Outside the classroom

 According to Standards for Foreign Language Learning, there are several necessary components of language learning. These standards are called the five C's: communication,culture,connections,comparisons and communities. These are used as guides for educators to give students the best possible chance of acquiring a second language. For now, I will focus on culture and community.

 Section 2.1 refers to the practice of a culture, a sort of recognition of an accepted norm, referred to as "what to do when and where". 2.2 goes on to discuss the products of a culture. This is the aspect I find the most useful. A product or creation of a culture can be so telling. With this you gain so much insight into the belief system. In my classroom, I would encourage everyone to share a product of their own culture and I will share one of mine.  School house rocks,way better than any textbook grammar lesson.

Onto community, Section 5.2 deals with students becoming life-long language learners. I think of this part of the language acquisition process as the time when you get to sit back and reap the benefits of years of hard work. By this point there are probably several TV shows, songs, websites that have become part of your daily ritual. Second thing to share with students: proof that we will always need languages other than English, untranslatable words.