Publish at May 02 2023 Updated May 02 2023
Everyone agrees that learning a foreign language adds a solid string to one's bow. Thus one develops the ability to travel and settle anywhere in the world, with language barriers most often being the main obstacle to mobility.
Even though modern language learning is included in school and university curricula around the world, learning a foreign language essentially in the environment of one's native language, without any real opportunity to practice it in context, lasts only as long as the class. And yet, languages are made to be spoken and their non-use inevitably leads to the loss of certain automatisms, and even of part of the knowledge related to the newly learned language.
Thankfully, the Internet has helped to bridge this gap but nothing beats an immersive pedagogy such as a language course which consists of putting the learner in a situation. While educational trips are commonplace elsewhere, in the African context and more particularly in Cameroon, they are almost non-existent which leads to a predominance of theory over practice.
School trips combine these two sides of learning, and provide quality lessons. The focus here is on presenting the added value of a language course for students.
Leaving one's comfort zone is equivalent to opening oneself up to risk, stepping out of one's cocoon, exposing oneself to the possibility of not being in control of anything. This step is often difficult for people with little ability to handle stress, used to having control over everything. Nevertheless, it offers opportunities to excel. Speaking of the language internship, it is about immersing the student in a language context other than the one in which he or she feels comfortable, which pushes the learner to exchange in the language pertaining to the language context in which he or she finds himself or herself in order to make himself or herself understood, to express his or her ideas, and also to go shopping!
This way, the learner is in a real-life situation and will be able to better practice and accommodate his hearing to the different sounds. This unique experience encourages him to force himself in a way, to express himself in the foreign language he is learning at school. In this case, he goes beyond the limits that he alone had set for himself for a simple matter of discomfort, linked to the linguistic context in which he is implanted.
In this perspective, the learner discovers a new person in the face of difficulty. If he had built up blocks, in a real situation he understands that he is capable of expressing himself in this language. Contrary to the atmosphere created in the classroom during the English course for example, during which, the student is almost forced to express himself in this language during the course, in order to validate the teaching unit, the student understands from then on in the field that speaking English is a question of survival, of social integration. This situation naturally obliges them to strive to speak the language and consequently, to surpass themselves. This observation testifies to the vital importance that an internship of this kind can bring to a learner, insofar as it is an experience of self-improvement, of surpassing oneself that develops self-confidence.
If the obstacles that one creates are limits that can reduce one's scope of action, once crossed, one feels as if a weight has been lifted. At that moment, we feel like we can accomplish anything; we become aware of how valuable we are and what we are capable of achieving on our own.
This reality applies to the language course, which offers the learner the opportunity not only to refine his or her knowledge in a given language but also to develop self-confidence. He gets there the moment he manages to formulate a sentence, then to hold a discussion on a given topic. Thus, each step he takes allows him to gain confidence and realize the potential he possesses.
In this sense, being immersed in a context where the language of use is little known to the learner, develops his self-confidence because he manages to overcome the linguistic barrier with the little knowledge he has. From that moment on, he pushes his limits. And the old discomfort zone becomes the new comfort zone. The more he pushes his boundaries, the more he gains confidence, self-esteem and no longer feels embarrassed to express himself in that language.
Immersing a learner in a foreign language context participates in some way in the student's personal development, in addition to the language skills he or she acquires.
Immersed in a new culture through language, the learner comes to develop a certain openness of mind.
In contact with another language, the learner opens up to habits, ways of seeing, feeling, and thinking about the world differently, language being the manifestation of a culture. As a carrier of an identity, the learner, in contact with native speakers, is immersed in a culture through his or her language course. This close contact guarantees the crumbling of preconceived ideas, stereotypes, prejudices and even clichés that are very often assigned to a people. He/she gets to know them better, to live with them better and to tolerate their differences better. In this case, the learner is better able to see the difference as a richness and not as an obstacle to social cohesion. At the end of his internship, he will eventually have accumulated a body of knowledge about this people and built his personal culture.
In a global context that promotes the rapprochement of cultures or, more precisely, interculturality, the language internship is part of this logic of encounter between cultures and mutual enrichment. The said encounter most often results in an open-mindedness on the part of the learner, provided that the two cultures present are willing to take the step towards the other.
In addition to giving the learner the opportunity to improve his or her language skills, the internship contributes to the individual's personal development by allowing him or her to work on self-esteem and open-mindedness. In order to acquire such skills, it is important for the learner to have the willingness to reach out to others by minimizing the obstacles that he or she himself or herself has often put in his or her way.
References
LE FIGARO, 2012, "Zone de confort : qu'est-ce que c'est et comment en sortir ?", online
https://emploi.lefigaro.en/evolution-professionnelle/guide-de-l-evolution-professionnelle/519-zone-de-confort-what-is-it-and-how-to-get-out-of-it/
LUCAS Alexiane, 2016, Teaching in the context of language immersion, Education, online https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-01387314/document
RAUZDUEL- LAMBOURDIER Nicole, 2007, "Language, Language and Culture," Research and Resources in Education and Training, No. 1 online
http://journals.openedition.org/rref/141
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