I want to teach languages quickly with reliable results.
Too many people take language classes and don’t reach their desired level of proficiency. I want to change this. You should be able to take a class and feel confident you’ll reach, at a minimum, a basic conversational level as a direct result of the class.
For example, when I took swim lessons, basically everyone who attended classes regularly could swim a length within a few months. In other words, the swim lessons delivered results quickly and reliably. This is not the case with most language classes I’ve come across.
Here’s what I think my teaching curriculum should look like. This might be flawed, but it’s where I’m at now.
Train the ears to hear the sounds of the target language
Train the mouth to say the sounds of the target language
Learn grammar that’s essential for communication. In Spanish, that would equate to learning the past, present, and future tenses primarily in the I and you (yo and tú) forms. There will be a few other grammar fundamentals, but I haven’t quite figured out what they should be. French, so far, seems to mirror Spanish in terms of the grammar points that matter most
Learn 25 high-frequency words a week. That equates to 600 words in 6 months. I think that combining these words with grammar essentials should allow the learner to reach a basic conversational level within 6 months or less
The golden question left to be answered now is this: how realistic is it to learn 25 words a week?
To start searching for an answer to this question, I will spend 30-45 minutes a day on a brand new language I know nothing about to see how much I’m able to pick up. Let’s see how this goes!
Thanks for reading this! Contact me if you have any comments/questions or if you’d like to try some discounted or free lessons for beginner French/Spanish as I develop the new curriculum and teaching methods.