10. Jun 2018 @ 6:36 : TOP 10: How to teach/learn a new language 2018
TOP 1: Provide an authentic language setting and terms/ topics that are acutely relevant to the student
When somebody wants to learn a new language, the most important thing for me is that the teacher is able to provide him or her with an authentic language setting. The classroom is not only for doing exercises as well as possible, but the most important thing is that the learner reacts to a question using the foreign language as if he or she really were in that situation.
For example, when you practise how to tell the time in the foreign language, you could simply ask the student really what time it is: XY, what’s the time right now?! Sometimes you feel really like the student is “waking up” from their “exercise mode” when you do so. If you are learning by yourself, you might have experienced that you can learn the declension paradigm of the personal pronouns for as long as you like, but if you do not at least once addressed by a speaker referring to you by “you” or in German “du” or “Sie”, you will not really be able to communicate in the foreign country or with the people speaking this language.
So, speaking remains the most important skill a coach can exercise in class. I feel role plays in the session are sometimes too artificial, but if the student can really identify with their role and it is really relevant to them, then I would go for it. Scaffolding, that means providing basic phrases they can adjust and use during the role play – I would say Ok, but they should not stick too much to the book. It is also important, in case you are doing these kinds of exercises, never to lose sight of the big picture and to tell the student the purpose of/ benefit from this exercise and why they are doing it.
TOP 2: Challenge the student, elicit new structures/ words, promote active participation
The role of the coach here is to bring the student into a situation where he really needs to apply a specific word or structure. But eliciting structures are not easy for the coach. The student might avoid using the requested word by simply replacing it with what he already knows/ can do. Here, TOP 1 comes into effect: As long as the student expresses what is personally relevant to him or her, this is still acceptable. Providing the challenge is still an important task for the coach and is crucial for enabling the student to progress.
Another context where the student can be active is providing series-making-structures or regular grammar forms where they will guess the right word/ structure by themselves, or even find out the rule for a structure by themselves. That’s a classic approach for structure driven learners. This will not only give this category of learners a successful experience but active participation also leads to better memorizing. (See also TOP 10).
TOP 3: Let the students feel their progress
You can do this by asking the same question that you asked the student at the beginning of the session at the end again and show him or her that he or she is now able to answer it. However, this should not be “used” by the teacher to show how good they are. TOP 1 remains crucial here: When the student was not at all interested in the question at the beginning of the session, they will also not feel it is helpful to know the answer to the question at the end of the lesson.
The coach is responsible to always have to general learning goal of the student in mind and guide the student carefully. But the coach should also have an overview about what the student already learned. Important for the progress of the student is also to check recently learned vocabulary/ structures from time to time and always reminding the student again about it. Repetition still remains an important neurolinguistics method for memorizing vocabulary/ structures in the foreign language. Those coaches having a bad memory please keep a protocol.
The first three points are for me the essence of all effective language sessions!
TOP 4: How to approach difficult personalities
So, you know about all techniques and methods for your great and successful language session, but something is not working. It may happen that the student does not talk much for example. If you have the right topic for them, provide more context. Show interesting short videos or pictures that stimulate their imagination. Ask them about their opinion. Ask w-questions. Try to be an interesting “language partner” and present them their own culture in another light, for example. Examining cultural differences can always be exciting and motivating. But what if they are still not open for communication?
Some language learners are too shy because they are afraid to make mistakes. Being a patient and friendly teacher is crucial here. The relationship between the coach and the student is a relationship of trust. Communicate to them that it is definitely allowed to make mistakes in a language session. The coach can work like an “assistant” here and help the students how to express their ideas better. And if the chemistry still isn’t working? Then, I would say, it is just not working! That’s why we have so many different language coaches! 🙂
TOP 5: Motivation
That’s what coaches are there for. Feedback should always be encouraging and the coach should show the student what else they can do to intensify their learning. I strongly oppose negative feedback. During their language learning journey, the student progresses steadily and giving them feedback about the actual status of their ability to speak can only be a snapshot of their ability at any given moment. You might meet the student a year later and they are fluent and all the points you criticized are not at all relevant any more. But the negative impression the student might have about your comments still remains.
