Northeast+Conference+(March+2010)

I attended the 2010 Northeast Conference in New York and participated in a workshop named “Organizing and Managing an Effective, Efficient World Language Classroom”. One of the themes of this workshop was to demonstrate how language acquisition is different from language learning. Most textbooks focus on language learning because personal contact is needed to provide opportunities for language acquisition. Acquisition involves extended listening opportunities which provide students with time to hear the language so much that it starts to “sound right”. It can be compared to native language acquisition where babies listen to people talk for thousands of hours before they can speak. That same kind of listening is necessary in second language classrooms if we want to produce fluent and confident students. Acquisition also means that the meaning of language is presented before any rules. This is in direct contrast to textbooks which presents the rules first and examples after with rote practice out of context. This workshop helped me determine what kind of textbooks would be beneficial for our students here at Ransom. For example, the technology offered in text ancillaries can be a powerful tool and easily integrated into the class structure to stimulates the students and make them more eager to learn. In the other language workshops the following teachers ‘sites were highly recommended: [] [] [] Dominique McKenna