Would you think that this was stupid?

[PrincessFiona]

I will be starting an adult german class tonight with two older couples (in their 50's). They are interested in learning german so that they can eventually travel, but are more interested in being able to talk with each other, etc. I have NO experience teaching german to adults...my whole curriculum is based around children. So....do you think it would be stupid to follow my children's curriculum:

First, I believe in the practice of 'immersion' learning, so I will meet them and only speak german to them. (Won't they be surprised). Of course, I will keep it very simple and do a lot of pointing and showing so they know what I'm talking about.

1. Introduce the alphabet and the sounds of the letters. For children, I use my alphabet puzzle. It is 26 pairs of letters with an object that starts with that letter. A and Apfel (apple) for example. I figured I'd bring the puzzle with me for illustration, but of course not expect them to build the puzzle . I could just show them the A and the Apfel and put them together so they understand the sound of the word and see the picture and move on to the next one after they repeat the sound and word.

2. I have these puzzle pieces scanned so that kids can cut them into two pieces..the word and the picture. They can then past them on notecards and play memory with them or go fish ....it teaches vocabulary. I was considering giving them the printouts and having them do that at home...or even bringing my own cards to show them how the games work. Would that be too retarded for adults? I personally don't think it's too lame, but I'm....a big kid.

3. I put together a little book for the kids that uses each word from the alphabet puzzle to make a sentence....example: Der Apfel ist rot. (The apple is red) I have a little mini-page for each lettter of the alphabet. This reinforces the sounds of the letters of the alphabet and the vocab words and introduces sentence structure and some new words...like red/blue/yellow etc. Too stupid for adults?

help...ideas...

kris

[BonBon]

Since they want to learn German for eventual travel, how about also making up some sheets of common phrases with English on one half, German on the other so they can easily fold it in half and quiz themselves. So while they are learning the basics, hopefully sentence construction will sink in a bit with learning the phrases.

Bear in mind that I am not a teacher! Actually, I used to teach reading to adults, but I had a set curriculum to follow.

[Rapunzel]

Kris, I like your ideas.

I am just starting to learn Spanish and I can say that I honestly am doing better if I approach it from the perspective of being a little child just learning language period. So, I have asked the woman working with me to just teach me to speak the language first (just as a little child learns spoken language first). After I feel like I have a good grasp of basic verbal communication in Spanish I'm going to move on to learning to read (and eventually write on my own) in the language.

So, if I were in your class I would first need to know the basic nouns of some things in life followed by basic verbs (listen, look, etc.) and follow mastery of those with the alphabet sounds and their corresponding letters.

After that, I'd move on to helping them build a larger speaking vocabulary of basic nouns and verbs - with the correct verb conjugations.

THEN, I'd teach them how to read simple sentences and signs. Last of all, would be simplistic literature.

For Spanish, at least, I'm finding my hardest sticking points are with the verbs and conjugation of them. The nouns are easy to pick up and if you let them learn a bunch of nouns first it might give them a bit of confidence that they can learn all of this.

Good luck! It sounds like a lot of fun, actually!!

Jennifer

Hi Kris,

Sounds like fun. The only question I have is whether or not you will spend a little time at the very beginning of the class introducing yourself, learning a little about their expectations, and explaining the format i.e. immersion. My only concern (and I'm no language teacher), especially given their age, is that they might be very anxious / uncomfortable if immersion begins immediately prior to introductions / housekeeping stuff. Then again, they could think it's fun, great, wonderful, etc.

[PrincessFiona]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I do always do introductions...and you may be right, Kevin that older individuals may feel more intimated by the jump into immersion thing.

I had kind of assumed that I could introduce myself ie guten abend (good evening) Ich heisse (my name is) and follow it up with a "Wie heissen Sie" (what is your name) and see if I could get them to 'play'. I guess it's my experience that more is learned in terms of vocabulary, grammar etc when you start practicing using a language from the getgo. I am putting together folders for each person (nothing like procrastination) and figured as I hand them out I can say the words over and over again in german...like I do with the kids.

The only reason that I want to start with the alphabet (and yes, I'm now having some serious puzzle and game anxiety) is to introduce basic sounds of letters as well as put some easy vocab together with them.) I figured that from there we could kind of branch out and go basically anywhere????

