Experiences of a teacher of English

  I also know that most of you are or may be busy and committed teachers. I was wondering if write about this topic or not, but in the end I’ve decided to write about it, yes, let’s go with it.  As I said, you may be hectic teachers, yet I presume that you devote some time of your valuable and precious time to just thinking about what you do in class, so you can improve your teaching work, also precious as it is, indeed. Because you wish your dear students learn effectively.  I mean, the happy teacher – busy he or she may be though – knows how to extract some time for thinking about their dear students and how they can learn better and more effectively.  I knew a teacher who used to dedicate some time for example at the end of the school year to think and write down some points about his lessons: how they had proceeded, you know, how they’d improved that past year, how could they improve next year, what points are paramount for bettering those lessons, what points I have read on some t

  I know that you want to become a good teacher. One who makes his or her students think, right?  This latter thing may seem obvious, but do our dear students really think? Do they invest all their cleverness capabilities upon learning in the best possible way?  In order to achieve our dear students would think, and more if they are kids, we have to teach them how to think. If they settle down to study their books, we may be heading in the right direction.  We as teachers may think in a loud voice, say, to teach them to think, in class.  I was remembering that when I taught kids at the first school where I began to teach, we had, in accordance to their parents, there in the nineties of last century, a plan for educating them. It was not one more school subject, like math or literature or biology, but they were weekly sessions about topics where we made them think: ethics, how to solve problems, virtues and values, situations they might face as teens, etcetera. It was just what their fa

  Today I wanted to share with you several points which can help both teach and learn a second or foreign language.  For example I’m still learning English and I know that I will finish my days on earth by still learning: When can you say, well, ok, I’ve already finished to learn Croatian or Polish or Spanish?  Something I’m doing lately is reading an interesting book. I confess I’ve been reading it – with some stops anyway – for almost a year. The book, about the Apollo missions to put the first man on the moon and written by a space historian, is a volume of more than six hundred pages and I’ve been reading it since last December.  You know, it was a present from the Wise Men or Kings on 2018 or so Christmas when we were going to celebrate the 50 th anniversary of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely.  Then, in 2019, when the 50 th anniversary, I read it more quickly – namely several months – and now I’m studying it, let’s say, because I try and notice any relevant an

  The good teacher must know how to plan his or her lessons. They have learned over the years. Now I’m referring to second or foreign language teachers. They learn how to plan efficient lessons for their dear students to learn effectively.  And there’s a plus. They achieve to plan in rather short time.  That kind of teacher plans his classes with their actual students in mind. He wants for them to really learn and acquire that target language.  He knows how to get the most from a class text or a photocopy he has gotten from his resources – they may be modest, though.  He learns how to be imaginative and he’ll accomplish – as I said – to get the most from a photocopy.  And he plans several activities from that sheet of paper. For example, as follows.  First he plans a listening comprehension activity while his students do not have the copy yet. And he has planned a lead-in activity for that listening, for example, a first exercise of predicting what the text is about, just from the titl

  Today I’m trying to say something that may help you if you teach college students or adults or even kids.  Something I’ve lately observed is that the teacher has to let those students do, he or she has to allow them to do, by combining authority with indulgence, authority with clever lenience.  First premise: the teacher must become an authority, a moral authority in class. And that’s gotten if the teacher becomes somebody who can say things that positively influence upon his or her students. That teacher achieves that things fall on good soil, only if he works hard and sets an example of a person who has something that really makes his students learn how to work fine. I mean, that teacher is someone you can rely on, because he has gotten that authority, which is moral authority.  Do you know what I mean? I’ve seen teachers whose students do what they are told to do because their teacher is a moral authority and has prestige – he is somebody that deserves to be listened to.  And we m

  We may be starting a new school year, at least in the north hemisphere of our dear planet. And we have to take care of it – our planet I mean.  And in that new academic year we may find us teachers planning our lessons.  I want to tell you something about that issue, in case it may help you teachers.  Lesson planning has to be practical and brief, rather brief. Before I think of the activities I want to implement in class next day I think of my dear students, so I plan with them in mind.  Plus I wonder what they expect from me or from our English course, and what they need mostly. It takes me just few minutes, and sometimes, well, often, I write down those needs, aims, and expectations.  And then I plan the lesson properly.  I feel that in that way my students are kind of more satisfied with what we do in class. Have a nice day. Well, hang on, something else I do when lesson planning is to ask myself what few things are important now for my students .

