http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/537867

Common sense of teaching foreign languages

The Silent Way is a philosophy of foreign language teaching which emphasizes the importance of allowing learners to use their natural learning resources. This volume provides practical guidelines in connection with the following chapters: (1) "Freeing the Students"; (2) "The Most Basic Component"; (3) "The Next Step"; (4) "Perception"; (5) "Independence, Autonomy and Responsibility"; (6) "Uses of Rods and Charts"; (7) "Exploiting the Functional Vocabulary"; (8) "Reading and Writing in the New Language"; (9) "Expansion of Vocabulary"; (10) "Evaluating Progress"; (11) "Short Passages and Stories." The first step allows the students to concentrate on how words and sentences should sound in the target language. The second is to teach the language's numerical system, as students are familiar with their own. Colored rods and charts are used to illustrate various forms of the language, to build vocabulary and sentence structure, and for reading and writing instruction. Further vocabulary building is accomplished through the use of illustrations and worksheets. Measures of proficiency inherent in the Silent Way provide continuous feedback and assessment of students' progress. As an introduction to literature in the target language, two texts are suggested: "Short Passages," written for students of the Silent Way; and "Eight Tales," a short collection of short stories. Appendices contain sample sentences for word charts in French, Italian, Spanish, and Mandarin. (Am).

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