Fluency → Self-confidence → Learning
For over 40 years, I have been
devoting my energy and time to improving the teaching of Second
Languages, mainly French, to a wide range of learners, from Junior
Kindergarten children, to professional adults, university and
homeschooled students. My personal formation, research, writing and
experience have convinced me that the learning and teaching of a Second
Language must give the priority to vocabulary over grammar at the early
stages of the learning process. After all, we learn a language to speak
it first, and in order to become fluent in a particular language, we
must acquire a relevant, rich and practical vocabulary that will enable
us to use the language instantly. Therefore, I believe that fluency in a
language leads to self-confidence and self-confidence leads to learning
and not the other way around.
Finally, my video-courses aim
at helping the students fulfill their dream of speaking the language
first, understanding what they say, using it at ease, reading it with
intonation and expression and then writing it. These steps, in my view,
help students raise their level of verbal fluency rather than their
level of frustration, and prepare them, in a real and not perceived way,
to never say again:
"I understand the question but I am not confident enough to respond".