People who discourage other people by telling them they will never reach their goal and that it is impossible merely show their own personal (mental) restrictions and limitations, but not the learner’s. There are several animal aphorisms about this phenomenon. Read the story about the deaf frog here. Or think about the fact Arthur Lassen pointed out, that a bumble bee, from an aerodynamic point of view, should be unable to fly, in terms of body weight and size of wings, but because the bumble bee does not know about aerodynamics it flies anyway.
TOP 6: Use the internet to immerse yourself in the language!
I strongly endorse e-learning and edtech solutions. Here is the first great advantage of the internet: The internet gave me, as a Chinese language learner, the possibility to receive Chinese TV-channels and feel surrounded by Chinese language in audio and video formats. I could watch the news with Chinese subtitles, see easy kids’ cartoons or interesting reports or talk shows. I could listen to podcasts, Google pictures to have an idea about what something exotic would look like. Providing sufficient audio and video materials and enabling the students to immerse themselves in the language is definitely one of the great merits of the internet!
TOP 7: Connect with your coach on a mobile device!
Book a session with your coach and connect with them via mobile devices! The teacher can stay in his home country or where they like and doesn’t need to fly to your county. Same for you: you don’t need to take the time to drive to the language course location. You can really save time and money here and enjoy the flexibility. That’s another great merit of the internet. However, there are some limitations: the connection can be too slow or something does not work; the background noise on one side is disturbing the audio in the session. As a “modern” language coach in 2018, you should definitely be prepared to do some troubleshooting here as well.
TOP 8: Learn regularly, every day a little bit – with your vocabulary APP
Again, the internet has brought some relief here. You don’t need to use paper flashcards and write the new vocabulary down there, maybe writing the same word twice, because you forgot that you had already included this word in the list. A vocabulary APP will take over all this work from you and will also remind you if you put a word already into the system. Based on an algorithm that takes human neurolinguistical operations into account, the APP will now remind you about repeating vocabulary. You can also include pictures, audio and example sentences on a digital flashcard. You should definitely try to find your vocabulary APP on the web; for me it made my whole language learning process more systematic and efficient and I would definitely recommend it!
TOP 9: When the computer system motivates you: gamification
The last merit of the internet I want to mention here is that currently new interactive formats for language learning are appearing on the web. Many of them use gamification concepts to engage and motivate the learner. The basic idea is to stimulate the limbic system and let the student have fun. They can have an avatar that “grows” with the progress the student makes. Or they can “earn” badges to award them for contributions. You can see on a TOP 10 list where you are in comparison to your study mates. You can read Andreas Urban’s article about gamification 2018 here.
Much more is expected here in the coming years. The downsides of using this method, which I experienced for myself, is that you can get tired of it after a while. And you should never forget that in the end it is an information processing system that you are communicating with, and it will never be able to show empathy or build up a relationship with you.
TOP 10: Adjust your method to the learner, not the learner to the method
Last but not least, I want to emphasize here that there are definitely enough methods and techniques for teaching a foreign language and that you should never be misled by the idea that only one method could be appropriate. Each learner is an individual. One of my students wanted to learn by writing. He loved to write small funny texts and I provided him with lots of feedback.
Another student said: I want to learn by listening. Here you could use more listening comprehension techniques as a coach as well: providing the setting through context and visual information, using audios that show strong discourse, signal words and stressed expression to help the student with decoding, providing the learner with the transcript, but also with a fill-in-the-gaps exercise to challenge the learner, making it interactive by letting the student think how to respond etc. These are only some ideas how to help a language learner type who wants to focus on aural experience.
Just one more example, but I think the idea of method diversity that should be adjusted to the student should be clear: A student who wanted to learn the language “without grammar”. As a coach, you could surely provide more fixed expressions without using complicated linguistic terms, typical ways of saying things in the language learned that can be used as frozen phrases and keep the grammar basic. Some language students simply are not linguists, maybe they are engineers or experts in a completely different field!
So these are my ideas about language learning 2018 and the role of the coach! Hope you got inspired! 🙂
24. Aug 2017 @ 17:21 : Kurze Übersicht (C-Level): Indefinitpronomen im Deutschen
“Indefinit” heißt, dass das Pronomen in irgendeiner Hinsicht nicht genauer bezeichnet ist.
