Teaching English to Speakers of German and Spanish, too, over the years has enabled me to discover insights into the language (of the other) and other ways of thinking and arguing, too. Sometimes I have benefited from taking on several languages at the same time. For example, in Germany I studied both Spanish and French. In Mexico, I took French again. Back in the USA (in 1995 after teaching in Japan for two years), I took courses at the university level in Japanese, Spanish and German simultaneously one spring. .
Admittedly, now for some years I have felt stuck at a beginning level in Arabic and am currently not doing very well at learning Arabic--even as I teach in the Middle East. On the one hand, Arabic is particularly difficult because there are so many dialects and almost no one can speak formal Arabic well in the towns where I have been living and working for over a decade. On the other hand, I am also now married and have a child so I do not have as much time to spend on myself for studying nor for practicing new languages.
WE KEEP TRYING
Nonetheless, in order to maintain my own German language skills, I have recently offered to teach German for the first time in two decades here at the college where I am now working. In addition, last month I downloaded a language learning application onto my smart phone. The application is called Duolingo.[3]
Since downloading applications is a new concept for me, I decided to download French from Duolingo--rather than trying out still another language. I had thought, "I haven't lived in France for over 3 decades, so I need hone skills related to that language first."
As I subsequently tried out the French language Duolingo application a few times on my cellphone--by practicing and then taking some basic tests--, I experienced one of those "Ahah" moments again.
Let me explain!
Many Arab students who take my English classes these days often arrive in my classrooms with terrible writing skills. That is, they often make basic spelling word errors and basic grammar mistakes--even after having already experienced seven or more years of English teaching in the local public schools.
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