{"id":18536,"date":"2018-06-13T11:05:29","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T15:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/?p=18536"},"modified":"2021-04-30T14:21:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T18:21:19","slug":"teaching-novice-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Novice Learners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my late twenties, I found myself running a foreign language department&#8211;despite lacking both the academic qualifications and practical experience required to do so&#8211;and dealing with a faculty complaint. \u00a0A student taking Spanish 101 told me that her instructor was \u201cincompetent\u201d and should be fired because \u201cshe didn\u2019t teach us any of the words. She started the class speaking Spanish!\u201d I was taken aback by the complaint, largely because I couldn\u2019t conceive of any other way to teach a foreign language class. \u00a0Of course, the teachers should only speak the target language. I defended the faculty member, stumbling over an explanation that referenced implicit learning and probably didn\u2019t make much sense to the student.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was the first of many, many times I would get that question throughout my career: \u00a0How can I learn a language when I don\u2019t know anything? Or, how can I speak only English when my students cannot understand me? \u00a0While I can\u2019t go back in time and better help that Spanish 101 student, I can try to offer an explanation that makes sense. Ultimately, what it comes down to is setting expectations. \u00a0Language learners&#8211;especially the true beginners&#8211;need to understand that picking up a new language is completely different from studying something like math or geography.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, we have to accept that things are hard for the true beginner. \u00a0Good teachers of any subject know that it\u2019s a bad idea to begin the very first class off with your hardest materials&#8211;you don\u2019t want to discourage your students before they even get started. The problem is that there\u2019s no good way around this with language teaching&#8211;listening to someone talk to you in a language you don\u2019t understand is an aggravating and frustrating experience. \u00a0That\u2019s a fact. That doesn\u2019t mean we should avoid it; learning to do new things is hard. Learning to do <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">really hard<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> new things can feel impossible. \u00a0Knowing that is the secret to approaching language learning with a good attitude.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If a new student understands that he is going to spend thirty minutes immersed in a new language, and at the end, he might understand three words, and, if, perhaps more importantly, he understands that he is only expected to understand two words, he is certain to approach the whole experience differently. He won\u2019t be as frustrated that he doesn\u2019t understand everything. \u00a0And after a week of learning a few words at a time, he will start to have the building blocks to understand more and more. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second, we should try very hard to teach new beginners with materials that offer context clues, conversational markers, and images. \u00a0Learners should listen to video and audio recordings over and over until they can understand the sounds. New language learners should be prepared to listen and read many different examples of people doing the same thing so that they can isolate the words and expressions that are being used. \u00a0A language course that offers twenty different audio recordings of people introducing themselves at a meeting is going to seem very boring to a fluent speaker, but it is just what a novice learner needs. And we should make sure that the novice learner understands that, as well.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Novice learners and their teachers need to be willing to embrace the foolish. \u00a0Take travel, for example: Experienced travelers understand that if you\u2019re willing to come across as a bit of an idiot, you can almost always communicate in a foreign context using body language, gestures, pantomime, and shared context. \u00a0The guy behind the dairy counter knows I want to buy something from him, and if I point, offer him cash, and indicate how big a piece of the cheese I want to buy, there\u2019s a pretty good chance that we\u2019ll each be able to walk away satisfied. \u00a0The first steps of learning a new language are pretty similar&#8211;the teacher needs to be willing to pantomime, use gestures, and repeat herself over and over. And when students start speaking, they need to be willing to sound a bit foolish and make mistakes. \u00a0At the risk of sounding like a broken record, learning a language is learning a new skill, and all skill acquisition requires that people be willing to fail. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What it comes down to is setting expectations. \u00a0That Spanish 101 student would likely not have complained that her teacher didn\u2019t teach her the right words if she had known that she wasn\u2019t supposed to understand everything. \u00a0That, in fact, not understanding anything was a necessary step to learning Spanish. If we make sure that true beginners understand that learning a language is hard work and that they aren\u2019t expected to understand everything at once, then we would be setting them up for success.<\/span><span class=\"google\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teaching a foreign language to first-time learners is hard.  Students wonder how they can possibly language the language when they don&#8217;t know anything, and teachers grapple with speaking in the target language even when they know their students don&#8217;t fully understand.  Ultimately, it comes down to setting expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":23768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[744],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metodologia-de-capacitacion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Teaching Novice Learners - Voxy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Teaching a foreign language to first-time learners is hard. Students wonder how they can possibly language the language when they don&#039;t know anything, and teachers grapple with speaking in the target language even when they know their students don&#039;t fully understand. Ultimately, it comes down to setting expectations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teaching Novice Learners - Voxy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Teaching a foreign language to first-time learners is hard. Students wonder how they can possibly language the language when they don&#039;t know anything, and teachers grapple with speaking in the target language even when they know their students don&#039;t fully understand. Ultimately, it comes down to setting