924. Trying to set each thing in its right place



One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “Currently I teach adult students. They’re retired people. The course has two hours per week. The atmosphere is one of nice rapport.

I teach them useful expressions for their trips to other countries. They registered in the program just because they wished. And also because they need English. Each two or three weeks I hand them out worksheets with useful expressions, stories, etc.

I’ve tried all the class be in English, but they told me the level is too high and they don’t understand. Thus, in those circumstances I’m using L1, namely Spanish. If I used only English in the classes, I would need a long time to explain things little by little. Furthermore their levels of English are so varied, from low to general intermediate.

I would like there be total immersion, but – don’t get me wrong – I have to use our L1 too. For next week’s classes I’m going to re-consider whether it’s okay to use L1 or I should invent any sort of class in which only English be spoken, by me. But so what about their contributions? It’s natural for them to translate into Spanish often, when I ask them about the meaning of something. Sometimes I ask them to try and say that now in English.” / Photo from: thisoldhouse com. woman hanging a framed picture on the wall  

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