Experiences of a teacher of English

  Now I’m presenting what could be a first lesson, now that we are starting a new school year. I hope something from all this may help you out, whatever foreign or second language level you teach. In my case I teach English to adults from some false beginner to upper intermediate levels, namely from some A2 to C1.  All this may be even something beautiful, because we treat people, persons, and each and every one is unique, and we teachers may be influencing much on their lives: what a responsibility we have!  Something basic from this start lesson: we may address each student by looking into their eyes so they may feel they are and they are going to be treated like singular persons. That is something that has helped me a lot along my career as an English teacher, both kids and adults.  First I may introduce myself – on the running first days I will get to know their names; all this may vary in your case, obviously, depending on whom you teach; anyway I hope all this ...

  A lot of people want to learn a second or foreign language. Me too. So do I.  At the same time I teach that language I’m learning and acquiring, namely English.  And you may know that I often say that reading books and graded readers help learn and acquire those target languages. Indeed. It’s my experience, plus Stephen Krashen says it’s so, even he pinpoints and says that fiction is better than non-fiction.  Ok now I can say that only after having read a lot and used the dictionary also a lot can you learn many a word. Hundreds of them, perhaps thousands.  Only then some or many words get stuck in memory. Well, maybe you'll learn a lot of vocabulary by other means. Then you can use them when speaking or writing in the target tongue. Because you’ve gotten a massive tank of lexis.  Of course there are more words you can understand than the ones you can use when communicating. Passive vocab is ampler than active vocab.  Then you can remember many words...

  You may be a teacher, one of a second or foreign language. Well, that’s is a marvelous enterprise.  Now I wanted to draw some lines about what a good lesson could be, according to my experience plus others’ one.  Thus we can start the class with a warmer or warm-up activity. I ask my dear students about today’s date, and about the weather. Then, within that warmer, we practice saying sentences with such or such grammar structure, one we are practicing lately. Or they answer some questions by me. Or by them, to each other.  Then we work on the homework set on the previous lesson. Every day I set some homework, at the end of the class. And usually they’ll have to review what done in class – me giving examples of what and how they may revise at home.  And next we may work either on photocopies I hand out, or on the textbook we are working on.  Much weight should be given in class to speaking in the target language.  I plan each and every lesson, on a no...

  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 an...

  Time flies. And thus we have less than three months left of classes. Today I wanted to give you five more points or tips about our lessons, in case it might help you to attain successful foreign or second language classes. I teach adults, yet all this may be carried out with high school kids too.  1. Next Wednesday one student will give an oral presentation – a simple one – on phonetics, phonetic transcription and the IPA, or international phonetic alphabet, because a learner of for example English should know how to interpret the phonetic transcription of a word he might look up in a dictionary.  2. We have no course-book properly, yet I use a B1 textbook to find and learn about examples of activities I could implement in class. B1 is lower-intermediate level.  3. I take texts from that book to implement listening activities, for my students need to practice that language skill. I carry out lead-in activities before the listening proper, and follow-up ones always....

  We foreign or second language teachers may wish there should be peace and communication amongst people.  Also we try hard there should be communication and immersion in the target language in the classroom.  And I am a language learner myself, and I will always be a learner myself. And thus I can help my students learn that target language, namely English.  Something I do to learn more and more lexis or vocabulary is intensive reading books. Next lesson with my students I will show them the notebook where I register and keep the words I’m learning, in case that may help them out.  You know, it’s like a diary or journal. Some time in the evening every day I write down one or two… or five words, expressions or idioms I have learned today: words and terms that have attracted my attention, from the classes, or from the Internet, or from the book I’m reading now.  I write for example a sentence where a nice word showed up in the book I’m reading, maybe with so...

  Sorry for my silence these last days. Today I wanted to write about two points: classroom behavior management and lesson planning for English or any other language lessons.  I have already told you that I’m reading Jeremy Harmer’s The Practice of English Language Teaching , which is a major work and a must read if you teach English or other languages.  Recently I have read about problem behavior in the classroom. And the main point is that if you want to teach successfully, peacefully and serving your students, you have to engage them. If these ones are immersed in the class, you for sure will have fewer problems.  We teachers have to manage the classroom, but always having in mind that we have to respect our students: the problem is their behavior and attitude, not the person. We don’t go against the person.  And it’s practice and experience what will lead you to manage classes better and better.  When some problem arises in the classroom, well we could ...

