The Best Way to Learn

Foreign language class ought to be conducted soley in the target language, with few exceptions. This is called immersive-style teaching. In the U.S., it is the recommended way for schools and institutions to teach a language. The problem is, this doesn’t happen very often.

The American foreign language classroom is guided by standards that maintain that 90% of class time be conducted in the target language. This means that during an hour-long course, at most one-tenth, or six minutes may be in English. This includes teacher and student speaking time. The aim is to create an immersive experience for students.

Nonetheless, and as many American students (and former students) know, few American classrooms are immersive.  Studies have shown variations between 10% and 100% of the use of target language in the classroom in the U.S. This is a wide discrepancy in the context, nature, and substance of foreign language education in spite of the standards.

Meanwhile in France, to date there are no immersion standards that foreign language teachers are expected to meet. This means that target language use is not a standardized feature in French institutions. 

The Dilemma 

There is a delicate balance between ‘new learning’ and student confidence (the more new information you have, the less confident you feel). Many teachers use this to defend their non-immersive classrooms. In other words, they teach the foreign language in the students’ first language (English) to avoid frustrating students and disrupting the positive learning environment. Ironically, the opposite happens. 

You don’t learn to cook a delicious meal by simply talking about food. This is not a positive learning environment to the student who becomes frustrated in the kitchen because he has not been properly taught.

Learners need a positive learning environment, a space where they have the support that they need in order to take risks and overcome challenges. This is perhaps even more crucial in foreign language. Take any another course for example, if you get the answer wrong, you can at least be sure that you pronounced it correctly. There is a lot of risk in a foreign language classroom. 

The Solution

Gesturing in the foreign language classroom helps mitigate risk because it promotes  communication through easy to grasp non-verbal cues, therefore creating a safe and positive learning environment.

Beginning language students want to express themselves, but they do not yet have the language ability to do so. This is where gesture comes in—it’s a common language. 

Gesture fulfills the role of the first language while at the same time supporting the second language. This means that dependance on the first language (English) can comfortably drop to zero. 

How does this promote a new language? By linking a certain word to a certain gesture you are anchoring that word to something physical. It’s muscle memory, and it’s why you can type your name without looking at the keyboard. This automaticity is why gesturing speeds up language acquisition.

That’s why it works. Next, take a look at the infographic below to see how it works in Ashley’s classroom.