Description
The Common Sense of Teaching Foreign Languages by C Gattegno
This practical book bridges the gap between a theoretical understanding of learning processes and the actual learning of students in classrooms. Gattegno’s Common Sense approach brings to teachers an honest tool that will make them see the difference between time consuming drills and meaningful exercises that bring more awareness and allow all concerned to make better use of themselves.
Gattegno wrote this book as a scientist interested in learning processes, as a student interested in the mastery of foreign languages, and as a teacher interested in providing his students with ideal learning conditions.
These perspectives combined with years of research, travel, and fieldwork create a full insight into the problem of learning a foreign language.
He argues that learning a language should not be about recitation and memorisation, but about the natural learning processes we have used since birth. “In fact,” he writes, “We can no more say that we remember our language than that we remember how to stand up or walk.”