The expressions in French:
How are you?
What is your name?
sound alike:
Comment allez-vous?
Comment vas-tu?
Comment vous appelez-vous?
Comment t’appelles-tu?
Not only that, there are many different ways to say each one:
Ça va?
Comment ça va?
Vous allez bien?
Comment vous portez-vous?
Comment te portes-tu?
etc.
Now, the brain has to handle each of these arrangements of sound differently, because each sound pattern is different. It is bewildering for kids who have never formerly studied a language before.
Yet, since we are under district pressure to cover “Greetings” in the first few weeks of school (the district and the book publishers think that asking how one is or what one’s name is or what time it is or what the weather is are easy tasks), we drown our kids in these complex sound patterns, thinking it is easy for them.
I say that we cool it with the greetings and such until we have carefully tilled the soil of their brains with all sorts of simpler, more interesting stuff, stuff that is presented slowly, stuff that is about them. For some examples of such soil tilling activities see, on the resources link of this site, “ntprs 2009 session handouts” or read my new book called Stepping Stones to Stories!
I might add that, after a few minutes of the teacher walking around the room with a kind of fake smile and fake interest (do you really care how the kid is?) saying this “How are you” question over and over, the kids’ eyes start to glaze over and with good reason. How would you like to be sitting in a room where someone asks you how you are for five or ten minutes?
Some teachers, the tricksters, even sneak in things like “What is your name” (which sounds a lot like “How are you” in French) and then, when the kid answers that, the teacher says, in English, “Ha ha! I tricked you! I asked you your name, not how you are!” which begins a tirade of using L1.5 to explain the difference and the kids just scrunch down in their seats in an effort to get away from this overexplainer who asks boring questions.
No, we need to till the soil with absolute simplicity, so they really get it, and let the complexities of greetings slowly emerge over time. Delivering easy to understand and interesting and meaningful and comprehensible input from the beginning, clearly enforcing rules, going slowly, talking only about the kids, finding out stuff about them that is half imagined and uplifting and lighthearted and often made up, these things will have the kids leaning forward in their seats trying to decode what is going on (because all of their friends are getting it), and you will think you’ve found a heaven in your teaching career.