Die Größe wird nicht genau bezeichnet hinsichtlich:
- genauerer Bestimmung der Art (Gattung) und Individualität
etwas/ nichts, jemand/ niemand, einer/ keiner (Genus wird gekennzeichnet)
- der Anzahl und Individualität
a. man, mancher, jeder (singularische Personenbezeichnungen)
b. alle, andere, einige, ein paar, etliche, (die) gesamten, gewisse, irgendwelche, mehrere, sämtliche, (die) übrigen, verschiedene, viele, wenige. (pluralische Größenbezeichnungen)
c. alles, anderes, einiges, etliches, jedes, manches, mehreres, verschiedenes, vieles, weniges (kollektive Sachgrößen, zusammenfassende Neutra)
- des Umfangs, der Ausdehnung und Menge
alles, ein bisschen, einiges, etliches, etwas, das ganze, gesamt, viel, wenig
(Danke, Erben-Grammatik)
7. Dec 2015 @ 9:19 : Zero Article in German – Nullartikel (A1)
(Ich beziehe mich auf die “Erben”-Grammatik)
Wir reden über Substantive. Ein Substantiv kann entweder bestimmt oder unbestimmt sein.
Ein Substantiv, das bestimmt ist, hat einen bestimmten Artikel. Der Sprecher möchte “auf bekannte Größen hinweisen, die vom Hörer ausdrücklich genannt sein können, durch vorausgehende oder unmittelbar folgende Redeteile bekannt sein können, oder in seiner Situation (Umwelt) oder Erinnerung (Vorstellungswelt) gegeben sein können.”
Beispiele: Der Hund trägt ein breites Halsband. Gib mir bitte den Stift da drüben. Das Brot dort ist sehr gut. Kannst du mal das Fenster aufmachen?
Der unbestimmte Artikel wird verwendet für “situationsbezogene Größen, die der Sprecher nicht definit benennen kann, will oder muss. Das Substantiv ist hinsichtlich einer genauen Bestimmung der Art (Gattung) und Individualität, der Anzahl und Individualität oder des Umfangs, der Ausdehnung und Menge unbestimmt.”
Beispiele: Hat ihn ein Hund gebissen? (ein beliebiges denkbares Exemplar der Gattung) Ist hier in der Nähe ein Supermarkt? Um ein Omelette zu machen brauchst du eine Pfanne. Ich muss einen neuen Stift kaufen. Ich möchte bitte einen Salat. Vor der Haustür liegt ein Hund (ein erfahrungsmäßig gewisses Exemplar, dessen Art und Individualität der Sprecher zunächst nicht definit bezeichnen will oder kann).
Die Besonderheit ist, dass es den unbestimmten Artikel im Deutschen nur im Singular gibt, der Plural ist artikellos.
In welchen Situationen steht nun im Deutschen kein Artikel vor dem Nomen? Ich habe sie in drei Kategorien eingeteilt:
1.) Namen
Namen benötigen keinen Artikel, weil sie auch ohne diesen bereits bestimmt sind.
So steht kein Artikel vor Eigennamen und ihnen gleichgestellten Substantiven. Auch nicht vor den Namen von Festen (Weihnachten), vor den meisten Ländernamen, Städtenamen und auch nicht vor Firmennamen.
Beispiele: George lernt Deutsch. Sajjad ist Pakistani. Susanne fährt nach Frankreich. Bald ist Weihnachten. Peter arbeitet bei Daimler.
2.) Plural unbestimmter Nomen/ bzw. unzählbarer Nomen
Der Plural unbestimmter Nomen ist artikellos. Beispiele: Ich habe Brötchen gefrühstückt. Er kocht Nudeln. Der See ist umgeben von Bergen. An Ostern suchen die Kinder Eier.
Manche Substantive sind nicht numerusfähig, das heißt sie sind nicht “in gleichartige Einheiten Gegliedertes”, wie zum Beispiel “Obst”. Bei ihnen besteht nur die Opposition der/die/das (bestimmt) oder artikellos (unbestimmt). Beispiele: Das Obst vom Markt muss vor dem Essen gewaschen werden. Ich esse gern Obst.
