Education Week
published May 6, 2011
accessed May 7, 2011
Summary and Key Points: "Accelerative Integrated Methodology" (AIM) may become the next big thing in language education... or it may not! The technique of using one's body in order to "target the part of the brain that can assimilate and retain foreign language most easily" sounds a whole lot like TPR, or total physical response, which is (if I recall correctly) a technique that is widely recognized as valuable in at least the world languages, and perhaps other disciplines as well. Anyway, the focus on the most commonly-used words that AIM espouses is something any language teacher can get behind.
Intended Audience: language teachers and learners
Relevance: I covered this a bit in the summary above. I like the idea, but it sounds like complicated words for old ideas. Maybe as I find more information about it, and the "creators" of this particular curriculum move out from French and Spanish to cover other languages, I will be better able to see the enhanced utility of this particular technique. It's always valuable to gather new ideas, I suppose!
It seems this article is available to registered gusets only....But after looking at your summary and comments, I want to say that body language is so important for students to learn a language. For me, I used body language a lot while communicating in English if someone could not understand what I was talking about, and that's how I communicated with my host family when I first came here. It was interesting but really helpful!
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