At college one of my professors gave me further insight into sociolinguistics (1), the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society and vice versa, the structure of the society on the language. A language offers one thousand ways of verbal expressions of a society in which the language user lives. Based on that, I could prove in my thesis (2) that the language change in radio advertising originates in the change of the structure of the society.
What does that mean for me as a FL teacher in a community college? In my reflections, based on the results of researchers in the domain of sociolinguistics, I will first focus on the correlation between language, culture and user profile, and its consequences to teaching. Second, I will discuss the diverse student body of a community college and show how to integrate these results with the FL teaching.
1. Teaching a language cannot be separated from teaching culture. Both language and culture are user dependent. Hence, teaching a language is primarily developing the ability to react adequately to a person’s statement, both linguistically and culturally. At a basic level, teaching a language is preparing students for handling real life situations in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It is also transmitting knowledge in literature skills, and in testing skills.
About oral communication: monolingual conversation in the foreign language in the very first classes takes away any student’s fear in communicating in a FL. Speaking the FL with the teacher should become a habit and fun. It is the communicative act which is the starting point for teaching the relevant grammar and vocabulary. I believe that grammar cannot be taught separately from communication, and grammar should not be devaluated for testing purposes only. Grammar can be considered as an ingredient, like salt or pepper.
About oral communication: monolingual conversation in the foreign language in the very first classes takes away any student’s fear in communicating in a FL. Speaking the FL with the teacher should become a habit and fun. It is the communicative act which is the starting point for teaching the relevant grammar and vocabulary. I believe that grammar cannot be taught separately from communication, and grammar should not be devaluated for testing purposes only. Grammar can be considered as an ingredient, like salt or pepper.
About auditory understanding: to understand the conversation partner it is crucial to understand him/her in a normal speed. Comprehension training of conversations of native speakers is as important as training the speaking skills. Any authentic audio tools available, including visual support, are a good source.
About written communication: In my FL classes writing is introduced in a second phase, after two to four weeks of oral foreign language instruction, depending on the class structure and the language itself. In French, speaking and writing differ widely, the instruction in writing starts later than in German where the decoding of sounds is much easier.
About reading: In my opinion, reading is retrieving the main idea in a text. The student reads a document and should understand the main message. This requires particular training which I start in the beginner classes by instructor guided activities which include visual support, and is developed further by using the POGIL method (3) at a more advanced level.
2. Students in a community college differ widely from students in four year schools (4). Every student has his/her own reason why he/she chose- or better had to choose – instruction in a community college. Two third of them are part-time students and work and/or have family obligations, they live on a tight schedule, mostly because of financial needs. Part time and full time students might require developmental assistance in reading, mathematics or English, but are enrolled in a foreign language class. Others are adult learners who are in the same class with 18-year old learners. Some have a broad tech knowledge, others not. There are students who cannot focus well in class because of a whole variety of issues. In addition, some students might have a different mother tongue and be ESL learners, coming from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. I need to accommodate them all and to foster them. In order to be able to do that, I must get to know the student. One of my preferred methods is to come to class early, to listen to and to observe students by pretending being busy. Sometimes, I would ask more questions to find out about the students needs, but I prefer doing that in a very discrete way, and usually students are not aware what I already know about them. This allows me to react to their various needs and ways of learning, in addition to my observations during class, without setting preferences and still in accordance to the guidelines set in my syllabus.
All of them have various learning styles, pre-requisites, and expect first class service. This is the challenge of a community college instructor. My studies in sociolinguistics have helped me considerably to understand and to classify needs. There is no difference between my students and the foreign language users. My students do have a social and cultural background like any language user has. We simply need to contrast – and here culture and language understanding starts. My teaching bible is the cultural iceberg theory (5) which distinguishes the visible from the invisible in a culture.
Having lived in the countries whose languages and cultures I teach, I am able to provide first hand information.
But the high standard is also set by group specific and innovative ideas. Every group of students differs in size and type of learners, and their different backgrounds. I apply a variety of teaching tools according to my group profile. I can set a weekly content schedule, but I can never predict my teaching style. At the end of the class all class members should have reached the goals which are formulated in the ACT335 forms.
The instructor’s mission never ends. Both instructor and students learn in the same class: the instructor learns about the students, students learn about the content in many different ways according to their individual needs. [1] Basil Bernstein, Class, Codes, and Control. Applied Studies towards a Sociology of Language, vol. 2. Routledge Kentucky, 2003.
[2] "Grand'Mère, s'il te plaît, ton café familial, ce s'rait gentil que tu nous le moudes." : Untersuchung zum Sprachwandel werbesprachlicher Strukturen in der französischen Radiowerbung, Thesis, Wien 1987
[3] Catherine Johnson, Activities Using Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) in the Foreign Language Classroom. In: Die Unterrichtspraxis 44.1, 2011, pp. 30-38
[4] Kent Farnsworth and Teresa Brawner Bevis, Online instructors. A Fieldbook for Community College. Community College Press Washington, DC, 2006, pp. 15-22
[5] Edward T. Hall, Beyond culture, Peter Smith Pub, Gloucester MA, 1992.
