L1, L2, L3, L4.....

How can I teach a foreign language when I don't know the students' native language - or some other language they understand in advance?

After reading the latest update on Mie's blog, this was the question stuck in my head. It's something I've wondered about a few times during my stay here in Finland. Unfortunately, I don't get to practice my ideas on pupils, because non of my courses include "real teaching", only very, very small assistant teaching activities. But even so, I still learn something from it..

So, back to the question. I know that body language, signs, pictures, movement, etc. all contribute to the pupil's understanding, especially when there is no "common language" teachers and pupils can communicate in and I know it can be done. For instance, when Waris Dirie moved from Somalia to London (Desert Flower), she managed to learn English from people who didn't speak or understand her native language - and their "common language" was more or less just body language to begin with, slowly developing into words, sentences and connected speech.

But. Yes, there is always a but - if not, I wouldn't ask the question in the first place.

• What is the most effective way of teaching a foreign language - which methods can give the best - and fastest - results? 

• Is it encouraging or discouraging for a student's motivation when the teacher doesn't understand his/her native language (or another language they already know)? 

• Does it benefit the student's learning if the teacher is able to point out similarities and differences between L1 and L+ (assimilation, accommodation..)                                          Let's say the answer is yes based on e.g. that student's foreign language learning process is always (to begin with at least) going back and forth from L1 to L+. When they are learning a third language(L3) and the teacher knows their L1, the learning process will be something like this L1-L3-L1-L3 etc. While when the teacher doesn't know their L1, but maybe the L2, the process will be more complicated, frustrating and time consuming, L1-L2-L3-L2-L1 etc.

• Wouldn't foreign language teaching be more effective if the teacher knows the student's native language?   

The next 4 weeks I'm attending a course about teaching foreign languages. The foreign language learning theories we'll mainly be working with are popular in Finland and might be different from what we use at Blaagaard. I brought some copies with me from uni two days ago and will try to read them this weekend. I'll give you a heads-up when I've become more wise in this topic..

And as always, comments are welcome..