I’m currently half way through a TEFL course I’m taking with the company UK-TEFL, which I need to take in order to secure short-term jobs teaching English in Vienna and China this summer. I was extremely surprised but pleased by the style of teaching they train us in. Everything was about complete classroom immersion from the word go. Grammar acquistion was through natural exposure. Learning by rote, translation or grammar exercises absolutely forbidden. To demonstrate her method, the trainer spent 30 minutes teaching us Icelandic, and to most peoples’ surprise, everyone remembered everything she consciously taught us and incidently acquired other words and phrases naturally. I don’t know how reflective of the EFL world this is in general, but it is far better than the traditional approach to language teaching I’m used to from school!
Sounds great. Could you explain a bit of how the Icelandic lesson was presented? (For the teachers among us!)