Diaries...

Real life English? Figuring out how to use foreign language? Thinking in second tongue? Sounds odd for a lot of teenagers, who MUST learn foreign language at school. Does it also sound odd, after you try writing DIARY? I don’t think so…

First of all, you must know, that writing diaries is not only for girls! This is used ad therapeutic method – but not only for mentally sick peopleJ The psychological advantage of keeping record of what happened during the day allows us to look back at our life. It enables to notice some patterns of our behavior and enhances us to change. Besides, daybook may be our best friend – it doesn’t appraise us, it can’t just huff, what gives the real opportunity to learn about ourselves. Especially, when we write in foreign language – we feel safer, as we are not afraid, that someone can read our confession.  Moreover, writing in, let’s say, English, we find ourselves from some perspective, we are more likely to open and understand…

These were the psychological effects of keeping diaries… Now, how can we get any foreign language knowledge from it? Let me employ English, since I have learnt it for my whole life and I’ve taught it for almost ten years. Well, first asset is – grammar. But not learning – acquisition is better word here.  Once I came up with the idea of giving homework of keeping a diary for holiday. After the break of two months, students gave me their works and it appeared that with each day they had used better grammar, syntax and vocab. What’s more – they remembered second and third forms of verbs. And, the most important, they found that school English is not enough – they hadn’t known useful, everyday words, so they had to find them. Now they know  that it’s not only school, where they can (and must) learn… what, to my amazement, they took it up with happiness…

Then, when it worked with older students, I tried it with younger ones, learning Pas Simple Tense. It was a little more difficult for them, but I promised good marks for thatJ And they did it. After coming back, this time from Christmas holiday, they asked a lot of questions, about grammar, vocab and so on.

But most of all, what surprised me as hell, was the fact, that they all started THINKING IN ENGLISH! They started using Past Continuous Tense (although they hadn’t learnt it by then). When I asked them why, they answered: Because it worked for me or It sounded ok. They found the clue of learning!

Will you try it? Let me know how it workedJ