How should we expose students to language.

In a classroom, a major part of the teachers job is to expose students to

language so that they can use it later. Here are some examples of how we can do
this.
Example 1 : its a pen ( complete beginners)
Teh teacher is with a group of complete beginners. She wants them to be abla to
say what objects are called. She holds up a pen, points to it and says
pen....look....pen... penas many times as she thinks it necessary. The students
have han a chance to hear the word.
Later, seh may want to go beyond single words, she can hold up the pen and say
listen...its a pen.... its a pen.... its a pen. Once again, she is giving students a
chance to hear the sound of the new language before they try to use it
themselves. Later still, she may start asking the question what is it ? (pointing to
the pen)... what is it ? so that student get a chance to hear what the question
sound like.
Because many people acquire language by hearing them first, many
teachers prefer to expose students to the spoken form first ( as in this example ).
However, some student may need the reassurance of the written word as well
Example 2 : invitations (elementary)
The teacher wants her elementary students to be able to invite each other and
respond ti invitatios. She plays a tape on which the following dialogue is heard.
Sarah : joe ! helllo
Joe

: oh hello, sarah

Sarah : Umm, How are you :

Joe

: Fine, why ?

Sarah : er, no reason.... (pause....nervously ) are you doing anything this evening
?

Joe

: No. Why ?

Sarah : would you like come to the cinema ?

Joe

: yes, that would be great. Well, it depends. Whats on ?

Sarah : the new tarantino film.

Joe

: i suppose, its all violent.

Sarah : yeah, probably. But its meant to be really good

Joe

: i dont usually like violent films.

Sarah : Oh, OK. Well, we could go to pizza place or something

Joe

: im only joking ,id love to come.

The teacher plays the tape more than once so that students get a good chance
to hear the invitation language- some of which ( the present continuous,
vocabulary items ) they probably already know. She may also say the invitation
part of the dialogue herself and she may feel it is a good idea to show the
students a written version.
Why students make mistake ?
All students make mistakes at various stages of their language learning. It is part
of the natural process they are going through and accurs for a number of
reasons. In the firts place, the students own language may get in the way. This is
most obviously the case with false friends- those word which sound or look the
same buat mean something different such asassistir in Spanish which means
attendin Engling and not assist. False friends are more common where the
learners language share a commmon heritage with english.(i.e. Romance
language).
Grammatical considerations matter too: japanese students frequenlty have
trouble with article usage, Germans have to get used to positioning the verb
correctly, Arabic students have to deal with a completely different written system
etc.
Interference form students own language in not the only reason for making
mistakes. There is a cattegory which a number of people call developmental

errors. These are the result of conscious or subconscious processing which

frequently overgeneralises a rule, as, the starts sayingi must to go , not
realising that the use of to is not permitted with must.
Some mistakes are deep seated and need constant attention ( ask experienced
teachers about the third person singular of the present simple). While these are
examples of error, others seem to be more like slip made while students are
simultaneously processing information and there are therefore easier to correct
quickly.
Whatever the reason for getting it wrong, it is vital for the teacher to realise that
all students make mistakes as a natural and useful way of learning. By working
out when and why things have gone wrong, they learn more about the language
they are studying.