  Many, many of us want and need to learn English or any other language. This blog is on teaching English.  Now I can tell you how I do to learn that adorable language. I do some activities like listening to a radio station – one from Dublin – plus carry out activities from an English C1 coursebook – for example I carry on speaking exercises as if I were speaking to some other students, by developing some internal discourse – plus other activities plus… reading!  I try to read two books in English, and the thing works. I assume that most of what I have learned has been by reading.  Reading is not the only activity you need to do to learn a tongue, but you have to practice the four language skills. Anyway, reading may be the one that may give you the language for speaking and writing.  Reading gives you grammar, lexis and ways of saying things in the target language.  As I told you, I’m reading two books, one about teaching English, by Jeremy Harmer, plus a ...

  I love other teachers or other people in general would visit my blog. I have taken a three-week recess, after the school year has finished. It’s been a lovely year. Next year I expect we will be able to have face-to-face classes, always if the pandemic allows us to.  On that recess or break I have read and studied a lot. Also English. Purely – concerning English – I have taken a dictionary and learned some words each day or nearly. It was a bilingual dictionary. As well I could grab a big one, also bilingual, but I wanted to study the smaller one, yet it offered thousands of words.  I have not read any other book in English.  However, I can tell you I have learned quite many daily words, words we use on a regular day of ours, everyday words.  At home I have heard family stories about people who used to learn words of a different foreign language by using just a dictionary, for example of Japanese (!).  And can anyone learn a language by studying from a di...

  Today I copy and paste a program I have designed for a friend of mine. He wants to learn English, so I propose him the following plan. Basically he wants to read English more fluently. I hope it may be of any interest for you my readers. There you can see what is my regular teaching like. Also he says English is an issue he has always wished to master and he has tried more often than not. He is retired, yet he often is very busy. Posible plan de inglés para NN 5 de abril de 2021 1.      Si lo que quiere es leer y entender más, y leer con más soltura, le puede servir utilizar un buen diccionario online, como wordreference.com. Es muy completo y útil. 2.      Si lo que quiere es mejorar en inglés globalmente, debe practicar las cuatro destrezas de la lengua: listening, speaking, reading, writing . 3.      Más gramática y vocabulario, si bien estos se pueden aprender al practicar esas cuatro habilidades o destrezas. 4. ...

Want to learn a language? A foreign or second one?  From all what seen by me and others I could now tell you some tips that might help you or your students learn that language.  It’s obvious but think of dedicating some minutes every single day, for longer if you can.  On these latter days I’ve learned such words as headway, fretting, overstrain, Mussulman, trader, hangout, commuting, to bog down, betrothed, don’t go overboard, née, pinnace … You know what I do? I write down those words and revise them often and think of sentences by utilizing those words… all that works to get them into memory so that I’ll later retrieve them when I need them.  As well I try to use them in real life: if you use them, you can remember them, otherwise, no memory of them or hardly any...  Alike you could directly study from a dictionary.  Carrying on with tips to learn a language: you have to practice the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Plus vocabulary...

If you’re learning or teaching a second or foreign language, you should remember that any language has four skills to practice: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, ok?  Today I would like to say something about reading. Reading is so great. The language learner has to read intensely and massively, and that counts toward a lot of learning that tongue, whatever that tongue is.  I personally read a book at least some brief minutes a day. I try and enjoy it. Reading is great, as I said.  When reading you’re thinking in that target language.  I come across some new words and enjoy learning them.  I use the dictionary rather little – I’m learning English, by the way.  I read a couple of pages each time or so, and then I come back to what I’ve read and then randomly I pay attention and focus on some words and idioms and take like a mental picture. Memory is something you can train and it's elastic, like chewing gum... In that way I can tell you that I’ve le...

We teachers want our students should read massively and intensively, right? That is crucial, both if our students are young people and if they are adults.  It is not enough we would say to them whatever their age is that they have to read a lot. We should rather help them and teach them how to read well. Even whatever the subject we teach is.  If our students learn how to read well, we teachers will have reached pretty far concerning teaching them.  For example, when reading, the reader has to grasp the meaning of what he’s reading. And thus he should get the gist as well as the main ideas of the text.  Actually I’m an English language teacher, and I tell my adult learners they have to read simplified readers to learn and acquire English. They’re abridged and simplified books in accordance to different levels of difficulty and mastering of the language.  Also something they do not have to do is to translate the texts into Spanish, no, no way...

Some time I somehow enjoy in the classroom is when my adult students are reading and working on the worksheets I hand them out. The new school year is coming on and now it is a nice time to think of the good things teaching has.  Sometimes, as I said, my students dedicate some time to revising those worksheets I make myself.  While they’re reading I can contemplate them working and that’s nice too.  They need that amount of time to focus and concentrate on those texts in English. It’s then when also they’re learning and acquiring that language. They often use their smartphones to look up words they don’t understand, on an online dictionary.  They learn a lot mainly because they’re good learners. It’s also then when they’re a bit more of autonomous learners.  As well that’s when I have some recess at my teaching them. And that’s important. Furthermore because I need some break within classes.  Of course I keep at their disposal in ca...