expectations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Voxy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/goVOXY\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-13T15:05:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-30T18:21:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"5472\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"3648\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Katie Nielson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kbnielson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Voxy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Escrito por\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Katie Nielson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dr. Katie Nielson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/5b3551307facb16fe9c05bd68bd155b9\"},\"headline\":\"Teaching Novice Learners\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-13T15:05:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-30T18:21:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/\"},\"wordCount\":803,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Metodologia De Capacitaci\u00f3n\"],\"inLanguage\":\"es\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/\",\"name\":\"Teaching Novice Learners - Voxy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-13T15:05:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-30T18:21:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/5b3551307facb16fe9c05bd68bd155b9\"},\"description\":\"Teaching a foreign language to first-time learners is hard. Students wonder how they can possibly language the language when they don't know anything, and teachers grapple with speaking in the target language even when they know their students don't fully understand. Ultimately, it comes down to setting expectations.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg\",\"width\":5472,\"height\":3648},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Teaching Novice Learners\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/\",\"name\":\"Voxy\",\"description\":\"Learn a language from life\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"es\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/5b3551307facb16fe9c05bd68bd155b9\",\"name\":\"Dr. Katie Nielson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/60dc23b7035a898a8c5a58dc546bec81.jpg?ver=1776263154\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/60dc23b7035a898a8c5a58dc546bec81.jpg?ver=1776263154\",\"caption\":\"Dr. Katie Nielson\"},\"description\":\"Katharine Nielson, Ph.D. leads a team of curriculum specialists, data analysts, and research associates to develop test items, curate language learning content, develop curricula, and run empirical studies. She\u2019s spent twenty years teaching languages, researching how to teach languages, and teaching people how to teach languages in various settings around the world.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/katienielson\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/@kbnielson\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Teaching Novice Learners - Voxy","description":"Teaching a foreign language to first-time learners is hard. Students wonder how they can possibly language the language when they don't know anything, and teachers grapple with speaking in the target language even when they know their students don't fully understand. Ultimately, it comes down to setting expectations.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"Teaching Novice Learners - Voxy","og_description":"Teaching a foreign language to first-time learners is hard. Students wonder how they can possibly language the language when they don't know anything, and teachers grapple with speaking in the target language even when they know their students don't fully understand. Ultimately, it comes down to setting expectations.","og_url":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/","og_site_name":"Voxy","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/goVOXY\/","article_published_time":"2018-06-13T15:05:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-04-30T18:21:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":5472,"height":3648,"url":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dr. Katie Nielson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@kbnielson","twitter_site":"@Voxy","twitter_misc":{"Escrito por":"Dr. Katie Nielson","Tiempo de lectura":"4 minutos"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/"},"author":{"name":"Dr. Katie Nielson","@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/5b3551307facb16fe9c05bd68bd155b9"},"headline":"Teaching Novice Learners","datePublished":"2018-06-13T15:05:29+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-30T18:21:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/"},"wordCount":803,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg","articleSection":["Metodologia De Capacitaci\u00f3n"],"inLanguage":"es"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/","url":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/","name":"Teaching Novice Learners - Voxy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg","datePublished":"2018-06-13T15:05:29+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-30T18:21:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/5b3551307facb16fe9c05bd68bd155b9"},"description":"Teaching a foreign language to first-time learners is hard. Students wonder how they can possibly language the language when they don't know anything, and teachers grapple with speaking in the target language even when they know their students don't fully understand. Ultimately, it comes down to setting expectations.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/dylan-gillis-533818-unsplash.jpg","width":5472,"height":3648},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/blog\/teaching-novice-learners\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Teaching Novice Learners"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#website","url":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/","name":"Voxy","description":"Learn a language from life","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/5b3551307facb16fe9c05bd68bd155b9","name":"Dr. Katie Nielson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es","@id":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/60dc23b7035a898a8c5a58dc546bec81.jpg?ver=1776263154","contentUrl":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/60dc23b7035a898a8c5a58dc546bec81.jpg?ver=1776263154","caption":"Dr. Katie Nielson"},"description":"Katharine Nielson, Ph.D. leads a team of curriculum specialists, data analysts, and research associates to develop test items, curate language learning content, develop curricula, and run empirical studies. She\u2019s spent twenty years teaching languages, researching how to teach languages, and teaching people how to teach languages in various settings around the world.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/katienielson\/","https:\/\/x.com\/@kbnielson"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voxy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}