Experiences of a teacher of English

Students who achieve learning English, more and more, have appropriate learning strategies, as I have already written on this blog. Now you can consider the following words, clarifying ones, taken from OXFORD, Rebecca ( 1990 ) Language Learning Strategies. What Every Teacher Should Know . Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. I copied them while carrying out my doctorate papers, on May 29, 2004 . “Learner self-direction is not an ‘all or nothing’ concept; it is often a gradually increasing phenomenon, growing as learners become more comfortable with the idea of their own responsibility. Self-directed students gradually gain greater confidence, involvement, and proficiency.” (10) / Photo: georges-melies-a-trip-to-the-moon-le-voyage-dans-la-lune-painting dmorth wordpress com

From British Council – BBC teaching-English website. September 7. Help! How to teach a native speaker of French to speak English? Dear all, My private student is a young lady from France. Basically, she knows nothing about English and I have very limited knowledge of French. The textbook we are going to use is "Interchage" published by Cambridge University Press. I'm very worried about our fist lesson. How could she understand me if I do't speak much French? Do you have any suggestions? Thanks a lot. Effie Hello Effie and everyone, Calm down ;) Be, as you well know, welcoming and polite. I don't know the objectives this lady wants to attain with your private speaking classes. You yourself can mark a short and realistic set of objectives - make a plan and write it down. I would tell you not to speak any French. All in all, don't worry if some words in French slip out during the conversation. But those classes of speaking English must be so, in English, all the...

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Discipline in the school? Consider the following case and try draw your conclusions. In certain school a student, when hanging around in the playground with his friends, a teacher went past them, at some steps away. That student said sort of a disgusting nickname at this teacher, an insult, coming to the head. The teacher consulted this case with another teacher, and the latter one, a veteran one, told the former that this student ought to be expelled from the high school. Ultimately the aggraviated teacher addressed the direction staff and they agreed the ‘small terrorist’, so to speak, had to continue at the school. If the decision would be to fire the kid, this process should keep something educative for him, should not hurt him forever, and a beneficial thing for his life. Anyway, on this blog you have heard the first thing to do is to make helping tutorials, and useful punishments, if any. The key point of a school: educa...

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Yesterday I invented a simple game. It helps learn present simple, because it refers to habits. It’s for a low level class. On the blackboard I write a series of times of a regular day, like 7:30am , 8:00pm , etc. That part on a column. On a parallel column I write activities in present simple, like ‘I rise’, ‘I do my homework’, etc, at random. And they’got to match the times with the activities. As simple as that, as useful as it sounds to practice that verbal tense.” / Photo from: www vetforu com

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “The teacher of English needs wisdom. For any regular day. Wisdom makes classes and education of our students deeper and more human, with plenty of values. I found some words by John Paul II that made me think. Listen, ‘In the Old Testament [of the Bible] was developed and flourished a rich tradition of wise doctrine and thought. On the human level, such a tradition shows human person’s desire to coordinate the data of his or her experiences and his or her knowledge, in order to direct his or her life as the most fruitful and wisest one.’ Something I’m rolling in my head lately is that the human person’s wisdom, the teacher’s wisdom and competence ultimately come from God, who has an everending Wisdom. Our wisdom is like a spark, a big one, of God’ one. Well, sure thing, counting on the teacher of English’s learning and working.” [The translation of the text is by me; I’ve done slight changes, precisely to clarify its ...

Here you have a post by a teacher, published on British Council – BBC’s website about teaching English. And an answer by me; I suppose one of the replies by other teachers. Hi everybody! My name is Valeria. I'm a teacher of English from Argentina. I'm carrying out a research paper on How to evaluate speaking skill. Have you ever reflected upon this issue? What aspects do we have to take into account when evaluating speaking? How can we help our students develop those aspects? What do you think about this? It would be a great pleasure for me to read your feedbacks and include them as part of the investigation. Thanks in advanced. Yours, Valeria. ************* Hello Valeria and everyone, I think you have hit the target. I mean, speaking could be one of the most important skills for a reaserch, because speaking may be the most important or usual means of communication. See it this way: if a student can speak in English, up to some point you can say that person manages communicati...

