 |
| Students in the Akiva Language Lab. Retrieved from https://akivaschool.com/academics/francais/akiva-language-lab/ |
The Akiva School in Montreal, Quebec has unveiled its new foreign language lab, which they are saying is the first of its kind in North America. This lab allows students to practice French using technology either in small groups or one-on-one with the teacher using technology.
Cindy Warren, the assistant head for school advancement said, "The Akiva Language Lab is a unique learning space that enables students to explore languages at their own pace [...] Research tells us that the only way to truly learn a language effectively is through immersion and practice. Statistically, in a traditional classroom setting, each student speaks for less than 20 seconds for every hour of class time."
Warrne and the Akiva School share a huge point, and it's one that all schools should focus on in relation to their language learning classes: students need to spend more time actually practicing the language for it to stick. Anecdotally, I remember spending a significant amount of time conjugating verbs in Spanish class in high school, but I don't remember much of what we leaned (except, of course, for asking where the library is...why does everyone seem to remember "¿Donde está la biblioteca?" anyway?).
I would be curious to see a follow up in 5 years and in 10 years to see how much students' language has improved at the Akiva School and would love to see other schools following suit, spending more time on students making meaningful conversation during class to help make their learning stick.
Source:
CJN Staff. (2019, November 6). "Akiva School Goes High-Tech on French Instruction". The Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved from https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/akiva-school-goes-high-tech-in-french-instruction
How interesting! This sounds like a great idea for the average, working person to be able to learn a new language at their own pace. I've always wanted to learn a new language, but become disengaged when I think about the actual practice of it. Learning and speaking sounds like a much more desirable way to learn.
ReplyDelete