Thank you. Great article! As a linguist with a passion for morphology, I have particularly found that knowledge of word parts and affixation translates very well to the ESL classroom. I use a lot of lexical games that build vocab fast and which learners tend to enjoy. Also reassuring to have some validation for my instinct towards emphasis on grammar/function words and high frequency nouns over broad topics.
Loved this! I think a common misconception is that language courses keep introducing notions the same way you would teach a baby. Of course, it's fun for babies to recognise colours and animal cries, but completely pointless for adults. My favourite type of courses builds up from simple useful sentences to add more nuances and details, bit by bit 😊
I am going to write an article about exactly this - I believe it's a great example of the naturalistic fallacy in language learning, just because babies take 5 years to put a good sentence together, doesn't mean it's best for us!
Thank you. Great article! As a linguist with a passion for morphology, I have particularly found that knowledge of word parts and affixation translates very well to the ESL classroom. I use a lot of lexical games that build vocab fast and which learners tend to enjoy. Also reassuring to have some validation for my instinct towards emphasis on grammar/function words and high frequency nouns over broad topics.
Loved this! I think a common misconception is that language courses keep introducing notions the same way you would teach a baby. Of course, it's fun for babies to recognise colours and animal cries, but completely pointless for adults. My favourite type of courses builds up from simple useful sentences to add more nuances and details, bit by bit 😊
Thank you Lou!
I am going to write an article about exactly this - I believe it's a great example of the naturalistic fallacy in language learning, just because babies take 5 years to put a good sentence together, doesn't mean it's best for us!