Thinking in a foreign
language, this is exactly what I want my students to achieve. I teach without a
bridge language.
When I
teach Polish, my foreigners and I have to speak only Polish, and my English
classes are run only in English.
This means
they are required to forget about native language and start speaking as well as
thinking in a foreign language.
Telling the
truth, my method is extraordinarily revitalizing, challenging and exhausting
for all of us. There is a lot of non-verbal communication, singing, acting,
drawing, even dancing sometimes.
There is no
space and time for analyzing grammar rules or memorizing isolated vocabulary.
Nobody thinks about why we communicate the way we express our thoughts.
When a student does
ask why? , my only response is because they (natives) say so, or they just talk
like this.
My students learn
the language in different contexts, mostly singing phrases, expressions,
collocation, idioms, and phrasal verbs also telling stories. Moreover, I encourage
them to talk to everybody even to themselves in a foreign language. As a result
of this, they are able to identify a collection of compelling stories.
I correct only limited
mistakes. I do not want them to stop
talking. I also encourage my students to listen to songs, watch movies with
subtitles in a language they learn, read a lot and so forth.
Moreover, I use a
lot of You Tube videos to improve student’s pronunciation, as well as, movies
with English subtitles and of course songs.
I work in a huge
Department of Foreign Languages and my colleagues know who is running a class
because we make a lot of noise and we are happy together, enjoying our learning.
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