Use it to learn it

What do you look for in classes? Is it something you want to put on your résumé, or do you actually want to feel like you’ve learned something? Do you prefer lectures, or do you like hands-on classes? For different people, it is different things.

SpeakEasy, a class based on CBI, or “content-based instruction,” has the idea that a language is better learned when it is being used for a purpose other than just learning about the language. Currently, the German and French departments are working together to create SpeakEasy Language Learning products. This year, they are working to create multilingual and sustainable greeting cards that they sell on campus.

The main point of these kinds of classes is that students and teachers acquire an identity other than just student and teachers.

“CBI-type language instruction is far more common in K–12. Two of my daughters went all the way through school here in Portland in the Japanese immersion program. Much of their subject-area learning was experienced in Japanese,” said Dr. William Fischer of the German Department. “A great advantage here is that people can learn both subject-area knowledge and a language at the same time. The school doesn’t have to create another classroom period. Those kids have to be in school anyway, so why not have a teacher that can teach, for example, music while speaking French? For really young learners, CBI is the only way to go.”

Is that not one of the greatest programs you have heard of? From what I remember of learning French in middle school, I was doing grammar lectures and vocabulary games every day, none of which made me want to learn anything more about the language than my mother knew. Even now, being a French major myself, the classes I am limited to are grammar lectures and literature classes from the 17th Century. What do you do if you still want to learn the language but are not interested in Louis XIV?

But it’s not just for the young learners. PSU works with this idea. For example, there is a greeting card program that has recently been heard of on campus. You know, the ones made from elephant poop. Using a foreign language in a manner different than just sitting in a class lecture can help build foreign language skills in a more fun and effective way.

Lisa Gresham, a student currently enrolled in “FR 399: Business Simulation,” commented on the class by saying, “I’ve felt like I am able to focus more on communicating rather than memorization and regurgitation of information, and I think in that sense it more closely mirrors a real world immersion experience.  In a class like this we are looking at language acquisition from a different angle. My other French classes have been invaluable this term as well, but I think this class is an excellent complimentary course to traditional lecture. I feel like I’m getting a little bit of everything.”

The important concept to understand is that CBI classes can benefit students and teachers by easing the transition from a focus on language to a focus on content.