Essential+Questions


 * Essential Questions in Foreign Language April 9, 2012**

How will learning a language enhance my life? What are my expectations about learning another language?
 * Motivation/Goals/Benefits**Why learn another language?


 * Learning Process**

What language skills do I already have? What are different language learning styles? How do I determine the most effective learning style for me? What strategies and resources will help me learn another language? How can one express complex ideas using simple terms? What do I do when I am stuck? What do I hear when I listen? How do I figure out meaning when words are not understood? What can I do to improve my understanding of the spoken and/or written word? What can I do to improve my fluency? How can I sound more like a native speaker?


 * Communication**

Why isn’t a dictionary enough? Why don’t you have to translate everything? How does language change in different situations? What do I do when I do not have the words to say what I am thinking? How does body language complement the words? How and when might it compete with them? How is listening different from reading? How is written language different from spoken language? How can I help my listener(s) better understand me?


 * Culture and Language**

What is culture? Why study another culture? How does where I live shape who I am? How does your language “define” you? What can I learn about my own language and culture from the study of others? How are language and culture linked? How can cultural awareness enhance my language learning and vice versa?


 * Connections**

How can I enhance my connections with people through language? How does the study of another language and culture make the world smaller? How can learning and using a language help me assimilate into a new culture? What is it like to be a “foreigner?” How do I feel when someone from another culture speaks my language? How does knowing another language and culture enable me to make more connections with what we study in history, art, music, math and science?


 * Geography and History?**

What makes places unique and different? How does a region’s geography, climate and natural resources affect the way people live and work? How does knowing the history and geography of another people enable me to better assimilate into their culture?