Experiences of a teacher of English

This job of ours, teachers, is so great, you know? It’s hard, sometimes tough, but what job is not hard?  We as teachers have to personalize the education we implement. In accordance to and with the kids’ parents, ok? Because the school is a prolongation of the families’ homes, ok?  Thus we teachers should teach, educate, and love those kids, with benevolence love, which is seeking what is good for those persons we’re educating and teaching.  Thus also we will be recipient to what those students tell us. Aside and individually.  In the classroom or by remote teaching we are the adults they have as a reference… so what a responsibility we have!  We will listen to them carefully and attentively by… how should I say in English? In Spanish we say “hacerse cargo”. I would explain it: yes, here we are: listen to them, empathize with them, reckon what they’re telling us, bear in mind what they’re saying, realize about what they have in mind and in their hearts. With pr...

Two posts ago I told you that we adults have a lot of positive features in our favor to learn a second or foreign language, and we do have indeed!  Also lately I’m commenting on H. D. Brown (1989). You can peek at the last posts from this blog. From that great book now I’m quoting something else about the way we grownups learn that language. Here you are, “It’s not ridiculous, is it, that adults are potentially superior to children in foreign language learning? If we could only harness that ability! Research on successful language learners shows that a significant portion of adult success is attributable to optimal conscious learning. You need to be just childlike enough to relax with the language and not be overly worried about all of its details. But at the right moment, you need to be able to monitor yourself or your language with your zoom lens, then take corrective action. In short, try not to think too much about your language learning process, but allow yourself optimal o...

Communication.  That’s sheer important in second language lessons. Otherwise… why would we summon our students into language classes? If I teach English as a foreign or second language, I have to foster and promote communication in my classroom.  Sixteen years ago I filled out a card when I was studying my PhD – I carried out those studies yet I did not finish that academic career; anyway I got a lot of interesting research for my lessons and for this blog. On that card I typed:  Communication 1 280504 “The language teaching profession was still not ready for much real communication.” (x; the underlining is ours). We as teachers should foster as well real communication and not just always simulation. Think for instance of the warm-ups we practise in class: they usually deal with real things of their lives (of our students). So we teachers should also give our logistics announcements to our dear students in the target language or L2, in the classroom. And then, af...