Lecture4 Immersion Education

 Immersion Education

　　　Immersion Education is the process of immersing oneself in a language environment so intimately that the language is compared to a liquid. It is one of the learning methods that started in Canada in the 1960s and is now spreading all over the world, including Japan. Immersion education is a method of education in which a foreign language is not used as a subject, but as a means to learn other subjects, and in immersion schools, the target language is used both in and out of class. Trainers and consultants introduce various schemes and techniques to enable every teacher to bring a language focus into their classroom. 

3 principles

- Comprehensible input

- Structured and extended output

- Focus on form:

Lecture3 Working memory

 Working Memory

　　　Working memory differs in that it is an active and goal-oriented temporary memory that is involved in both retention and processing, whereas short-term memory is a passive temporary memory that focuses only on the function of retention. In addition, the dynamic nature of working memory differs from that of short-term memory in that it updates and adjusts information. Alan Baddeley, is a British psychologist. He is known for his research on memory and for developing the three-component model of working memory. is a professor of psychology at the University of York.

　　　Multi-component model of working memory, in this model, three subsystems called the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer are assumed to work together under the central executive function that controls attention. 

●The phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and episodic buffer are assumed to work in a coordinated manner under the phonological loop function. The phonological loop stores audio information and repeats the content aloud in the mind to refresh memory traces and prevent their destruction. 

⇒subvocal rehearsal

●The visuospatial sketchpad also stores visual and spatial information. It can be divided into visual and spatial systems.

●The episodic buffer holds an integrated representation of audio/visual/spatial information, and is also responsible for accessing and integrating long-term memory information. They are called episodic because they are considered to integrate episodically related information. The episodic buffer is similar to episodic memory, which is part of long-term memory, but differs in that it is a short-term memory.

Repetition is key!

Lecture 2 English Education CLT

Communicative Language Teaching 

　　　Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is holistic. It focuses on all the skills and knowledge needed to communicate. As the structuring becomes more and more sophisticated, the activities become more fun and more challenging. These activities are very important in the early stages of language acquisition and are useful for later activities as well. However, care must be taken not to make them too suffering for the students as they increase in difficulty. Teachers need to think about the extent to which they will allow students to make errors.

　　　Intermediate and advanced learners can use more structured exercises to increase their language repertoire. Flexibility of expression can be improved by avoiding the use of limited vocabulary and language patterns.

　

　　　The problems with CLT are that teachers think they should mainly teach grammar, they do not know the real meaning of CLT, and they lack the skills to teach communication. There is no provision in the current CLT methodology for advanced proficiency in the use of language through repeated practice.