subject: AIM: The Transformation of Language Education [print this page] While Italy may boast Montessori and Austria its Rudolph Steiner, one of the next great educationalists is living in British Columbia, Canada.
Wendy Maxwell's Accelerative Integrated Methodology (AIM) signals a major yet subtle transformation in language teaching, an approach already in use in over 4000 Canadian schools and rapidly becoming an international phenomenon. While methods have come and gone, this post-method methodology' is enabling teachers to consistently and coherently put into practice what has only been dreamed of before at a theoretical level.
This combination of often discussed but seldom implemented language acquisition techniques is blended with elements specifically devised by Maxwell.
Key among the new elements is the use of gestures accompanying the carefully scaffolded introduction of vocabulary. Lexical items are reinforced with a hand-signaled gesture which the students learn to associate with the word or phrase being taught, even at the grammatical level. These visual and kinesthetic props allow the vocabulary and associated grammar to pass directly to meaning, and neatly sidesteps the tendency to mentally translate each word back into the first language. This undermining of the tendency for mental translation rapidly accelerates students' direct connection to the target language. AIM teachers are therefore achieving immersion-like results rapidly within contexts in which students have only a handful of language lessons per week.
While the innovative use of vocabulary gesturing is a central feature of the methodology, it is merely one element in a range of techniques. In many ways AIM is the Communicative Approach grown up. It revisits certain techniques previously dismissed as too behavioral', reframing, for example, teacher-lead drilling into pleasant repetition', and carefully considered initial rote learning.
At the same time there is a rich cognitive underpinning. AIM draws heavily on brain-based research, and deeply on Multiple Intelligences Theory. Where conventional courses are often skewed to overtly logic-based tasks, AIM places great emphasis on music, dance and drama to engage the full spectrum of student intelligence type and learner style.
Bucking the trend of quick succession from one theme to another, AIM delves deeply. Each 40 or 50 hour unit is based around a single story, folk stories for the younger learners, social issues for the older. This allows for the careful scaffolding of vocabulary introduction, familiarity and production, with writing following hard on the heels of speaking. While the spontaneity of self expression is encouraged, there is little left to chance in the introduction and use of vocabulary. Indeed, AIM has pioneered the concept of pared-down' language, which avoids the confusion of introducing new language items from a purely grammatical rationale and instead presents grammaticalized (and where appropriate de-grammaticalized) vocabulary to mirror the pattern of native-speaker language acquisition.
The force behind AIM the methodology is AIM Language Learning, the educational training and resource organization. Founded by Wendy Maxwell and her husband Matt Maxwell, himself both a PhD in Education and longtime musician and writer for French language learning, AIM's homebase is situated on Bowen Island off the BC shore. While the small AIM office is the hub of a wider network of writers, editors, artists, musicians, sound engineers, film crew, presenters and practitioners, it is a tiny operation compared to the goliaths dominating the educational publishing landscape.
Still, within only 5 years of operation, AIM has become the key player in Canadian French language education and viewed by Anglo-US giant Pearson-Longman as their major competitor in the field.
And rightly so. In addition to the 4000 schools in Canada, AIM materials are used in around 20 countries, including use in 400 schools already in Australia alone. This rapid growth is largely attributable to the wildly enthusiastic word of mouth of teachers who flock to the annual workshops that AIM Language Learning hosts around Canada and beyond, and the trainings hosted by school boards and independent schools.
Increasingly, schools with established AIM programs seek to recruit AIM experienced teachers, which in turn requires evidence of AIM training. Accordingly, a more sophisticated system of AIM assessment and certification is currently in development in sequence with a significant online-learning complement to the existing workshops and institutes.
AIM's language base is also expanding. There is now a complete suite of materials for French for K-12 and beyond, several levels of English available as well as their first unit of Spanish. Already, a pilot group is working to align the methodology with the nuances of Mandarin. AIM Language Learning is also extremely keen to help with languages under threat and recently met with a delegation of education academics from Dublin and Limerick who visited Canada to investigate how the methodology can be used by to teach Gaelic more effectively in the Irish education system.
So, an ambitious agenda for this young publishing firm, but a vital agenda for equipping the youth of Canada and beyond for the rapidly emerging multilingual necessities of the future.
Neil Hammond, MA, LTCL, PGCE
Neil Hammond is a instructional designer and Chief Operations Officer for AIM Language Learning.