  What are good lessons like? Let’s try and mull something about that question, from what Gregorio Luri states plus my own experience. He is a Spanish teacher, pedagogue, and philosopher.  Some teachers say classes must be fun.  Are you sure? Well, classes shouldn’t be a bore or drag, but fun at all? A bit fun may be okay.  They have to be well taught, for the teacher has planned them nice and competently. That’s the first premise. And planned with his or her students in mind.  And that teacher has to speak well, so his or her students put in and take in good language.  I think that if the teacher acts that way, more likely his lessons will be consistent and interesting. And the classroom atmosphere must be serene, so the students can work, learn, study, and grow up well and with no stridencies. That’s also applicable if your learners are adults, like in my case. In that environment those people can work intensely.  Thus over time that kind of work is something you will like, probably,

  It seems that a communicative approach to teaching/learning a second or foreign language may be the best, and actually most teachers apply it in the classroom.  Thus the learners would learn and acquire that language by communicating in the target tongue, and also they would learn that language in order to communicate both in and out of the classroom.  As well their dear teacher would not confine the classes to giving language facts but to communication (plus language facts, if you wish, of course - they are necessary).  Okay.  However, that teacher cannot confine the tests and exams to measure grammar learning and other language facts.  If the classes were communication, the stuff measured at those tests and exams has to be also communicative. A few questions can be devoted to grammar, anyway, but also in accordance to what already done in class.  The students shouldn’t encounter questions in the tests which they haven’t been trained for.  Otherwise those students have to be assesse

  So we have – continuing what said on the previous post – that we can learn a foreign or second language, but also we can acquire it. Subconsciously. Similar to what little children do.  And we language learners have to receive a comprehensible input, to acquire the language. Thus we will be exposed to that input, which should be a bit above my actual level, thus we can proceed and advance in that language learning.  All this entails practical points for the classroom.  Remember all that was already said by Stephen Krashen from the seventies and eighties of last century. A great fellow this expert I guess.  He also said that you can learn & acquire the target tongue by reading books, and this is good news – I do like reading books and articles.  He puts that fiction books, like novels, help you a great deal in those learning & acquiring: those books bring everyday lexis and sayings and kinds of expressions. And even it seems better if you select those books.  The following thi

  We teachers have to learn from the experts. If we want to teach our dear students fine.  So Stephen Krashen – an expert on learning a second or foreign language himself – put his first theories in the seventies and eighties of last century. According to them we know that we can learn a language, ok, but – and it’s good news – as well we can acquire that dear language. Subconsciously.  We can acquire a language without being aware we are learning that tongue.  For that we have to receive comprehensible input in that language, for example by reading a fiction book we have selected ourselves, not necessarily an assigned class read.  Of course also we can learn that language: it’s when we study its grammar and such in an aware way we are learning.  And – if you let me say so – to produce that language (to speak and write) we can hand those both learned and acquired languages, which is what I note I do when I speak or write in English – which is not my mother tongue, as it’s clear enough.

  I have found apparently very plausible postulates from two education aces which seem – only seem – incompatible.  They both are Spanish education aces, Gerardo Castillo and Gregorio Luri. And they do know a lot on educating our students, both in theory and in practice.  Castillo puts, in a book about fifteen world geniuses, that schools, or better said, teachers should foster and promote their students’ creativity. Namely Isaac Newton, Thomas A. Edison, Antonio Gaudí, John Ford, Joan Miró, Alfred Hitchcock, Steve Jobs, well, they were considered as bad students (!).  Gerardo Castillo says that it was like schools systems were possibly boring for those geniuses when they were schoolboys.  Thus that education expert says that creativity should be fostered at school, or some creativity should be thus fostered at schools, together with regular set education. Anyway, let’s note that creativity stroke.  In the meanwhile another education expert – I believe they both are – namely Gregorio L

  I wish my students would learn and acquire English, and you also wish that from your students as a teacher.  You know, those learners must be willing to learn that language, no matter their age, yet above all if they are kids from some ten years of age – before that age they are pretty naturally willing to learn.  Of course they must be that willing if they’re teens or adults.  Only that way can they learn and acquire the foreign or second language. The more willing they are, the more language they’ll learn and acquire.  And learning and acquiring a language is not just attending some classes and just sitting there and just see what the teacher does. You don’t learn English that way at all. It entails your whole self. It’s not just sitting and listening to some audio. It’s not like learning math or history – and in no way do I despise those subjects. It’s what scholar and expert H. D. Brown used to say: you must involve your whole self: physical, emotional, mental, attitudinal… It’s

  If you know about teaching and learning another language, you may know that some experts have said that that teaching should be student-centered, right?  Yeah, I can see the point, but to achieve that, the classroom has to be also teacher-centered.  All of us teachers want our students would learn for example English, and to attain that goal, well, the teacher is a central piece in that classroom.  Most students who have gotten to learn and acquire that second or foreign language, well, mostly they have also had good teachers.  If we wish a number of learners in a schoolroom will learn a tongue, we have to get very good language teachers.  No good teachers, likely no good language learners.  Behind a good learner often is a good teacher.  Well you may also have a good student with a poor teacher, of course, but what I mean is that we have to invest on getting good teachers if we want those students will attain to learn English.  And that good teacher also has to be a (moral) authorit

