[MUSIC] Welcome back to Teach English Now. Today, we are going back in time to examine an approach called the reading approach. This approach was mainly seen in public schools starting the 1930s. The approach came about partly as a reaction. A move to the other side of the pendulum if you will, from the direct approach we saw in Module Two. You see, most people in the 1930's didn't really have opportunities to travel all over the world and so communication was not seen as a major goal of language learning in public schools. It was also hard to find teachers who knew the language well enough to teach the direct approach. Oh, and one more thing. A third reason for the emergence of this approach, was the advent of standardized testing, that became more and more prevalent around this time. [NOISE] So with that in mind, let's set the dial to 1930. Are you ready? Okay, here we go. [NOISE] [SOUND] Oh, seriously these migraines are gonna kill me. Those monsters. Oh, whoa. Hey. Did the principal send you? Who? What? Where did you come from? Oh, okay as long as the principal didn't send you. You don't mind if I [SOUND] sit down do you? [SOUND] Thanks. I'm sorry if I seem a bit tired, but I just finished teaching seven classes of French to a bunch of eighth graders who couldn't care less about learning French. You think my student's are ever gonna go to France. Heck I only went once and they made me the French teacher. To be honest I have a degree in economics. But they closed down that class because of lack of interest. [LAUGH] Sorry, economics joke. Anyway, what's that? You're time travellers. You have six questions to ask about teaching languages. All right, let's get this over with. I have to coach softball in about an hour. I get an extra 20 bucks for that gig. All right, what's the first question? What was that? You wanna know why we should teach languages? Well, listen. As fun as it would be to go all over the world with Captain Adventure, I'm a real teacher and I teach normal students. My students are never gonna travel to a different country. Are yours? No, of course not! They're normal students, so they don't need to know how to speak a language with the natives and get all touchy feely with a culture. Do you wanna know what they do need to do? Pass the test the administration wants me to give at the end of the semester. They need that, and the only way they'll be able to do that is by learning how to read enough, know enough vocabulary and grammar so they can take that test. And you want a bit more honesty? Can you close the door? I don't want the principal to hear this. All right. Okay here's the truth. This is a job and I get paid to do this job. Am I right? Of course I'm right. I'm a real teacher and I have bosses and I have to do what they say. And I do this for money, so sue me. My job is to teach these monsters of mine to learn a little bit of French and then just go away and leave me alone. [SOUND] All right. You wanna know who we should teach? Well, we should teach real students. Normal students. They're kids who sit in class all day and then go home and forget everything they just learned. They won't use French when they go home. So they won't remember most of what I teach them during the day. Just saying the truth. All right, next question. Materials. Let's see. Well we need books, of course. Can't read without books and the administration tells me which books to use, so I usually teach whatever they give me. We are also given a list of vocabulary words and grammar so the students can memorize them and prepare for the test. That's about all I used to teach. What's the next question? Mm-hm. How do people learn languages? [LAUGH] I don't know. I've got an economics degree. Well all right, well my students probably won't learn the language. But maybe I don't know if they learn a few vocabulary words, and maybe read a book in French, then I would be thrilled. They can do that by memorizing a bunch of vocabulary words and grammar patterns and translating from French into English, you know. Next. How should a teacher teach? That's funny. All right, word of advice, pace yourself. Seriously. Okay, and obviously teachers should give students books to read in the language. I have all of my students reading the same book and they have to read the same chapter each night, then I give them a quiz, same quiz the next day with the same questions about the chapter they just read. The quiz is based of the test they're gonna have to take at the end of the year. All right, last question. Oh man, I don't know. I guess we help students learn some of the language by having them keep reading. Who knows, maybe some of them will take French in college. If I'm lucky. The more they read, the more language they will pick up. Seriously. I just hope enough of them will pass the test at the end of the year so I can get my contract renewed. Know what I mean? [MUSIC]
