Block Scheduling Foreign Language Classes ????
My main concern regarding the one semester/one level approach is theinstructional delivery rate. I fear that the students will not have timeto internalize the structures and concepts if they only have a semesterto do so. When my son was in Germany, totally immersed in the languageand attending the first grade, his teacher told me that experience hadshown that students in his situation would begin to speak at aboutChristmas time. He did exactly that. If this is the case for totalimmersion, what are we asking our students to do on less than an hour aday, five days a week.Block scheduling may be just the thing for other content areas, wherethe emphasis is on CONTENT, but we are much more concerned with processand form in the early stages of language learning. If the old adage istrue, “Practice makes perfect.
My main concern regarding the one semester/one level approach is the instructional delivery rate. I fear that the students will not have time to internalize the structures and concepts if they only have a semester to do so. When my son was in Germany, totally immersed in the language and attending the first grade, his teacher told me that experience had shown that students in his situation would begin to speak at about Christmas time. He did exactly that. If this is the case for total immersion, what are we asking our students to do on less than an hour a day, five days a week. Block scheduling may be just the thing for other content areas, where the emphasis is on CONTENT, but we are much more concerned with process and form in the early stages of language learning.
