Language Immersion Method
What is 'The Language Immersion Method'
Firstly, what do you understand when you hear the words language immersion method? Well, the easiest and way to describe it would be to say that you are immersing yourself in the language. Secondly, how would you do that ?
The most obvious answer would be to go and live in the country and be forced to deal with day to day life in a new language, sooner or later you will pick up words and phrases. After a short time, some of those daunting tasks you had to do when you first arrived, you are now performing in a foreign language. Yay!
But of course, Not everyone can just jump on a plane and go and set up home in another country because they want to learn the language!
So what can you do? Lets go back the first question. In order to know what we can do we must understand exactly what immersing oneself into a language actually means. It simply means surrounding yourself in the English language and if possible using it.
If you want to study English and you have one class a week and you don’t incorporate any other means of English language from one class to another, would you say you are benefiting from your classes? – Probably not.
What can you do to improve your English at home?
- You can watch TV in English if you can change the audio language.
- Listen to a UK radio station online.
- Watch movies in English.
- Listen to an English Podcast.
- Find a food recipe in English and prepare the food using the English instructions.
- And of course, the most important thing is to have regular English classes with a native English teacher.
These are some suggestions that you can implement to surround yourself with the English language. If you are lucky enough to have native English friends or co-workers then you can practice what you learn during your classes or courses with native speakers.
What are the benefits of language immersion?
There are plenty of reasons to learn a foreign language through immersion methods. Here are the most important ones.
- Immersion learning improves your communication skills when speaking English, because you are conversing with English natives. During conversation, you will pick up their pronunciation and this will help with your own pronunciation.
- Speaking with natives from the start of your English language journey takes away the fear most of us have when speaking in another language.
- Most often your English speaking friends will tell you about their cultures, if they don’t, Ask them! You will learn how we celebrate different events and typical and traditional elements of British life.
- With all the extra information you will learn from English people or our traditions, you will probably develop more of an interest into learning the language in more depth.
- At some point you will start to think in English when conversing , rather than thinking in your own language and translating it during conversations. This will come naturally as with all language learning, but it will happen quicker when using the Immersion method.
How it works?
If you choose to have face to face classes then straight away you are going to be experiencing the immersion method. During face to face classes all instructions are given in the target language – English. Sometimes at the beginning, when we learn a new language using this method it can seem a little complicated. There maybe occasions where you will need the vocabulary in your own language, in these cases we can just find it. Generally, by using hand gestures, images, and real objects this isn’t often necessary and the understanding is immediate.
When we learn grammar, the explanation of the grammar structures can be confusing for some. For this reason, I use a structure key and visual images to show how we structure sentences, when we use them and any additional information relating to that piece of grammar. Using visible aids, especially at the beginning, speeds up the process of learning.