Truly Foreign Languages: Instructional Challenges

Abstract

The teaching of a foreign language to any individual necessarily involves the bringing together of two languages and two cultures: the student's native language and culture—the base—and the language and culture being studied—the target. When these are in marked contrast, many special instructional challenges emerge. Students are confronted with totally unfamiliar linguistic patterns and cultural concepts, which require analysis that will be meaningful specifically to them. In the foreign language classroom, serious attention must be paid to the learners and their particular mind-set, through which they will inevitably filter the target language. A recommended approach to this pedagogical challenge is the use of a team of professionally trained instructors that includes targetnatives who, as authentic models of the target, actively and with linguistic sophistication, interact with the students in the target language—the act component—and base-natives, who concentrate on the analysis of the target—the fact component.