We are all aware that a language stay gives each child the opportunity to change their living environment! understand new values and give new meanings to things or behaviors. What is less well known are the essential learning mechanisms that are put in place during immersion in a foreign culture. The “learner” (the young person on a language stay) is confront! with a situation call! “asymmetrical communication” (1) when fac! with their foreign interlocutors.
Explanation of the phenomenon of “asymmetric communication”
This means that his cultural references and reflexes are not mexico email list similar (symmetrical) to those of the natives with whom he interacts. He must therefore interpret the new meaning of words and gestures! integrate them and then try to reproduce them in order to be understood.
In front of him! the natives (teachers! host families! foreigners met it is a keyword research tool during visits! etc.) adapt the form of their speech in order to be well understood (they articulate and speak more quietly! for example).
This learning situation is describ! by researchers from the famous Palo Alto school (2) as a “complementary interaction” . They have highlight! the !ucational effectiveness of this interaction! particularly because communication is not experienc! as a constraint but as an exchange where “everyone is unit!! where dissimilar behaviors adapt to each other! call on each other” .
This reinforces the idea that learning a foreign language and culture is cuba leads not just about learning through classroom lectures! scholarly books or films in the original version. The true richness of a language stay comes from the phenomenon of asymmetrical communication caus! by the encounter between a “learner” and a “native”.
Promoting exchanges between “learners” and “natives”
The effectiveness of a stay is therefore partly link! to the quality of “asymmetric of the exchange between the young people and their entourage. To this end! Afnor certification ( NF Services standard ) provides a guarantee on the profiles of the teachers responsible for providing courses abroad (they must in particular be “natives”)! on the !ucational project of the accompanying persons but also on the role of the host families. The latter are judg! on their ability to exchange with the young people and to involve their hosts in the life of the family. Cultural learning will come precisely from the novelties and differences encounter! in the habits of each.