching and learning of languages in the United States is available on the website of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and about German on the website of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG), where there are also lots of learning resources, along with career and travel information.

A little about myself (résumé):

• teaching languages since 1969 (and still learning about it)

• non-native speaker of German (but near-native fluency)

• textbook author and software producer

• grant recipient (>$250,000), for program development, assessment, etc.

• work in standards, curriculum, assessment - for languages, and beyond (currently: PSU Institutional Assessment Council, Internationalization Committee)

First-year German is THE most important part of my career!

Why do people - Americans, PSU students - want to learn another language? "I want to understand them and speak with them". Terms of the profession: "proficiency"; "communicative competence"; not what you know ABOUT a language, but rather what you CAN DO with it.

Here is someone who wants to DO something - get a hotel room -, but can't. (The language is NOT the book!)

(Here are links to more such examples from popular movies; from them you can learn a lot about how people picture the language learning experience, particularly when the learning - and often the teaching! - are unsuccessful.)

Here is someone who teaches ABOUT the language, with no purpose beyond memorization and recitation ("regurgitation") of details of grammar. There's so much more to Latin than all those endings, and poor Latin teaching has really hurt how modern languages are taught.

Here are some unfortunate would-be learners of English who are expected to be mindless parrots of sounds.

What are ingredients of a language program that promotes proficiency?

Reasonable learning goals, with clear standards expressed in functional terms. Our course uses the ACTFL standards (condensed version). And here are the specific goals for first-year German at PSU.

An active classroom, with plenty of "comprehensible input", communicative teacher-student interaction, and partner/ small-group interaction.

Student-centered instruction that: 1) encourages active rather than passive learning; 2) requires learners to understand consciously the progress of their learning, and what they need to do to improve it.

Materials that show how language is used to communicate, and that link the language with the culture. Here technology can be very valuable, whether the technology is created especially for teaching language, or is borrowed from "real world" sources.

Communicative activities outside the classroom, rather than focus on the manipulation of details of grammar or acquisition of vocabulary in isolation from context. (This is a weakness of much on-line language instruction, especially the software that is bundled with commercial textbooks.)

Encouragement of individuality, so that learners can use the language for their own purposes and from their own perspectives.

Learners who have, or can develop, or can be helped to develop skills in teamwork, problem-solving and risk-taking. Here is a brave learner who will eventually become proficient, win the partner he desires, and achieve happiness in life. This guy takes it on the chin, but he never quits.

What are some teaching and learning practices that do NOT promote acquisition of proficiency?

Intensive preoccupation with lecture-style explanation of grammar, from the teacher, with the student focusing on intellectual understanding of it, or else mindless recitation of its forms. This is one of the main "default" notions of language teaching and learning, often adopted by inexperienced, untrained or just plain incompetent teachers. A future "cameo" talk will focus on the issue of grammar.

Memorization and recitation of grammar patterns, such as the German definitive article, with no communicative use.

Precise imitation with no real understanding of what is being said, and no allowance for different ways of communicating, or for different learning styles or learner backgrounds.

Insistence on direct, word-for-word translatibility between languages (What watch, treasure?)

Mindless memorization of phrases as one-chunk equivalents of English phrases. Memory can fail under the stress of trying to communicate, even when you're not try to rob a bank.

Testing that picks at details that do not contribute to communication, and grading that substitutes "bell-curve" distribution for genuine standards. (Here is an example where careful pronunciation is indeed important! - and one where it is not, and the teacher is a real meanie!) A future "cameo" talk will focus on testing, scoring guides, and grading.

Here is a single example that combines good learner behaviors, good teaching, and good group support. It shows how, at the start, you depend mostly on vocabulary and short phrases. But it even includes (can you find it?) a little grammar learning. Notice, though, how that comes at the initiative of the learner's need to communicate. (flora bonita, schöne Blume)

And here's a little learner, taught in a program that emphasized communicative competence, trying so earnestly to communicate so that her father will have a better trip to Japan and people will treat him nice even if he doesn't speak the language. Eleven years later (2008), she is a grown-up young woman in her second year of college.