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The Benefits Of Using Immersion Strategies When Learning A New Language

Posted by Connor Sullivan | October 28, 2009 .
by Connor Sullivan

Jennifer had long enjoyed doing crossword puzzles and taking vocabulary quizzes. She had always had a special knack for understanding English words and their meanings. She had a vast knowledge of grammar rules and had been a spelling bee champion three times. With her interest and skills rooted deeply in these areas, she decided without much difficulty that she wanted to help others learn her native language. She took course work on how to teach others a second language and, with the huge need for her services, was able to begin working right away. Her students ranged from the recently immigrated, to foreign students studying in the States, to older men and women who had long spoken another language as their way of communicating. Aside from her one on one work with her students, Jennifer worked added several immersion exercises into her teaching plans. Her strategies were fun for her students but also very effective when it came to immersing her students in activities where they were required to visually and mentally process language. There are several common, enjoyable, and easy immersion opportunities which language teachers suggest their students explore to help them get a better grasp of the language they are learning.

The first immersion possibility an instructor can suggest to students is participation in a language camp. Having a student get the opportunity to attend a language camp gives them a chance to participate in very specific and structured language activities. For the duration of the camp, students will be with a number of others who are learning as they are and they will be influenced by skilled teachers guiding their daily activities. The camp structure lends itself nicely to full immersion, as a student often attends for several days at a time, limiting outside influences and distractions.

The second immersion exercise a teacher can recommend to their learners is to watch movies or television programs which have been dubbed into the language. This is a visual and auditory exercise and it is thought to work best when a student has some familiarity with the movie or show context prior to viewing. Along these lines, incorporating subtitles can be an interesting exercise as well. The discipline of incorporating the two learning methods of visual and auditory as ways to comprehend, provides a very thorough method of learning.

The third immersion exercise which can pay dividends for students is listening to music or other auditory tapes from the language being learned. Music in particular can be a very valuable tool for teaching. Language accompanied by music can often be easily remembered and can be listened to over and over again with ease and enjoyment.

The final immersion technique is to have students participate in study groups with other learners. Group learning is an excellent tool, as peers help each other learn by participating in conversations with one another and by studying items and concepts together. Group learning provides a low stress environment and can build camaraderie and friendships among those sharing the same goal.

About the Author:
Connor Sullivan recently signed up for practice vocabulary quizzes to help his son prepare for the SAT test. Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.

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