Model Answer Unit 3, Activity 5.1, Preparation for Tutorial
You might have selected other aspects you personally find important, here are our suggestions:
Part a:
I think this gives the senior learners confidence in many ways. It shows them and others that they are still capable of doing something new and different, that they can succeed in this at the level of their ability.
Many people think language learning is a particularly hard thing to do and succeeding in this as someone who might have thought that they cannot cope with such a difficult thing will make senior learners very proud.
It will be great for them to show off their new skill to family and friends.
Through language learning, or learning something new, senior learners are able to find new ways of making their life experience count.
Part b:
I see myself as an equal, especially when it comes to learning a language, as I have not done this before.
Rather than me always having to take charge when we interact, we can help each other in the learning activities… it will become a relationship at eye level.
I will facilitate and support, rather than lead.
I will be teacher and student at the same time. And the same goes for the senior learner, who could at times become the teacher as well.
The senior learner could be better at language learning than at walking or other daily routines, which I have to help him/her with.
Part c:
We will both be in the same boat, what we are doing together through the learning activity will be new to both of us.
We will both feel a bit out of our depth as we need to learn new words, how to pronounce them, how to form a sentence with them and how to use them in the right context.
We can be more playful, if this is the right word, in the way we engage with each other because in the language learning we can play games, have laughs when we try out new things and they might not work as we expected.
When I went to school my teacher made us play role plays in the language lessons, this was great fun, once we got used to it, because we could be someone else and making mistakes did not feel so embarrassing then.
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