The Language of Nature. A research paper on the effectiveness of outdoor language learning

Abstract

This essay explores the credibility of the theory that outdoor education can be used to effectively teach language arts. I aim to show that the outdoor classroom is an ideal place to teach language arts if the appropriate requirements are met. The main questions of this paper will be whether or not outdoor language-learning has an impact on student motivation, if this motivation can help a student’s ability to learn a language and if outdoor language-teaching can be done effectively. Several methods will be used to answer these questions. Firstly, outdoor language-learning will be defined. Secondly, it will be shown how outdoor learning can motivate students to study their subject.Thirdly, it will be shown how outdoor education can be compared to recognized methods and philosophies regarding language-teaching. Fourthly, articles and essays will be looked over in order to demonstrate the theory in practice. And lastly, a lessonplan will be created to show an example of what an outdoor language-teaching plan would look like. The main results that were discovered in this research were, outdoor education in general has been recorded to be motivating for students that have trouble with the traditional classroom. Also, outdoor language-learning is consistent with many commonly used methods and philosophies including, Multiple Intelligence Theory, Desuggestopedia, The Grammar Translation Method, and The Direct Method.Furthermore, outdoor language-learning has been used in the past by a variety of researchers and educators including, Smith, Simpson and Gunnlaugsson. And lastly, outdoor language learning can easily be implemented into a lesson plan. The conclusionthat this paper has reached is that outdoor language-learning is motivating, founded in theory, has been used before and can be used in a lesson plan.