Learning a foreign language: Immersion vs. Single-classes

"Those who know nothing of foreign languages, know nothing of their own" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If there is one thing that my three weeks in France have taught me so far is that I have taken my language education for granted. By going through Normandale's French Immersion program, I never truly grasped how to learn a language, only the ability to become fluent in one. And it isn't like I've lived in denial about how to learn a language - I have tried to learn a second foreign language with only very mild success. Still, I have come to the conclusion that it is very, very, very hard to learn a foreign language.

This is only further supported by my observations of the French education system. In collège (middle school), the kids are exposed to english as well as a second foreign language (i.e, spanish, german, italian) so that by the time they are leaving collège for lycée (high school), they can supposedly speak 3 different languages. And this is very evident with the different classes I have worked with. The youngest kids, in the 6ème, speak and understand a beginner's level of english and by the time they are in 3ème, their understanding and ability to speak english is very good.

But then they get into lycée and in France, their lycée system differs a bit from the US system. Students have the ability to take two different tracks for lycée: 1) the lycée générale - where there is an emphasis on language and literature and most students then go on to university and 2) the lycée professionnel - where there is an emphasis on learning a trade (so a vocational school) and upon completion, students go directly into the work force. This means that those in the lycée générale generally have better english skills upon completion than those in the lycée pro. So really, those in the lycée pro, more often than not have the same level of english as those students in the collège.

So for me, even though I might be using the same prep work for both schools because the students' english levels are similar, the ability to get the students to talk differs greatly between the two, which often makes one more challenging and tiring than the other.

I guess the bottom line to me is that even though I understand that learning a new language is hard, I have never truly understood just how hard until now - when I am standing in front of a class of 15 students, all with very very blank looks on their faces, trying to think of yet a new way to convey . Overall, it just makes me appreciate more and more my french education from Normandale - so thank you Mom and Dad!