324. Autonomous learners

Here is an entry to the interesting website of BBC - The British Council. And a comment by me to that entry. Sorry for the formatting bugs. I preferred to try to publish the initial entry from the website, because I believe it's very interesting. Sorry again, I gave up.

Students! You are the teacher! Submitted by brenbrennan on 17 March, 2010 - 21:30 I have just listened to an interesting podcast (you don't have to download, sign up to anything etc, you can just listen without any commitment or passwords!) from Steve Kaufmann who is the king of LingQ.com (an excellent language learning site btw). The subject is "What I would do if I were a teacher". He freely admits that he has never been a teacher and doesn't know how to teach, but he is giving his opinion merely as a language learner who has had lots of experience from the receiving end of L2 teaching. It's interesting to get student feedback in this way, as perhaps teachers do not put themselves in the shoes of the learner often enough. To paraphrase the podcast, he says that if he were a teacher he would outline to Ss in the first lesson that the onus of L2 learning responsibility lies completely on their shoulders. This is what he would say.... My job is to make myself unnecessary. You (the Ss) must be independent of me. You should not expect ME to teach YOU the language. My job is to give you the habits and attitude for YOU to learn the language yourself. You cannot learn the L2 only in the classroom and I cannot teach it to you only in class H He also highlights the huge importance of reading when outside the classroom and dedicating the time needed. I think that this is not only good advice, but would make all language teachers' jobs much more interesting (than they already are, of course). Imagine having a class of rabidly motivated students, that bring the lesson to you, in terms of new vocab, phrases, idioms etc etc. M My in-company business students could do with a little bit more of this student ideology! brenbrennan's blog Login or register to post comments

Comments

Fernando M Díez

Students! You are the teacher!

Submitted on 29 March, 2010 - 10:01

Hello, brenbrennam and everyone,

I've just read your post with interest.

You know what?

This is precisely one game we, I and my pupils, do in the class-periods. On top of that: my pupils often ask me to 'play the teacher'!

They are 10 to 14 aged.

One student, who has previously guessed a number in a draw-straw game, is going to act out as if he was the teacher himself. And basically he implements some other games for 'his' pupils, and makes these latter ones participate. All is conducted in L2. Sometimes, most of times, this stuff is spoken in broken English, but there is actual communication. We'll brush up the grammar with the passing time. Now they see English is a practical subject and usuful for real life.

Even that 'teacher' imitates me! - well, natural, isn't it?

From a deeper background both my research plus experience have been so far concerning English-language learning.

The premise I keep in mind and the one I intend to transmit to my kids is that it's they who are the ones who wish to learn English. No wishing to learn, no learning.

I agree with the points you paraphrase from Steve Kaufmann.

My professional blog is mostly dedicated to learning strategies and communication.

Also I am a learner myself - who is not a learner yet if you, teacher, are a non-native speaker of English? I try to keep learning, every day, and moreover, currently I'm trying to pass C-2 level myself.

My blog is http://fernandoexperiences.blogspot.com

Best for everyone: we teachers can make something great with our everyday labour.

From fantastic Granada (Spain)

Fernando M Díez

On the picture a Chinese student, thanks to cnreviews com