3.) feste Ausdrücke (u.a. nominale Prädikatskomponenten in der Verbgruppe)
Mathe studieren. Luft holen. Fahrrad fahren. Sport machen. Urlaub machen. Lehrer sein. Unterricht haben. u.a.
18. Mai 2014 @ 15:36 : Nebensätze: subordinierende Konjunktionen
Will man im Deutschen zwei Sätze verbinden, so kann man sie koordinieren (nebenordnen) oder subordinieren (unterordnen).
Subordinierende Konjunktionen (unterordnenden Bindewörter) finden sich dabei überwiegend zur Einleitung adverbialer Nebensätze. Es handelt sich dabei meist um weglassbare Angabesätze im Unterschied zu Ergänzungssätzen, die anstelle eines Satzglieds im übergeordneten Satz stehen (Subjektsatz, Objektsatz mit dass) und meist nicht weglassbar sind.
Bei allen Nebensätzen steht das deutsche Verb am Ende.
Hier ist ein Überblick über die subordinierenden Konjunktionen:
klick on the graphic to enlarge.
Beispiele und Übungen in meinem Unterricht.
Eine Übung zu Finalsätzen (damit) findet sich hier in meinem Blog.
Eine Übung zu adverbialen Nebensätzen des Grundes (weil, obwohl) findet sich hier in meinem Blog.
Eine Übung zu adverbialen Nebensätzen des Mittels (indem) findet sich hier in meinem Blog.
14. Apr 2014 @ 17:38 : Pronominaladverbien (B1+)
warm up: Beantworte folgende Fragen:
Worauf wartest du?~~ Fang an:
Wofür interessierst du dich?
Worum geht es in deinem Lieblingsfilm/ Lieblingsbuch?
Worauf freust du dich?
Worüber ärgerst du dich?
Womit bist du unzufrieden?
Woran liegt das?
Woran erinnerst du dich gern?
Wofür nimmst du dir Zeit?
Mit wem triffst du dich nachher?
Woran möchtest du teilnehmen?
Woran arbeitest du?
Womit bearbeitest du deine Textdateien?
Womit unterstützt du deine Kollegen/ Freunde?
Worum hast du dich gekümmert?
Wonach beurteilst du deine Bekannten?
Worum wirst du beneidet?
Wofür bedankst du dich?~~ Ich gebe dir gerne Deutschaufgaben~
Pronominaladverbien
…sind Verbindungen von Demonstrativpartikeln “hier” bzw. “da” oder auch “wo” (interrogativ gebraucht) mit verschiedenen (insbesondere lokalen) Präpositionen.
Beispiele: hier-mit, da-mit, hier-an, da-r-an
(Beachte: Bei vokalisch anlautenden Präpositionen wird ein “r” zwischen Demonstrativpartikel und Präposition eingefügt: da-r-an)
Präpositionen dienen eigentlich dazu, Substantive an ein anderes Wort (Substantiv, Verb oder Adjektiv) anzuschließen. Der Vorteil der Pronominaladverbien ist nun, dass sie anstelle von einer substantivischen Ergänzungsbestimmung zum Verb stehen können, insbesondere, wenn diese vorher im Kontext bereits genannt wurde.
Beispiele: Ich bedanke mich dafür. (= Ich bedanke mich für das Buch.)
Ich interessiere mich dafür. (= Ich interessiere mich für Yoga.)
Die Pronominaladverbien sind meistens nur sachbezogen, das heißt, das fehlende Substantiv muss eine Sache sein und kann keine Person sein.
Beispiele: Worauf wartest du? – Ich warte auf Unterrichtsbeginn.
Auf wen wartest du? – Ich warte auf Anna.
Worüber ärgerst du dich? – Ich ärgere mich über das Testergebnis.
Über wen ärgerst du dich? – Ich ärgere mich über Anna.
(Beachte: “daneben”, “darunter”, “davor”, “dazwischen” können sich auch auf Personen beziehen, wenn diese Teil einer Gruppe sind.)
