Studying English Abroad

(We invite second and foreign language teachers to input into this discussion about language acquisition. Please feel free to register and post your comments below.

 

Please contact us by clicking here if you would like other info about the ESL Hawaii program ).

 

Everyone working with ESL Hawaii speaks at least one other language besides English. Some speak two, three or more languages. No one at ESL Hawaii seriously believes that a person can learn to communicate well in a foreign language by simply sitting in a classroom.

 

This being said, it seems almost unbelievable that almost all existing language schools–certainly all but one, maybe two, English schools in Hawaii– are still offering it’s language students a primarily static-classroom solution patterned after a 19th century educational model.

 

The Task-based Model: a Need to Know

The ‘language brain’ may be considered a translation device for our need to know–or our perceived need to know. If we look at the brain in general as a kind of dynamic database, then the ‘language brain’ may be considered to be primarily involved in the first phase of information acquisition.

 

A person’s perceived need to know may take on many levels of urgency: from casual, to immediate. Regardless, “urgency” is the key factor. There is a vast psychological difference in ‘urgency’ between the student practicing English, for example, with a fellow English student in class, and the student needing to collect information from a non-sympathetic native speaker in the real world. The initial psychological ‘trauma’ of the latter can certainly be attested to by anyone who has had to use their foreign language skills in real-world situations.

 

Task-based models are not new, and using them in static classroom situations has been fairly common in modern foreign language training. The problem with in-class task-based models is that they are, simply put, too safe. The classroom represents a safety zone for the students and so mistakes are tolerated–even incomprehensible communication is tolerated, to a degree.

 

Giving students task-based assignments in real-world situations–combined with classroom training that gives students real English ‘tools’ to work with– may be a more realistic model.

 

In my classes, I have noticed a marked difference between the reactions of students when I give in-class task-based assignments and out-of-class task-based assignments. “For Friday, your assignment will be to find a place to live in Hawaii,” elicits a look of sheer terror on the faces of some intermediate and above level students. However, the assignment is not meant to terrorize, but rather to raise the bar, and tasks are, in reality, measured according to culture, personality and language skill level.

 

The psychological component encompassing confidence in communication in real-world situations is a key factor to faster language learning. Real-world task-based training quickly addresses this important component.

 

ESL Hawaii’s Study Tours program has been designed specifically to raise the bar in language acquisition training by presenting the students with situations in which they will have a real urgency in exchanging information with native speakers while out on study excursion. University trained teachers will be at hand, after the fact, to guide and suggest, and, if need be, tweak assignments and provide useful alternatives.

 

 

About ESL Hawaii

ESL Hawaii hosts the only true English Study Tours program in Hawaii where students learn English through a combination of intensive classroom training and real-world English language practice with real native speakers. Students may choose to learn English through one of our specialty programs like, for instance our Photography for English Learners program, or the exciting Ocean Sciences in English program. Students in these programs learn foundational English ‘tools’ and, at the same time, get a chance to practice English in real time in a need-to-know environment with real native speakers.

 

Yes, it all sounds great. Learn English while basking in the tropical Hawaiian sun, learning to surf, snorkeling in some of the world’s most beautiful bays etc. But the fact of the matter is that a large percentage of the students who come to Hawaii to study English have a very specific and quite serious reason for wanting to improve their English. In most of these cases the reason is professional; students envision a more promising future with the acquisition of more advanced English language skills.

And there are ESL schools a-plenty in Hawaii. This has created a real dilemma for the serious English students: how do you separate the ‘visa factories’ (I-20 / F-1) and ’student factories’ (student in / student out . . . thanks-for-the-buck) from the serious English language schools?

Students first need to understand that there is a vast difference in the quality of teachers and school and class designs in Hawaii.

Here are some things that students should look for:

1. Teacher quality: What kind of training do the teachers actually have? What kind of actual classroom / language training experience do teachers in a given school possess? Are they real native speakers (if the school is advertising that it only uses real native speakers)? How easily can students verify the qualifications of teachers? And a possible bellwether regarding the school’s environment: Do teachers seem to come and go abnormally quickly at a given school?

2. Curriculum design: How efficiently does the school teach real language skills? Is the school just using a book as their main resource, or are there creative in-class and out-of-class task-based resources? Are the students given real, viable venues for practicing their English after school hours (computer and audio-based training as well as real-world practice exercises, rather than just book homework)? Does the school class design look similar to the class designs of the 19th and 20th centuries (student sits at desk, teacher stands in front of room: teacher teaches to students using white board, verbal lessons, and exercise monitoring)?

If a student is coming to Hawaii to make serious improvements to his or her English language skills, he or she would do well to do a more thorough investigation of a school to discover for themselves the true quality of the educational experience that they will be receiving.

One good way to do this may be to ask other students who have attended the school. The so-called ‘testimonials’ that one finds on many school sites are, of course, going to be positive and probably not of much use, so the student may consider using Internet resources to connect up with former students.

 

When all is said and done and students return home from their English education experience in Hawaii, the memories of Hawaii and the benefits of an efficient and effective English language program will remain with them for a lifetime, for better or for worse.

Technology advances and language teaching methodologies have overrun the 19th and early 20th century classroom models so thoroughly that there is no question that we cannot turn back. Yet many language schools here in Hawaii continue to cling to the old models. Why?

In order to answer that question, it is important to look at the business models that support this kind of outdated class design.

The student-in student-out models of some schools virtually dictate that they continue to use the static-classroom, technology-vacant approach to language learning. Private schools that are concerned with overhead will many times focus expenditures on first-impression amenities while overlooking the serious side of language acquisition training in the 21st century. Students attending these schools will often initially be made to feel comfortable that ‘this is a real school’ while in fact they endure classroom curricula primarily derived from books.

Other schools promise ‘intensive’ experiences, which, the students slowly come to find out, means team-teaching listening and speaking, grammar, and reading and writing. What some students may not realize is that all schools offer a team-teaching scenario, and all schools usually offer these four fundamental language training areas.

Serious, modern language schools today are offering a 3 dimensional approach to language learning. Efficient models that combine technology with real world training and thoughtful in-classroom methodologies. Students come away from these environments ‘eating, sleeping and breathing’ the new language. These methodologies include serious task-based models not only for the classroom but also for real-world practice scenarios in which the student has a vested interest in getting it right with real native speakers. Cross-training with world-class language software and mp3 technology for study-on-the-go immersion, allow the student to explore the language from multiple angles.

The English Study Tours program in Hawaii is one such example of a New Millennium language program.