STICKING TO THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CLASSROOM

Sticking to the foreign language in the classroom

Aim

To create an immersive environment for students where they hear, read and use only the language they are learning.

To improve reading skills by encouraging students to search for synonyms in the target/foreign language.

Activities

Teachers introduce and study texts with their students, giving comprehension guidance only in the target/foreign language.

Reading materials could be anything such as song lyrics, poems, articles, emails.

Questions are asked in target/foreign language. Activities are undertaken in target/foreign language.

Students work together only in target/foreign language and teachers encourage this by rewarding positive contributions verbally.

Media Use

Reading texts available to students.

Worksheets or questions in target/foreign language

Advantages

Students' use of texts helps their vocabulary acquisition as they are encouraged to only use target language to describe their understanding (or misunderstanding) of the text.

Teachers and students create an authentic environment, giving the students an immersive experience. This is beneficial for all skills.

Finding synonyms and antonyms from texts helps students to express themselves more easily.

Evaluation 

Using only target/foreign language in the classroom when exploring a text is an excellent way of ensuring students learn new and varied vocabulary. They are engaged with a variety of resources and are able to understand the context of texts more easily when not relying on their mother tongue.