What I have learned about teaching a language:

...is that I took 3 years of very badly organized Spanish classes.

I'm sure there's a huge variety in language programs, even within a school district. I know that my experience with Spanish was: explanations of grammar, structured dialogue readings, lists of vocabulary grouped by similarities (e.g., parts of the body, seasons, opposites), and occasional, bewildering listening activities in my third year.

And here's what some of the best research on language instruction and acquisition shows:

* A second language is best learned the way a first language is learned. Babies learn first by listening, followed by speaking, then reading, and last, writing. Second language learners should too.

*All examples should be real-world, using genuine examples of the language as it is actually used. For instance, my Spanish book showed getting directions to the museum as a simple process, with a helpful native saying to go left, turn at the orange building, and walk straight. Yet in a real-life encounter, there is gesturing, equivocations, and informal language. Second language learners should listen to real language encounters as much as possible, instead of ones that have been constructed for class, which are more likely to be artificial.

* Mistakes are ok. Toddlers say all sorts of incorrect things, but they grow out of it. Second language learners will as well.

* Teaching together words that are related yet different interferes with learning. For example, if body parts are all taught together, a learner is likely to remember how teeth and toes are related-that they are body parts-and not remember how they are diferent-which part they each apply to.

* Learners can beging listening from day one, and begin speaking from day two. The only way to learn to speak is to speak. Students should get daily opportunities for guided speaking, using whatever information they already have. This helps the students to reduce performance anxiety and get used to spontaneous generation of language. Daily speaking, even in small amounts, is also motor practice for their mouths to make novel sounds.


I wish I knew more about the needs of the children and adults that I will teach this summer, as well as Bethel Ministries' goals for the program. I would like to begin outlining curriculum ideas, but I am unsure about how to move from theory to application without this extra information.

Is Teaching English Christian Mission?

It's easy to imagine: A Western missionary, sitting on the floor with natives of a far-off country, holding up pictures of David and lions to an enthralled audience of children and adults. Maybe there's a cross on the wall, Bibles scattered about. Images like this are easy to classify as "Christian Mission." Teaching English, as a foreign missionary, can both elevate the poor out of poverty and teach them about Christ.

What about other images, like a group of Chinese business men, wearing suits and taking notes in a conference room? School children in India lined up at their desks, reciting secular exercises?

If the teacher is Christian but cannot mention Christ, is this teaching still mission work?

In countries like China and India, a missionary cannot work outright. Teaching English can provide employment and perhaps covert opportunities to share the gospel, but only at the risk of trouble with the authorities and possible imprisonment or deportation.

But even for Christian teachers who are allowed to share their faith, there are other issues. Teaching a foreign language involves a huge amount of work and planning. Can I be an effective English teacher if I am "fighting on two fronts" by splitting my time between instruction and evangelism? Is being an underprepared teacher an effective witness?

For many countries, English is the way to financial security. Adults especially increasingly need the language to get good jobs. If I neglect teaching to focus on witnessing, I am denying people a necessary service that they could not otherwise afford. I do not think Christ is in such behavior.

I am not sure how to integrate teaching with witnessing. But I know that I must have integrity and competence in my teaching first and foremost, if I am to have any ability at all to witness my faith.

The First Reformation

"No man is an island."...And no reformer is a juggernaut.

Martin Luther was an intelligent guy. For many Protestants, he was a hero. He had the courage to stand up to an institution that was more focused on money and power than on God and Gospels. His protest for reform became a Reformation; his followers became fellow Protestants.
But was Luther the only leader of the Reformation? What about Huldrych Zwingli, the Swiss chaplain who cared passionately for his people, following them into his death in battle? What about the Roman Curia that fought the system from within? What about Jan Hus, The First Luther?

Jan Hus is a hero, admired for both his stance against the Catholic Church and his effect on Czech nationalism. Even before he was born in 1372, Czech national identity was developing and a host of scholars were beginning to protest the immorality of the clergy and excesses of the Church. In 1402, Hus began preaching in Prague's Bethlehem Chapel. Hundreds of people came each week to hear his ideas about things like God's grace, indulgences, and sacraments, in their own language. Not since the split between the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church had any sort of liturgy been delivered in the language of the people, rather than Latin, the language of the Church.


The ideas Jus propagated were too radical to afford him a long lifespan. Hus soon lost the support of the king, who had a financial stake in the sale of indulgences. Hus was given the "opportunity" to defend his beliefs at the Council of Konstanz in 1414. The safe passage promised to him by the Holy Roman Emperor was a deception; Hus's refusal to recant at the Council was his death sentence.

The execution of Jan Hus at the stake sparked twenty years of violent conflict between Hussite and Catholic forces in the Czech lands. Although the Czech lands were eventually overtaken by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Hussite rebellion secured 200 years of religious freedom for these proto-Protestants.

Jan Hus may not have sparked the Reformation that engulfed Europe, but he did inspire a revolution, the first of its kind in Europe.

*Ideas drawn from Hans Kung and Dr. Phyllis RodgersonPleasants