  So we have already finished another school year or are about to do it.  Do we teachers have into account that we have to also educate our students, and so in accordance with their parents’ views?  We also have to educate them in freedom. If we educate our students like they were robots… we are doing wrong with them.  I teach adults. Yet something similar in some way may be applied to teens. I believe that a lot of English may be learned by reading books – like Krashen himself puts it himself. And, you know?, I say to those learners of mine they have to purchase graded readers or unabridged books. On their own.  As well they have to massively and intensively read, on their own. Beside what we actually do in the classroom to learn English. On their own, I said, by themselves. I leave them on their own.  Something I do is I encourage them to read, and when they’ve finished that graded reader, then, come on, get a new one. Or an unabridged book, which for the same money or similar it’s l

  Are you a teacher yourself? I mean, a second or foreign language teacher?  I’m going to tell you something today which hopefully may help you with your lessons. Let’s see to it.  It’s common to say that we language teachers have to have our students practice the language they’re learning and we should not confine our teaching to teaching language facts. And that’s okay. We should not confine our teaching to grammar and little else.  Yep, that’s right. However, let us not think we cannot teach those grammar facts, like for example verbal tenses or the use of the comparative of irregular adjectives.  Thus, if I’m teaching a bit of grammar or lexis, I don’t have to think I’m doing something wrong. Come on, as well you have to give your dear students language facts and grammar and the like, because those students do need those facts… to be able to precisely communicate in the target language. And above all if they are adults or even teens.  They do need the language! It’s ok you would te

  I’m back with you again, my fellow readers.  I wanted to tell you something that may be of any interest to you, both if you are prospective or novice teachers, or otherwise experienced ones.  I’ve been thinking lately that, for a teacher, practice and experience are so paramount important. And as well another key point to bear in mind when teaching in the classroom or remotely teaching is that we should have our students in mind when lesson planning.  Something you can do before the actual lesson planning is just to think on your specific and real students.  On a parallel way you may know that when our students have to write an essay, well, you know, they should have a reader in mind.  Equally when the teacher is about to plan a lesson – and every lesson ought to be planned – he or she may think, Well, let’s see how my students are in class and how last lesson worked actually.  And I invite you to write a few points before the actual planning, considering their real needs, how they w

  As you may know, I have greatly written on this blog about foreign or second language autonomous learners . And that’s ok, for it’s them who really really really learn and acquire that language.  Today I wanted to say, however, that the teacher is just necessary and essential too.  Furthermore I would say that the language lesson has to be student-centered… but also teacher-centered.  We have to recognize that a good teacher may well help and boost his or her students’ learning.  I have learned a lot of English over time, yet I am very grateful to my teachers over the years: they were just so great, and have helped me learn that tongue.  As a matter of fact a teacher also may excite and stimulate his or her students’ eagerness for learning the language. It’s something of what I try hard in my classes to adults, and these ones are great language learners, yep they are.  As well the teacher may shorten the way to learners, because he or she may provide with useful techniques, approache

  We may be teachers, okay? We may also be educators. But do we know what to educate is? Well, maybe we already know it, or know something about it.  Where I want to aim? Educating is getting the best from my students, yet also it is getting the best to them.  Some people say kind of, Well, we have to get the best from those learners. Yep, but also we have to take knowledge and other things to them.  Otherwise we will not obtain the best from them.  This seems clear in children’s case: we can try and get the best from them, but alike we have to provide knowledge and others to them, because they were born with no knowledge at all.  Spanish philosopher and pedagogue Gregorio Luri puts it in that way: the teacher has to provide knowledge to their students.  It doesn’t seem sound to get some children into a classroom and naively try and get the best from them, like they already were wise people.  Let’s give them knowledge and other things. For that we created our schools.  Those other thi

  I wrote a few days ago the following.  One more year has begun. And today I’m going to let you know about something I lately do when lesson planning, in case it may help you out.  I teach English to adults. And when I start to plan a new lesson, I wonder, Okay, what should I do to really help my students learn that language? Because each and every class should be one step forward in their learning and acquiring English.  Secondly I also could wonder, Okay, what can I do next class to make my students become autonomous learners? For those autonomous learners are the ones that actually accomplish to learn English.  Thus we have two points for when we have to plan a lesson.  Now I’m trying to give you some examples of those two points, which we can bear in mind to improve our lesson planning. Well, they have to be brief, each one could take few minutes to think about.  Some examples, I was saying. Let me think. Even I’m trying to give an example that covers both points. This is it. Late