I am putting together a list of basic german expressions too...I hate doing the english/german translation thing....it's so much better to see it hear it and learn it that way...so you don't' have to constantly be translating in your head.

Now I'm wondering if I should already have some travel words in my lists....

ugh, the anxiety. Did I mention that I'm also doing this for free

[BonBon]

ie guten abend (good evening) Ich heisse (my name is) and follow it up with a "Wie heissen Sie" (what is your name)

Oof, my idea was a very bad one! When I learned Spanish the pronunciations were so easy. I have no freakin clue how to pronounce what you just wrote.

[houseelf]

Kris,

There is a school of thought called the multiple intelligences learning. From what I understand about this method, it takes into consideration that some people are visual, kinetic, aural, etc. learners. To be as effective as possible, you should try to appeal to as many of these "intelligences" as possible. This is one reason that sign language is often taught with foreign vocabulary- the kids can visualize the word and then tap into it. IMHO, immersion is the only way to go.

Kelly

Kris,

Sounds like you're more than ready to go - especially for the first session. And since your planning on introductions and then transitioning into the "immersion," I think that would be great!

Kris, I think your immersion plan is a great idea. The good thing with adults vs children is that if it's really not working out or they're too frustrated with your methods, they'll let you know. I think you should try it your way until you meet strong resistance

I agree with you on trying to avoid translating--- my dad, who is a native Spanish speaker but didn't teach me Spanish-- has always said that's the only way to really learn a language. I think that's a hard idea for students to grasp, however. Certainly when I was studying Spanish in school, I couldn't imagine learning any other way. I think I would have learned better if I hadn't been to taught to translate from the beginning.

How do you usually approach verb conjugations and sentence structure? I know very little about German, but I've heard sentence order is really complicated and difficult.

Der Apfel ist rot

...sounds like Der Apfel should have been in der refrigerator.



Sounds like fun Kris. I am sure that you will have a fun time teaching and they will learn everything that they want/need to make an excursion more fun also.

That's what I thought too!

I think it sounds like a lot of fun. I guess my suggestion, or thing I remember best and used often, is putting the confusing things to a song. Things like accusative pronouns or dative prepositions. I can still sing those silly songs my high school german teacher had us learn, even if I can't put the info to use anymore. Maybe that would be something you could use for much later.
Anyway, I love the alphabet idea. I learned a lot of words just by recalling the picture alphabet at the front of the class. It had things like Vogel (bird) for 'V', with the wings up and spread to form the letter. I liked it. I think its a really good idea to use the lesson plan you use for the kids. Most of the worksheets I did (even in my college classes) could have come right out of a German 3rd grader's grammer book.
This makes me want to go back and brush up. But I don't have anyone to speak it to, so I'd probably just forget it all again anyway.
Haben Sie spass! (I think I remember saying that for 'have fun', but I can't be sure!)

Kris,

Our radio station has been playing a song recently that they say is no. 1 on all the charts in Germany. A four year old girl is singing, and it is really catchy. You should see if you can find it on the internet. Just hearing it made me want to learn German.

[mommax3]

Der Apfel ist rot




...sounds like Der Apfel should have been in der refrigerator.

Dang, Matt, you crack me up!

Sally

I think it's a great idea and I can say I speak from experience. I studied in Denmark for a year and went through an immersion course that did just that - teach us like you would teach a child. I was 17 at the time. My host family even bought me children's books to help and I had a great time learning from those books as well as talking to children. Which in the beginning was all I could do in Danish. In fact the books helped with easing the expectation of speaking perfectly to adults until I had a handle on the basics.
I am proud to admit that people often said I had very little accent. I listened to Danish music a lot as well and I think this helped tremendously.
However, your students might be a little overwhelmed at first and it might be helpful to explain to them your methods and the reasons behind them.
I took a year of German and didn't have the affinity for it as I did Danish and I think it was because I wasn't there or immersed in it. It was also sooo much more difficult when it comes to grammer. German grammar is soo hard!!
I would like to tackle my DH's native language at some point and will buy the children's books to help me along when I do!