One of the most effective ways to develop fluency and confidence in second language learning is to do it through "repetition." But how is "repetition" an inspiring and interesting experience?
During class, I aim at building in many opportunities for students to review what they have learned but at the same time increasing the level of complexity. For example, once the students are confident in saying "hello", they are asked to greet each other. This means that they have the opportunity to practice both the "response" and the "question." By doing role plays or taking a survey, students have many opportunities to practice the same sentence structures. This is far from "dry repetition!"
Grade 3 and 4 students begin to create more realistic "dialogues" which go back and forth between interlocutors. This creates a learning context that is authentic. This is also meaningful and interesting as we learn languages in hope that we can carry on conversations with others. These realistic dialogues serve exactly this purpose. In addition to that, they are working on using vocabulary they have learned from the "colours" unit and the "body parts" unit to describe a monster they have created. This allows them to practice the vocabulary yet again but at the same time, "combine" vocabulary in a new context.
