First of all, saying that AMCO is an American company, headquartered in San Diego (CA). They developed an innovative method in which students would learn a second language at the same level and in the same way they learned their primary language. According to its website, “it is based on the emotional, intellectual and social development of each student. This goal is embodied in an integrated system that emphasizes the acquisition of communicative competence in English through comprehensive academic areas, which directly pertain to the student’s development.”
Even though it is in Spanish, this informative video is good to see how AMCO method works in schools. Actually, one of the schools been shown is the school where I am doing my internship, and I assisted to some of the classes this teacher did. By the way, in the video also appears my 1st grade students!
The material of AMCO method consists of 5 books. Depending on the hours of English per week, there are 3 modalities: Rocket II, rocket III and rocket V. Each book is generally divided in 4 sections: grammar (yellow section), pronunciation lab - spelling (green section), reading comprehension (blue section) and depending of the year, the last section could be memory tasks or listening and speaking. On the first section, pupils study grammar points, even though in the lower levels they do not specify the rules and what it is, it consists in practice throughout repeating a pattern. On the second sections, some vocabulary is introduced, whose sounds are related, and they work on listening, spelling and writing. Here there is also a reinforcement activity called ‘homeschooling’, which requires some help from parents. On the third section, some stories or pieces of information are displayed, with questions or matching. Finally, the last section is focused on oral skills.
I thought that it would be great to take some pictures of the book to show it to you, but I am not sure how illegal is this because of the copyright thing. Moreover, I have the feeling that with my explanation it is not very clear, so if you want further information on the sections, have a look at this website. From page 31 you can find how an AMCO class is made: http://www.amcoonline.net/system/l/x/pdfs/camino_a_la_excelencia.pdf
AMCO is based in some pedagogical fundaments:
• Emotional intelligence (the identification of feelings and behaviour, automatic control, self-motivation, empathy…)
• Multiple intelligences: I do not know if you are familiar with this theory. It explains that there are 8 multiple intelligences, which are seen as personal tools each individual possesses to make sense out of new information and to store it in such a way that it can be easily retrieved when needed for use. Here it is shown a chart of the 8 multiple intelligences.
• Theory of the Generating Voice: This theory, developed by Martorell Angel, founder of AMCO, explains the process in which our brain acquires a second language in the same way as it acquires our mother-tongue language. The most vitally important process in this theory is called the “switching process”, through which students eliminate the Spanish-English translation process, allowing them to learn a second language with the same spontaneity and facility with which they learned their mother-tongue language. You will visualize it better with this drawing:
• Mind maps, which helps to organize the information in a simple and creative way , in order to be remembered by the brain. It helps when it comes to visualize a concept and link it with others, personalizing the learning.
• Daily routine
• Cooperative learning
Anyway, all this was theory.
Before I show you my conclusion, I would like you to see how an AMCO class is
made. I took this video from a blog. In this blog, the teacher told us that she
recorded this class after they had worked with AMCO method all year. As you
will see, they will start with Daily Routine, asking questions like ‘what’s the
weather like today?’, ‘how do you feel today?’, ‘what day is it today?’…
Secondly, they go throught the spelling section, doing different activities,
including one with the interactive board. Thirdly, they work on the grammar section.
Then, they go through the reading section. Finally, they sing a song.
As you will see, the level of the
students is quite high, so the main advantage of this method is that is very
effective to learn English.
However, there are some
drawbacks. For instance, the price of the books is very high (around 110€ per
year), so some families will not be able to afford it.
Now, what do you think? I’m
looking forward to read any comment you may have.
See you!
Isabel
Bibliography
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarI am glad to find your blog. In Mexico , there are two school that teach English with this system, but I do not much about it . An d my son doesn't like to write, memorize or repeat the words because is boring. So I do not if you can recommends that could be fun to use to learn English for kids .
ResponderEliminarMy only comment is about English pronunciation on this Amco system. They use sound tracks for the children to listen and repeat and the pronunciation they teach is very regional from the west coast (California). Example:The word "box" it is pronounced "baax" and this is not a general sound of traditional English pronunciation. I am a father of a 6 year old student on the Amco system. Thanks
ResponderEliminarmy niece hate English because of it
ResponderEliminarsorry to hear, my students love the activities. Maybe it was the teacher
EliminarI think this method is just a tool for the teacher, as any other method, and all of them are valid. What makes a method work is the teacher, a teacher that doesn't say "chocoleit". On the other hand, it is very similar to the TPR by Asher, so it is not as innovative as they pretend, the marketing campaign matters too much. I found your post very interesting, thanks for sharing this information.
ResponderEliminarI am 24 years old now and I still remember perfectly what the AMCO system was like. I used it in elementary school in Mexico from 5th grade and all throughout middle school (ages 11-15).
ResponderEliminarI grew up in a bilingual household where the use of English was always encouraged even at an early age where I was still learning how to speak in my native tongue (Spanish). My whole childhood I watched the Disney classics in English, I would read books in English, and so English was never an issue for me in school.
In fact, I excelled at it, which caused me a lot of problems with teachers that complained about me to my parents because I would correct their pronunciation and point out their spelling mistakes in tests. That said, when I started Walden Dos (the school where I used AMCO method) I had very low expectations for their English level, as I was used to complaining about it at home. As an 11 year old that felt like she was quite the know-it-all, I found their system to be fun and attractive in a way no other school I had been to was. My classmates seem to feel at ease with it too, as most of them had been using AMCO since the 1st grade.
I especially enjiyed their section "Language Arts", where they taught vocabulary and encouraged switch process through witty word games such as crosswords, tonguetwisters and such.
I used AMCO for 2 years and got their English Proficency Certification (I don't really know it's validity but its recognition is probably quite low) and then moved to the U.S. for a year. When I came back for my second year of middle school, I still had those books and was lucky enough to have an American teacher that year (from NYC). She liled that they had a history section (U.S. history of course, which today I'm thankful for, as history the way it's taught in Mexico is very poorly covered), their writing section (where each month they would assign you a different topic for you to develop a short story, newspaper article, etc.) And their maths section (which I found dull because I hate maths, but is definitely important when introducing switching process as it forces your brain to find the answers directly in English).
To conclude, I loved learning with AMCO books because they were fun and full of different activities each month which made it much more interesting than copying down from the board, and my parents loved it (the price not so much though).