That said, we have abandoned all of these, because I dislike the immersion approach, and my kids REALLY hate it. They are logical learners; they want verb conjugations and full-on presentations of the cases and so on. The immersion approach is maddening for us, because it presents bits and pieces; at any given time, you can say "I like" and "I liked" but not "he likes" or "he liked" (because the rules aren't explained). At one point, you can say (this is an example from Middlebury French) "The king who plays the flute danced" but not more basic things like, "I would like a cheese sandwich."
We switched to a textbook approach, and my kids took off. The textbook approach does require a parent who can teach at least the basics of pronunciation and grammar.
Katherine Beals, author of "Raising a Left-Brain Child in a Right-Brain World", wrote something similar about foreign language instruction:
http://oilf.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-many-people-iknow-what-grammar-is.htmlHow many Americans know what grammar is anymore?
January 15, 2014
Also to blame is America’s foreign language instruction. Though potentially the best way to experience what grammar is, foreign language instruction has been hampered by long-standing fads--and by the fact that it’s hard to teach foreign language grammar to students who haven’t learned basic grammar terminology in language arts class. Today’s top instructional goal (whether in the classroom or in software programs like Pimsleur and Rozetta Stone) is “communicative competence,” with “meaning” (as in vocabulary, phrases, and cultural context) seen as most important and more “meaningful” than formal grammar rules (as in word endings and word order).
To the extent that students are exposed at all to the latter, it’s more through incidental exposure than through explicit teaching. Instead of doing translation and composition exercises that prompt them to apply the word-formation and word-ordering rules that distinguish the foreign language from English, students get into groups and converse with one another as best they can, passively take in “authentic” dialogues, texts, and cultural artifacts, and create tissue boxes, travel brochures, and skits.
