ศาลาชุมนุม

[Yehor13]

Every language tutor sometimes encounters a question: what is the best way to teach languages? Every competent tutor asks that question to himself at least once in a while, and unfortunately, not all of them find the answer which is satisfying for them. Also, there are many services for tutotrs and freelancers. They can get very good experience there. I know pretty good one freelance service of translation. There are many ways to improve your tutor skills. Very simple service, as for me.
If you know another services, please share with us, it's very important for beginners.

However, we’ll try to outline the methods used in teaching the languages, their pros and cons and what kind of method can be considered as “the best” one.

Textbook method.
The “traditional” method of learning languages relies heavily on textbooks and memorizing the grammar along with seeing it in action by paying attention to examples provided by the tutor and trying to learn to do the same by understanding the process. While this method is not bad because it’s proven to work for a big number of people, it’s not without flaws and issues.
Speech skills require practical knowledge, and relying on theoretical knowledge alone won’t bring the desired result. Without practice and setting the entire grammar in stone, the “rules” set by the grammar will make a noticeable “latency” in speech, as the person who writes more than speaks spends more time processing the language through the grammar he or she learned so far, thus slowing down conversations.

Practical method.
Practical method usually involves students and native language speakers conversing with each other and putting the knowledge acquired by theoretical method to proper use. Tutoring this way is easier, as it assumes that the student has prior knowledge of theoretical part of the language (at least most of the basics which allow building proper sentences) and is ready to learn things on the fly.
This way the student quickly learns how to interpret the language and speak it in a faster and more efficient manner. However, without prior grammar and without constant learning of additional parts of the language, this method will not be as efficient as one wants it.

Just talking.
It’s just like the practical method, except it’s less about learning and more about acquiring skills on the go. While this method is not exactly related to tutoring, as any native speaker can take the place of the tutor, it’s a good way for anyone who speaks the language to help those who need practice.
This method is especially useful when travelling abroad. This way you can learn more by talking to people — by learning about their mentality, culture and views you might acquire the necessary information to push yourself forward. For example, you can focus on trying to sound more native, which will help you a lot in the process, because by learning their culture from the inside you’ll intuitively start grasping the aspects most people tend to miss during studies. The tutor in this case can get involved only if he knows the culture of the language of choice, and it’s more than recommended to get involved if the tutor is a native speaker.

Now when you know several ways of tutoring and helping people in learning the foreign language, perhaps you feel like you’re ready to become a tutor?
If so, then don’t hesitate to give it a try!

[Tomke__987]

I've read The Third Ear by Chris Lonsdale. It does not answer your question 'Best way to teach', but it does give
insights into 'Best way to learn'. This might be a question that is helpfull to answer your question.
This book explains five principles and seven actions, needed to learn a language efficiently. It is just
one of the many views how to learn, but I found it usefull.


This TED-talk gives you a quick insight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yGdNEWdn0



Written summary:

The Five Principles

Lonsdale’s five principles of rapid language acquisition are the following:

1. Focus on language content that is relevant to you. Why do you want to learn to speak a second language? Look at the following:

Do you want to learn Italian so that you can understand opera? If so, then concentrate on words and phrases that you would hear in Puccini’s operas.
Do you want to learn to speak Mandarin so that you can communicate with your business partners in China? Then focus on learning words and phrases in Mandarin that are related to business.
2. Use the new language as a tool to communicate. Instead of simply learning the language in an academic setting, put yourself in situations which force you to use the language in order to be able to communicate with others.

3. When you first understand the message, you will unconsciously acquire the language. When you’re first trying to learn a new language, instead of trying to understand the words that someone is using to talk to you, try to understand what they’re trying to say through their gestures, body language, and facial expressions.

That is, at first you don’t derive meaning from the language, but from the interaction. This is something called comprehensional input, and it’s been well documented.

4. Learning a language is not about acquiring knowledge. Instead, in many ways it’s about physiological training.

First of all, we have filters in our brains that filter in sounds that we’re familiar with, and that filter out sounds that we’re not familiar with. And if you can’t hear it, you can’t learn it. Therefore, you have to continually listen to the sounds of the language that you’re trying to learn in order to train your brain to let in the new sounds.

In addition, talking requires using your facial muscles. You have 43 muscles in your face. You have to coordinate those muscles in a way that makes sounds that others can understand

5. Your psychological state matters. If you’re sad, angry, worried, or upset, you’re not going to learn the new language. If you’re happy, relaxed, and curious, you’re going to learn the new language quickly. In addition, you need to be tolerant of ambiguity. At first when people speak to you in the language that you’re trying to learn, you’ll understand very little. But that’s OK.

The Seven Actions

Based on the five principles that were explained above, there are seven actions that you need to take in order to learn a new language quickly and efficiently. The seven actions which Lonsdale recommends are the following:

1. Listen; a lot. Lonsdale calls this brain soaking. It doesn’t matter if at first you don’t understand what you’re listening to. You’re listening to recognize patterns, words that repeat, and things that stand out. In addition, you’re listening to the rhythm of the language.

2. Focus on getting the meaning first, even before you get the words. From body language you can understand a lot of communication. You’ll be acquiring the language through comprehensional input.

3. Start mixing. If you know ten verbs, ten nouns, and ten adjectives in the new language, you can say 1000 different things. Language is a creative process. Look for ways to get your meaning across by using the words that you know.

4. Focus on the core. With every language there’s high frequency content. As an illustration, in English, one thousand words cover 85% of anything you’re going to say in daily life. Three-thousand words give you 98% coverage. All the other words in the English language are the icing on the cake.

5. Get a language parent. When you start learning a language your progress will probably look like the following:

Week 1: Continually ask “What is this?”, “How do you say . . .”, “Can you say that again?”, “Can you repeat that?” Always ask these questions in the language that you’re trying to learn.
Week 2 and 3: You should be using very simple nouns, verbs, and pronouns (“you”, “me”, “that”, “hot”, “give”, and so on).
Week 4: You’re using glue words, such as “and”, “but”, “even though”, “therefore”, and so on. These words tie bits of language together so that you can make more complex meaning. At this point you’re talking in the new language.
This is where you want to get a language parent. That is, someone who will treat you like a parent treats their child when the child is learning to speak. This language parent can recognize what you’re saying, even when others don’t understand. They create a safe environment for you, which makes you more confident in your ability to learn the new language.

The four rules for a language parent are the following:

They will work hard to understand what you’re trying to say.
They don’t correct your mistakes.
They confirm understanding by using correct language.
They use words that you know and also communicate with gestures and body language.
6. Copy the face. In order to learn to make the sounds that will allow you to speak the new language, you have to watch the face of people who speak that language. How does their face move when they’re speaking? Mimic their facial movements.

7. “Direct Connect” to mental images. Most people learning to speak another language will make a list of words that they want to learn in their mother tongue, and next to each word they’ll place the equivalent in the language that they’re trying to learn. Then they just go over the list repeatedly in the hopes of memorizing the words in the new language. This is very inefficient.

[Yehor13]

Thank you, very good and important information for beginners or for those who want to learn any foreing lang very fast
I will watch it soon.

[Ruffian Dick]

From a practical point (tourist French for instance), it's best to understand the possible answers as well as how to ask the question in the first place. It makes no sense asking for directions if you don't understand the directions.