Learning and acquiring a foreign language, like English in my case and my students’, demands learning and acquiring a vast vocabulary. This is clear enough, right?  Something I implement when daily learning and acquiring English is reading books in that language. I consciously try and learn new words from those readings. Every single day.  And when writing for example these blog posts some words come up to mind and then I use them, while writing. For example ways of saying things in English, or single words, or phrases. Or whatever.  I am sure also I gain and acquire words I’m not aware I’m acquiring. Also those words may come up when writing. More often when I read more.  Currently I’m reading a book about teaching English by great Jeremy Harmer plus a book on Apollo missions to the moon in the sixties and early seventies, when I was born and a young infant. Great.  Sometimes I read as if I were writing those texts, word by word, and in tha...

In 10 days we will be starting an English summer camp for boys. Near Costa del Sol in southern Spain. A wonderful place and hopefully a wonderful camp.  Now I’m thinking of the first announcements and advice I’ll tell the thirty students that are to attend it. Who will be responsible of conduct and behavior? The kids themselves. I’ll be saying some things that could penetrate in their heads though they may be not very conscious the first day.  We teachers and monitors are sowing and planting seeds that will penetrate in them over time, maybe over years.  They have to have a pen plus a notebook or A4 sheets – also a dictionary is sensible to have. They must be punctual, which amounts to be respectful to other people, other human persons.  They will practice the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. They’ll have a wonderful chance to practice their English with a pair of native teachers: last year and other past years we had a...

Reading both fiction and non-fiction books may be so good to learn new vocabulary of the language you’re learning.  By reading you can learn quite many new words, but they need practice to get those words learned and memorized.  It is not necessary you look up every single new word in the dictionary. Only from time to time or when the meaning of the text cannot be understood by you. Enjoy reading! As well quite many words are not only learned but also acquired or gotten in an unaware way, and they pop up when writing or speaking in that language.  Over time you get the language sense: you have a nice background to guess and know intuitively some other language aspects. In that case you kind of feel the language: you know that native speakers say things in that way and not other. You have the language sense when you’re capable to understand (both by listening and by reading), speak and write in that tongue with enough fluency.  Only after some yea...

  Reading novels or non-fiction is okay to refresh English – or any other language – through the summer. I do it myself – plus other classes and other stuff I carry out at the summer break. At present I’m reading English literature. And I like it. Even I love it I’d say. Do I use the dictionary? I do but rather seldom. Seldom because I try and understand new words from the context, and it works! So I don’t stop often to look up some word in the dictionary. I figure out meanings from the context, as I said. And other words are left not understood. But anyway I quite understand the novel. It’s okay. And it is a good way to learn English: you not only learn words but other ways to convey some meaning: idioms, circumlocutions, etc. I tell you something: you have to find your own unique pathway to learn and acquire a language. Acquire I said. Yes because acquiring a language means that you’re learning though you are not aware. Also my students keep learning English a...

  Reading books is something pretty useful for learning vocabulary… and enjoying yourself! We acquire lexis. In that way we acquire lexis. It takes rather long to learn a basis of vocabulary. But once that basis is gotten, you can read a book with that tank of words that may help you understand any text. And then from the context you can understand many other words it’s the first time you encounter. From the context you can understand close to ANY text in the target language, for instance English! It’s like a child reading in his mother tongue. As he grows up, he can read a novel or a tale with new words to him, but from the context he can make out what those words mean, or turning to the dictionary... And over time he’ll understand more and more and his lexis will be great! A learner when reading books is like a child reading in his mother language. He can face up to any text. I repeat it on purpose and intently: reading is fantastic for learning a language – it isn’t ...

  We foreign or second language teachers need to learn the vocabulary of that language, if we’re non-native. We need the words to communicate in that tongue, English in my case and my students’. Also in order to teach it. What can we do? For example reading a text with new vocabulary, from the Web, from novels, etc. The fact of looking up a word in the dictionary or using an online dictionary like Wordreference and thinking of that word makes you learn English vocabulary. An action like that – looking up the word – makes you learn the word. And if you see that word again, later on, it will ring a bell to you and it will be easier to retain and learn. You’ll be learning a rather vast lexis! With practice and continuity, of course. That’s an example of a learning strategy, you may have others. Over time you’ll find you’ve learned a vast lexis, and you’ll be able to teach an ample vocab to your students too. The teacher can give what he has, and not what he doesn’t. If h...