"The only instance in which the teaching of grammar can result in language acquisition (and proficiency) is when the students are interested in the subject and the target language is used as a medium of instruction."
This interested me because it made me think back to high school Spanish. All the rules and the grammar were so confusing to me, but my teacher (although Spanish himself) spoke in English when explaining them, and it was all very rote and meaningless. He might as well have just left us alone in the room with the textbook.
For me and my teaching, the key is to remember the part about the students needing to be interested in the subject. That's my job right there - make it interesting and meaningful to them! Choose books, websites, research, films, etc. that speak to their interests. And I guess I also need to pack up my gringo-Spanish (which I break out when I feel they're not understanding, hoping to help them) and teach more meaningfully in English. This section of the article really just had an, if you build it, they will come, feel to it for me.
My high school French experience was a little bit of a different experience than yours. My teacher only spoke in French, and we were only allowed to speak in French. She never used visuals or music or anything that would have made conjugating verbs fun or meaningful to me. But, I can remember most of the French songs I learned in French I in 8th grade.
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