EduCareer StaffBlog"Rinjin Blog" | "EduCareer"Supporting your career in English teaching in the Japanese school system

Conversation Most Effective for Language Acquisition

2010/11/16

A study from UCLA shows that the most effective way of getting children to learn language is to engage them in conversation. While traditionally parents and educators have been encouraged to provide children with a variety of language input (via storytelling, reading, and instructing), output is more important for language retention. In fact, the study showed that back-and-forth conversation which engaged the child was roughly six times more effective than reading or television watching at encouraging language development.

In classes, we often say we try to maximize student talk time, and that's a laudable goal. But how much "student talk time" in Japanese classrooms is just dialogue or grammar pattern repetition, and not organic conversation? By allowing students to express their own opinions and answer back regardless of skill level, we can encourage their language development. Students need a chance to test out their language skills- while have them listen and repeat gets them making grammatically correct sentences and correct sounds, having them actually speak will encourage them to remember English.

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