Learning How to Teach Foreign Language

Anyone who's ever tried to learn a foreign language knows how difficult and frustrating it can be. Memorizing verb conjugations and adjective declinations is never any fun, especially when there's no immediate connection to real language usage. And in Germany, that's exactly what educators want to change.

The scene repeats itself over and over again, wherever a foreign language is being taught. Teachers spend hours going over rules and regulations, quizzing pupils, forcing them to repeat banal sentences like, "My name is... What's your name" until the intonation is exactly right and everyone can go home feeling they got the gist of speaking the new language.

But did the pupils really learn anything?

Chances are they didn't. Neither the pupils who dutifully repeat the question and answer game nor the teachers who instruct it have fully embraced the concept of learning a foreign language. And once the pupils are placed in an environment where they're forced to speak the foreign language, they'll suddenly realize that all their schoolbook learning amounts to very little.

Languages live through real usage, through constant contact with people who rely on it to communicate, to convey ideas and thoughts, to conduct business and tell stories. Unfortunately, much of foreign language instruction in schools is passive in nature and places more emphasis on grammar than on actual application of the language.

The European Year of Languages which concluded on Friday was designed to draw attention to the need for more applied foreign language learning. Language classes need to prepare pupils to go out into the world and communicate with foreigners, otherwise there's no incentive to learn, the European Commission on Languages stated in its summary report.

Germany's report card

The German Minister for Education, Edelgard Bulmahn, endorsed the Commission's report and presented her ministry's goals for foreign language instruction over the next several years.

Foreign language is a life-long process the minister stated, and it needs to encompass more than just the traditional language classes in school. Exchange programs and study abroad options, for example, should be made available to everyone, she said.

Foreign language instruction needs to start earlier, the minister said. In Germany, most pupils don't begin learning their first foreign language until after the third year of elementary school. The federal state of Baden-Württemberg is an exception with its early language acquisition program for the first year of school.

Language learning also needs to be linked more closely with employment opportunities. In the future certain jobs will only be available to applicants with good foreign language skills.

To prepare pupils for future jobs, schools and teachers need to offer more applied language instruction, not just language for language's sake. Buhlman suggested that schools could offer more cross-over instruction, in which the foreign language is spoken in science or math, for instance. This way the pupils would get used to talking about complex topics in a foreign language, a skill they will need later in their jobs.

The President of the German Camber of Trade and Industry, Ludwig Georg Braun, underlined the importance of foreign language for the future: "Learning a language is crucial to understanding in a global economy, for the understanding between different cultures and for tolerance."

A failure to recognize the need to improve the way foreign language is taught today could spell failure for the future of a united Europe based on dialogue between the different cultures that live here.