Die Pronominaladverbien erscheinen oft mit angeschlossenem Gliedsatz:
Beispiele: Erinnerst du mich bitte daran, dass ich die Pflanzen gießen muss?
Kümmerst du dich bitte darum, dass Hans den Müll rausbringt?
11. Apr 2014 @ 16:11 : Personal Pronouns Introduction (A1)
warm up:
Papa kauft Dennis kein Eis:
— in contemporary German, we do not have different personal pronouns for addressing a child, an adult or a man or a women. We only have the formal “Sie”, which is declined like the third person plural, and “du” (informal).
With personal pronouns you address the participants of a speaking situation.
ich/wir: is the speaker (ich = singular, wir = plural)
du / ihr: is the addressee (du = singular, ihr = plural)
If you are talking about something or someone, er / sie / es (singular) / sie (plural) will be used. Most often, the object or person is absent, but in context already mentioned.
“Es” is often used as a connector in German and does not necessarily have to refer to a neuter noun.
You use “sich” instead of accusative or dativ, if Agens and Patiens are identical. Obviously, this is only possible for specific verbs.
–> Ask for “Reflexivität” and “reflexive Verben” in my session~~
In the following exercise, please replace the nouns with personal pronouns. You will get more exercises in my session.
Adrien kocht für seine Freundin.
Adrien macht eine Suppe für seine Freundin.
Adrien brät ein Hühnchen für seine Freundin.
Adrien macht einen Salat für seine Freundin.
Adrien kocht Nudeln für seine Freundin.
Adrien macht eine Mousse au Chocolat für seine Freundin.
Adrien ist müde.
31. Mär 2014 @ 16:36 : Overview Adjective Declination Endings
Here is an overview about the endings for adjective declination in German (you can see here how often we use -en):
24. Mär 2014 @ 11:48 : Accusative or Dative: The Grammatical Case (A1+)
How can we decide if an object (noun) in German is in accusative case or in dative case?
When should I apply the dative, what about the accusative?
Verbs and prepositions will be helpful is letting you know if an accusative object or a dative object will follow.
The best way to learn the verbs, which are followed by accusative, which are followed by dative, or which can be followed by both accusative and dative is through practice.
In this article of this blog, you will find the typical common dative expressions we use in everyday life.
That’s for the verbs. Now, the prepositions: Some of them take the accusative, some of them the dative.
But there are also some prepositions that can change the case they reign; we call them “Wechselpräpositionen” (“changing praepositions”) in German. For them it is good to know, that the prepositions which answer the German question “wo?” (“where?”), and therefore refer to a situational meaning, are followed by dative. Those prepositions which answer the German question “wohin?” (“whereto?”), and therefore refer to a directive meaning, are followed by accusative.
Here is a graphic that shows the prepositions and their cases:
Tricks to figure out what case to use (remember that these are guidelines, please do not generalize!)
- The person is mostly the dative object, the thing is usually the accusative object.
- The object that is closer to the verb is usually the dative object, more distant one is the accusative object.
About the prepositions that reign either accusative or dative: Do you like teachers singing and rhyming? Here are two videos (thank you Sean from Denmark) You can learn the prepositions through a rhyme, if that is an easier way for you to remember:
Accusative Prepositions in German (Youtube)
Dative Prepositions in German (Youtube)
17. Mär 2014 @ 19:15 : Präfix und Objektbezug bei Verben
Morphologie:
Ein taiwanesischer fortgeschrittener Student fragte mich:
“Wenn ein Verb mit der Vorsilbe be- verbunden wird, ist es dann auch wahrscheinlicher, dass es reflexiv gebraucht wird?”