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “I have told you loads about learning strategies, and it’s okay. Anyway, your students also need a lot of presentation of grammar, of grammar patterns that will help them construct real communication. Present, explain grammar, let them listen and understand and write down notes. Before being able to speak they need to listen to you speaking to them, speaking with them.” / Photo from: Afghan Beauty (Talal Salaam) pinktaxiblogger blogspot com

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Challenging activities. Your students like them. Yesterday a new activity came up to me. I was with my students in the classroom. Oh, I had forgotten to take a piece of chalk, a new one. I was on the point to up and go to take one. But then I thought otherwise: I should say to one student to go and fetch it. I explained to Marta where the chalk package was, in my office. I gave her my keys, and explained to her how to reach my office, in English. I spoke slowly, for her level is low, and also I made up kind of a map onto my desk with my hands and naming different parts and rooms of the school. She took her time to understand but showed eager to catch my instructions. She achieved the mission – Sláinte !” / Photo from: highschoolsports nj com

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Some days ago one colleague of ours met with a student’s father, in a tutorial. This father used to scold and reprimand his son, sort of: Life is hard, Western-World economics is close to get choked, no employment, his student had to fulfill his duty, he must study same like his father goes to his disgusting work, the father also had repeated his son umpteen times he had to study, to study, to do his homework, not to lie... This colleague suggested to this father why not listen and retain his son’s problems and small trifles – not trifles for the kid, maybe blarney for the father, why not put in his son’s mind. Another day this teacher met with this father again, and he showed how to ask and listen to the kid, how to ask questions that would hit the target of the problems, how to paraprhase the kid’s statements, how to ask him his own views, how to ponder about his arguments, how to nod when listening to the kid, how to reason...

One day teacher of English C said to teacher of English B, “Couple days it’s my first-day class ever; I’m scared, to be honest. I don’t know if I will be able to manage the class; I imagine the worst; they’ll soon realize I am absolutely rookie.” B replied, “Uh..., my suggestions, just my suggestions. The point is that you are going to present the subject of this year, I guess. No problem they notice you’re anxious. Stop speaking when a smart cookie wants to be funny. Stare, gaze at him, do some slight sign at him. Hand them out a test to find out their level of English. You may be nervous but you do not tolerate anything wrong, anything out of the ordinary conducting of a class.” / Photo from: duke university.

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “When I was a kid, we, boys, were so concerned for the image we could show off before girls, which was one more thing for getting distracted during the class. In single-sexed education, which is the one I’ve had more experience of as a teacher, boys don’t have this factor for being in the clouds. This is my experience at teaching. That said, I want to add, single-sex education is one option a lot of teachers prefer; many others prefer coeducation, evidently, and they have their reasons why. You know what? A girl 13 years old likes a guy of 17, and so the boy aged 13 in the same class as that girl may feel somehow put aside. Girls cover their class-folders with pics of George Clooney or Leonardo Di Caprio, whilst boys put pictures of Formula 1 Fernando Alonso taking a curve.” / Photo from www boston com

A big welcome, Leticia, to our blog. Thanks a lot for signing up as a follower and for your interest. At your disposal. I have learned a lot from Spanish great pedagogue Víctor García Hoz, who wrote in 1968 (translation by me), that only can we consider as didactic that teaching whose goal is “the improvement, the bettering of the person who is taught, an improvement whose inmediate sign is learning itself.” This quotation is from: José Bernardo Carrasco (2004) Una didáctica para hoy. Cómo enseñar mejor . Rialp: Madrid, Spain / Photo from: www uky edu

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “We teachers are concerned with our students’ education, and we give our lives to this goal. Ok, but we’ve got to also learn how to rope their parents’ in their inherent role of education. I reckon this may be sometimes not easily achieved, but I maintain what I said: the parents are the first teachers of their children. If the parents don’t care much about education at home, the business is cat. From a positive point of view: phone the parents to come to the school to a conversation with you. Or listen to them whenever they come to see you. You know, I rather say every marriage are concerned for this educating, but some of them don’t know much how to accomplish it, and you can help them out.” / Photo from: blog engeneral com

Hello Humay, very welcome to our blog. If you wish to make any comment, feel free to do it. Thank you for having signed up as a follower. I hope you’ll like this blog. One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “What is the order of priority in the school for this one to fulfill its educative mission? Evidently the people: we teachers should take care of the parents, then the teachers, and then the students. In this order. At the same time. One example: we can invest our strenghts at full, but it’s the parents of the boys and girls who must educate their children. If you say something to your students in order to educate them, but at home dad and mom do not set an example at hard-working, much is lost, or better said, not lost but hindered.” / Photo from: Thatch roof cottage in Ireland. Source of the picture: on it itself.

