Would you want to show your students this video? Why and why not?
Homework is very appropriate for foreign language classes. To me, it's the time spent practicing that really makes you learn a language, and homework is more practice. There isn't enough time in class, whether at the university level or the high school level, to get enough time in with the language. If there was not homework, it would take many more semesters for students to reach the same level of proficiency as it would if there was homework.
Homework for a foreign language class should be given nearly every night for the best results, but it should not be overbearing work or dreadful. A major factor in language learning is the desire and motivation. A teacher should kill their students' potential love of language-learning with too long, too difficult, or seemingly pointless homework.
Homework should be used mostly as practice of grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Culture assignments are good too, but the best culture assignment would be one that incorporates the language into it. In other words, try not to make the entirety of the assignment in English. Culture assignments are a good and easy way to combine nearly all of the six parts I listed above.
Homework should be given after the lesson is taught to reinforce ideas through focused practice on their own. However, homework can be given ahead of time if need be for the lesson planned.
In my experience from homework in high school, teachers tended to focus on writing first, then reading, but speaking and listening never came up in homework. But I think all four are very important and need extra practice at home. With the internet, there are many different resources and ways to do listening especially. I also think that teachers could easily get creative and give their students more speaking homework practice as well. Whether there is proof of having done the assignment, such as a recording, or not, the students who will actually take the assignment seriously will benefit.
And finally, I don't see a problem with showing the video, but I don't think that I would bother or waste my class time to do so.
You have made an interesting point here; using oral assignments as homework. This summer I taught an elementary online Spanish course. I assigned a lot of oral assignments using real-life situations, such as 'tell your best friend five most interesting/boring things you have done in your life' The grammar focus was to use the present perfect like 'I have seen a wonderful movie" or "I have visited Barcelona in Spain", etc. Students used a wonderful digital tool called AudioBoo. It was a great success. Most students enjoyed it very much. With Auidoboo, teachers can provide oral feedback so students can listen to your comments and practice the pronunciation as well. As you said, with the advent of digital technologies, language teachers can easily find freely available digital recording tools. I think teachers should try to use more oral assignments; not just written homework.
ReplyDeleteI entirely agree with you about the usefulness and frequency of homework assignments, but I also see the culture assignments as a tool. I say this because I have always loved the culture assignments and I feel that those can be used to keep the students interested in the material. Of course it should definitely be in the target language to make them use it though. Plus being able to see where the language is used makes it seem more useful to the students, rather than just being something they need to graduate or get into college.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kevin that I always enjoyed the culture assignments, and they can do a world of good to keep students interested in the subject matter. If these culture lessons are in the target language I think that would be extremely beneficial to the students to get as much exposure as possible. I also agree with you, Troy, about showing the video. I might ask the students to watch it as a homework assignment, but I don't know that I would want to take class time to show it. 50 minute classes go by fast enough as it is, and I wouldn't want to spend precious class time with something that they can watch at home.
ReplyDeleteI think that you made a really crucial point here, Troy, about not squashing a student's potential love for language learning. Like you mentioned, homework is absolutely essential to reinforce concepts taught in the classroom, but there is such a thing as overkill. Homework should be relevant, and even fun, but should not consist of "busy work" or overly difficult/tedious activities. There needs to be some sort of healthy balance between, so that students feel like they are actually getting something out of there homework. I think that in a perfect world students would do their homework not just to earn a good grade, but because they feel as though they need to in order to truly understand the material. It would be interesting to study what sorts of homework assignments students perceive as being fun, and if there is any correlation to "fun" homework and "effective" homework (although quantifying "fun" and "effective" would obviously be nearly impossible.)
ReplyDeleteGood topic for a term paper - types of homework using a brief survey to find out about this.
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