Wie zum Beispiel: danken, aber: sich bedanken
Ich habe recherchiert, und in der Erben-Grammatik finden wir tatsächlich, das das Präfix be- bei Verben oft einen Objektbezug herstellt (Beispiele: herrschen/ sitzen/ wohnen, aber: etwas beherrschen/ besitzen/ bewohnen)
“Als Kennzeichen […] einer objektbezogenen Tätigkeit dienen […] Partikeln, die als unbetontes Präfix eine feste Bindung mit dem Verbum eingehen und mehr oder weniger ‘morphologisch systematisiert’ als ‘Transitionsindikator’ auftreten: be (signalisiert Objektbezug bzw. – bei einem bereits transitiven Grundverb – ‘betonte Objektbezogenheit’, wobei meist die Vorstellung einer Annäherung an ein Objekt oder dessen völlige Erfassung durch die jeweilige Verbalhandlung ausgedrückt wird) -greifen, -rufen, -wirken; -schreiten, -siegen, -springen. [..]” [Ebenso für ent-, er-, ver-, zer-] (Erben 108)
Genaueres in meinem Deutschkurs!
Danke für die Anregung, Chien-Tung!
16. Okt 2013 @ 10:47 : Phonetik: Fusion von Präposition und Artikel
A) Fixed Situation
Dativ feminin:
bei der in der an der
Dativ maskulin und neutrum:
B) Movement
Akkusativ/Dativ (with “zu”)
Akkusativ feminin:
in die an die
Akkusativ maskulin:
in den an den
Dativ mit “zu”, maskulin:
zu dem -> zum (look below)
Akkusativ neutrum:
4. Sep 2013 @ 7:06 : Adjective Endings (A1): The Red Apple
Here is the structure.
Have a look at it. I will give you some exercises (fill in the gaps) now.
26. Aug 2013 @ 17:29 : What is a (grammatical) case? What do you need it for? (A1)
Recently, a Cantonese student asked me what the (grammatical) case is and what it is used for. Since the concept of declining nouns may be alien to speakers of the Chinese languages, I will shortly introduce the “cases” in German.
An Introduction to “Cases”:
In German we have the nominative, possessive, accusative and dative. Simply speaking, when the noun is in nominative it is providing the action. The noun in accusative (object) is mostly the passive part in the action, it is often a thing, not a person. The noun in the dative case is often the person, who receives something (or the one, from whom something is taken). The noun in possessive case obtains something.
–> But do not generalize! These guidelines should help you understand that nouns can represent different roles in the sentence and that every specific case has a different role.
So, why do we need to decline the nouns?
Take this sentence for example: Hans likes Anna
Hans mag Anna.
So, Hans likes Anna, but, does Anna like Hans? In the Chinese language we wouldn’t know if Anna likes Hans, because in the Chinese language the word order of the sentence is relatively fixed and that indicates the role of the noun (the case).
But in German the word order is very flexible. In German, the example above could also mean that Anna likes Hans; it depends on where you put the stress. So Anna could be the nominative noun and Hans the accusative noun, that is also possible.
The above mentioned example is in fact ambiguous, because personal names generally don’t change in German.
Since the word order is flexible and wouldn’t indicate the role of the noun, we have the cases. That means: declination and endings. “We have to ‘label‘ the nouns.” as said by my student Brian today.
Note one futher example here: Anna gives the baby to the aunti:
Anna gibt der Tante das Baby.
Anna gibt das Baby der Tante.
Das Baby gibt Anna der Tante.
Der Tante gibt Anna das Baby.
All these sentence structures are possible in German. And we don’t get confused because the cases indicate which role a specific part of the sentence “plays”.
14. Aug 2013 @ 9:44 : Passive Voice (B1)
“Passiv” means, that the same actual situation is described from another perspective.
On a semantic level you can decide: who is the “Agens” (causer, cause), the “Patiens” (person concerned, effect) and the action (mostly the verb).
For the verb: we have a morphological category of the verb to express active or passive voice, that is the “Genus Verbi“. –> ask for the verbforms in my session.
You can transform a sentence from active voice into passive voice by replacing the subject, which in simple sentences is the “Agens”, with the object, which in simple sentences is the “Patiens”, so that in the end the Patiens is the subject.
More simple please~~~:
The object turns into the subject, the subject becomes the object. The verb changes its form. In that case, the basic (semantic) meaning stays the same.
Example:
Please also have a look at the verbforms in the sentences:
-> Ich habe sie eingeladen.
-> Ich bin eingeladen worden.
1. Which sentence is active voice, which passive voice?
2. Translate: Who invites whom?
The Linguistic Snake ~~ 