Hi followers, Sorry, I don’t have some of the links to your blogs. I’d like to follow them, and maybe make myself a follower. I guess I lost your links, sorry. I’d like to learn from you and subsequently I might make a comment or ask you something useful with regard to teaching or human growth. Would you please send the links to the hidden comments of my blog I would appreciate. No obligation, of course. As you like. Or any other reader could send me his blog link. Something else for today. A friend of mine usually reads a novel in English, for he says it helps him keep, up to some extent, his fluency and aptitude to speak in that language. Sometimes he reads for pleasure, sometimes he focuses on every sentence, other times he rereads a few expressions and sentences already read, and this latter thing helps him notice and learn English expressions. / Photo from: opendoorexchange org

Ayer leí lo siguiente que te puede hacer pensar: La vitalidad del mundo educativo es siempre un signo de esperanza. Su ágil capacidad de reacción ante los hechos que puedan afectar su encomiable tarea honra a este gran número de profesionales. Padres y profesores son los coprotagonistas del complicado viaje de aprendizaje, en el que sus hijos y alumnos se formarán, a su vez, para ser los “maestros” de la siguiente generación. Por eso, el sector educativo –con las familias al frente- es uno de los pilares fundamentales de la sociedad. Y, precisamente por eso, hay que alegrarse de su inconformismo ante un uso rutinario y esclavo de las pantallas [1] . Ya he hablado de cómo evaluar el progreso del alumno. Ahora vamos a ver cómo pueden ellos preparar un examen escrito. Si le preguntas a un alumno tuyo, te dirá que estudiando más. Bien. Si le preguntas cómo aprender inglés, te dirá que estudiando más. Bueno. Qué tienes que estudiar más, le preguntas a continuación: el vocabulario y la gr...

Hey, I noticed art as one of your interests, I started a new art blog maybe u'll like it! Thanks and keep up great work. (Comment by Makavetis. I publish it on a new post because to be honest I receive few ones, and the label of “comments”, beneath every post is so small). Hello Makavetis, Nice to send me your comment. My compliments. I don’t like fine arts, I love them. As well, paintings show that great capacity of creativity by the artists; or if you prefer, by any men and women, ultimately. I liked the design of your blog, awesome. I’ll follow it and maybe I’ll sign up as a follower. I’m glad to hear you’re from California. Some years ago I was close to go to San Francisco to teach Spanish. I just love the US and have many, many friends there. Hello Álvaro, I sent you a comment to your blog right yesterday. Thank you for your interest and trust. Photo from: 1258974416_831 www swanleisurecentre co uk

I think this post may be useful for us teachers of English, and those teachers who wish to deepen into ways to improve teaching and learn some sheer concepts. From: http://www.englishraven.com/ Copied and slightly modified August 10, 2010 Overview of Language Teaching Methodology The word "methodology" is itself often misinterpreted or ill-understood. It is usually given lip-service as an explanation for the way a given teacher goes about his/her teaching, a sort of umbrella-term to describe the job of teaching another language. Most often, methodology is understood to mean methods in a general sense, and in some cases it is even equated to specific teaching techniques . It does (or should) in fact mean and involve much more than that. I've found that Brown's (1994:51) definitions (reflecting current usage at the time and drawn from earlier attempts to break down and classify elements to do with methodology) are the most useful: Methodology The study of pedagogical p...

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Some posts before I told you something to keep in mind if an adult goes to you in want of private classes. Can an adult, even oldish, learn a language? This person has learning strategies a kid doesn’t. This adult can submit himself to a discipline, to an effort, to a perseverance whatsoever dead weight might occur on regular days. Furtherly this learner can apply the skills and mentality he has acquired with his job or profession. And he can be more aware of his obligation and necessity for learning.” / Photo from: russian-antarctic-station-2 www hiddengarments cn

One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Some days ago one colleague of ours met with a student’s father, in a tutorial. This father reprimanded his son, sort of: ‘You’ve got to become a useful man in life!’, ‘When are you going to mature?’; also 'There is no employment?, that his student had to fulfill his duty... This colleague of ours suggested to this father that besides all those reasons, why not listen and retain his son’s problems and small trifles – not trifles for the kid, maybe blarney for the father. This teacher told this one how to ask and listen to the kid, how to ask questions that would hit the target of the problems, to paraphrase the kid’s statements, how to ponder about the teen's arguments, how to nod when listening to the kid, how to reason and to make reasoning, how to set short-time and attractive aims...” (“blarney” is an Irish expression that means “nonsense”). Excuse me, Denisse. / Photo from: parapente_landing www amanecerin es