education in small steps and full circles
HILL - Changing Second Language Learning Paradigms in China
Students in China are very diligent and are excellent at memorization. However the methods of teaching language are not sufficient for most students to truly acquire a second language. Out of this need, and with the help of a small army of TA's, a program was developed called Holistic Integrated Language Learning or HILL. This is a collaborative effort between Micro Steps and Guizhou University.
HILL uses a number of commonly accepted second language acquisition theories, assumptions and methods. HILL understands that the fear of "losing face" is a significant barrier to acquisition of a second language. Secondly, language is fundamentally used to search for meaning, therefore (at university level) using a language to search for meaning generates enough interest and enthusiasm to help students forget they are speaking a second language and begin to communicate in a naturalistic way. There are other assumptions and theories that we have structured HILL around, but these two are the most important, all embracing and likely responsible for most of HILL's success.
At a later date we will share some videos showing different aspects of HILL.