Understanding Michel Thomas - Part 2

The discussion about Michel Thomas is summarized from part one, before Dundas moves on to explain in greater detail how the ground rules of the Michel Thomas courses are instrumental in encouraging learners to make progress with their language learning from an ab initio level.

Firstly, the need to be relaxed and not guess vocabulary is intended to destroy any misconceptions which students might have before they even start, e.g. 'I wasn't good at languages at school. I wonder if there's any hope now', 'oh, there's going to be so much to learn, think about and remember', 'how can I hope to have a conversation with anyone if I'm going to be pausing all the time?'

It is also important to highlight the fact that Michel Thomas tells us not to view language learning as a series of broken down memory tests or homework tasks, since this simply leads us to think that the whole process of language acquisition can only be achieved through conscious revision and being preoccupied with remembering vocabulary and set phrases. However, these additional pressures are gratuitous and impede confidence and fluency. Moreover, they are not representative of what Dundas refers to as naturalised linguistic acquisition. There is more about this in the write-up for part three.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Understanding
• Michel
• Thomas
• Part

[tartansoxdundas]

I've got no idea, I'm sorry. I've never heard of 'inuktitut'.

[tenneral]

A valuable assessment. I've used his Italian course, including the advanced lessons: his method is wonderful. Like so many others, I do regret that this approach was not used in my own school days.

[jazzmunky]

Excellent analysis! I´ve been trying to dissect the MT method in order to get ideas for teaching English, and your video helps a lot!

I took MT´s French course on CD and found it very motivating and fun. I was surprised at how quickly I progressed with just an audio CD and no teacher feedback, and none of the Communicative Language Teaching-type activities usually used in the classroom.