Language Models in Education: Effective Teaching Strategies
Which Language Model Should Be Taught in School?
Steps to Implement Effective Language Education
There is no single language learning model that is valid for all languages due to the variety of situations that produce contact between languages. Therefore, we cannot speak of a single model. The school’s position regarding language, based on an analysis of the environment’s needs, should be object-oriented and follow progressive lines of action. Teachers often feel a sense of frustration when they cannot see immediate results. Reinforcement of our language and instrumental mastery involves slow and progressive learning. Sometimes, students do not realize what they are learning, and teachers can only see the long-term results. When analyzing the evolution of education, we realize that schools have changed a lot and have a significant capacity for modification. The transition from previous school models to today’s has been a very important step in just a few years.
The center has language projects that the school uses to develop its own strategy based on its specific characteristics, and thus it can propose a real normalizing action. We understand that the school is an agent of linguistic standardization and has a shared responsibility.
Model for Language Education
The school has responsibilities concerning language. One of these responsibilities is to provide a model, but what model should the school provide? The school must teach the general standard rule, giving preference to the forms characteristic of the region that are used in this sense, and ensuring systematic understanding of other possibilities of these forms in different regional standards.
We understand that every child arrives at school and needs to find in the speech of teachers a form closer to their home environment. This is especially true for younger pupils. Teachers have to make an effort to adapt their language to children in order to establish a dialogue.
The jump or gap between the language of home and school is a cause of school failure. Clearly, these differences must be ironed out if students are to progressively develop their communication skills. We also note the difference between a receptive linguistic domain, which involves understanding texts from around the linguistic domain, and being able to actively use this baggage. A school’s function is to ensure that all children know there are differences between languages and that they do not have any comprehension problems when they read texts containing expressions and words that do not belong to their regional standard.
The school should provide the necessary flexibility for students to be able to express themselves widely in their own dialect and to learn to use the regional standard. In other words, children learn to interact with different languages depending on the situation: colloquial dialect with parents, friends, and family, and more precise, formal, and objective language with strangers, teachers, and in school settings.
Key Considerations
- Facts to know: Dialectal synonymy and phonetic diversity.
- Linguistic skills to practice: Understanding different texts.
- Attitudes to promote: Respect for different varieties, curiosity to discover, assessment of communicative ability, and so on.
A slang represents linguistic wealth, but it is truly enriching when we act summatively, that is, when it is added to other forms of language. What we need to achieve is for young people to learn and use other forms, thereby extending and adapting to the diversity of communication situations. Slang arises from communication within a particular social group (young people, professional groups, friends, etc.) and is a dialect.
Finally, remember that the language model proposed by the school is not the only one the student receives. Students also benefit from the influence of family, television, the street, stories, and other sources.