Experiences of a teacher of English

  Today I would like to point out a couple of points that may help you out, mainly if you are a teacher, like I am.  You know, a lot has been said about the student’s motivation in class, and that’s fine, for our lessons don’t need to bore our dear students and a whole herd of cows alike.  However, if for example a kid in class achieves to solve a math problem, or to write an essay in English (say, his target language), about a given topic, well, he will get perfectly content. There may be nothing better than the student would strive to do things fine, and learn a lot of things from his teacher.  Effort and struggling may also be paramount in class, and alike at home with their homework. I mean, the school and the classroom are not theme parks, as Gregorio Luri says.  Second thing today. I’d also like to pinpoint the use of books, paper ones. Miguel Ángel Martínez-González stands up for the use of paper books instead of a lot of screens. On this blog I’ve said s...

  A lot of us people want to learn a language – I teach English and keep learning it! – and we have to practice all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  For me and many of us listening may be the most difficult skill to acquire, but with practice you do improve a lot, believe me.  Anyway, today I would like to tell you especially about reading. Reading books, articles, websites. And also believe me, it’s a great skill to practice.  Stephen Krashen stated that by reading books you can learn a great deal of a second or foreign language, and I can assure you it’s thus. I have no big problems to read any text in English: fiction, non-fiction … except Joseph Conrad’s books perhaps, for they show to be extremely difficult for me to understand – even I had an Irish friend, Connor by name, who told me also that for him it was tough to understand, and he said that he read like one page per day, of his books. It’s curious, Conrad was Polish by birt...

  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. I...

  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, me...

  We are starting a new school year, is that right? Or maybe not and we may be at mid-school-year in the earth southern hemisphere. Never mind. It doesn’t matter too much.  If you are a teacher and wish to be a really good one, and perhaps you’re searching for something useful on this very blog (if possible) or somewhere else, well, I’ll try and help you out. If possible.  Actually we teachers have to learn from each other.  Also because we may be wishing to develop as teachers and get a better job as teachers, or just we want to become better professionals.  So thus let’s learn from other teachers. Furthermore, I would tell you that a novice or an experienced teacher alike should have something in his hands to learn from. As well our students and their families would appreciate.  Any teacher should have a book which we can learn from. Always. A book to learn from. Or a website to learn from. Or another teacher’s blog to learn from.  And then each bit ...

  Working as a teacher? Wonderful it may be.  Today I wanted to tell you that a teacher needs resources for his or her teaching, for example a coursebook. And perhaps some others.  Yet we must bear in mind that the main resource, say, is the teacher him or herself. And we must take care of them. For they, as I said, constitute and make up the main source for lessons.  And it’s him or herself who have to invest their best in class. Which is something quite common amongst teachers, although they have to fight against many negative factors, like bad classroom behavior from their students, or some parents who seem to be against those teachers. On another post we could say something about that latter point – now I will simply say that quite many other parents are totally in favor of the teachers.  You know, being a teacher is kind of a hard profession and anyone of us can see how they strive to do their best.  If we have happy and committed teachers, likely less...

  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...

  I am again with you all. And enjoying teaching my students. Adults. And one year ago we began online lessons, English lessons. Now this school year classes are face-to-face again. And my students are great people. Yes, they are. And very willing to learn English.  We have gotten some nice rapport in the classroom.  From the teacher’s angle, experience is showing it is paramount. With experience you get the right way to treat your students. In a nice way. With experience you learn how to treat them, what they can like and what they don’t. You learn how to treat them in a nice way.  For example at the end of a lesson often I let them know what has worked fine in that class, kind of, Well today we have had some nice discussions and like a get-together to talk about this, about that, you have my congrats, people . And thanks for your cooperation to the class . And, you know, they like that and also they thank you for the lesson. And then we say good-bye in a cheerful w...

  On my last post I said that in a foreign or second language classroom our dear students should participate by speaking for quite long periods. It’s not the same to say one sentence than speaking for 5 or 10 minutes. And if we want for them to learn and acquire that language, well then they should give long oral presentations. And lose their natural fear to speak for those allotted minutes.  Expert teacher trainer Mary Jane Amaya taught me how our students can prepare that very oral presentation.  Basically and trying to remember I can describe the preparation process as follows.  First the student has got to choose his or her topic. They can do it by brainstorming possible topics and then choose their favorite one. Of course you can teach all that nice process by carrying it out in the classroom with the class of students as a whole.  So after that brainstorm they can vote or anyway select one topic.  Then they can again brainstorm possible points about t...

  We may be on vacations now… or not. Anyway, we teachers may be preparing ourselves for the new school year next fall.  Classes, classes, classes, we also may miss our students, although we appreciate this summer break, in the north hemisphere.  And we have to learn how to motivate our students.  Well, better said, mostly they get motivated in the lesson if we know how to plunge them into the pool, if we know how to get them fully involved in the lesson.  On the one hand we have to show the relationship between what we teach and real life. But as well we teachers have to arouse the interest for new material and new stuff if we achieve to get them immersed into the lesson.  I mean, we have to teach new things to our dear students, and consequently and eventually they will get motivated about that new stuff. Also if they work hard. Some people say we have to meet our students’ interests, but also they will get interested in new things when we teach them thus...

  Many people want to learn a language. They need it. We need it. My students and I want to learn English.  A school year is over or nearly. One more year. It’s beautiful. And my students are great. They have struggled also this year. They have attended the online lessons. They have participated a lot on the lessons.  They for example wanted to explain things at the lessons. And they used the language they had, the language they mastered. I have noticed that the students who had strived more, they had more language to participate. They are the ones who for example have read more.  For reading is a language-learning booster. Reading provides you with the language you need when you want to explain something. Reading provides you with the grammar, lexis and ways of saying things. I have noted it this school year which is already over.  Also the learners that succeed at learning English are the ones who really and actually wish to learn, for they use the means to le...

  I am finishing the current school year. Or I should say, WE are finishing our school year, my dear students plus me. They’ve been great also this school year, and I’ve noticed their progress in the target language. They’ve paid off. Yes, they have.  They are adults.  Recently I have again understood that successful learners are the ones who really wish to learn and those really in need of learning that target language, like migrants that have to earn their lives in a foreign country.  In an English classroom there must be a real immersion in that tongue: communication is sustained and held in English, like the classroom were a piece of a foreign country.  I teach English as a foreign language, or perhaps I should say as a second language, for English is permeating people’s learning and studies, above all amongst young people. Indeed.  This finishing school year I have offered my dear students unabridged articles from the Web plus emails in English to info...

  I am a teacher. You already know it. I teach English to grownups. And I actually wish they would learn the language. And acquire it. I do.  Yet all my effort would be fruitless unless they my students also wish to learn and acquire it.  For that reason I give them articles from the Web, two of them about learning English. Next lesson I will insist on the following premises.  Who is the student, the learner who REALLY learns the tongue? The one who REALLY wishes to learn. Crystal clear, you know? I’ve seen it this school year. In my students, in some more than in some others. Anyway all of them have improved.  The learner that really learns is the autonomous one. That person pays off. That person will for sure apply all his strength to learning.  If I dedicate my best forces to teaching but somebody would not really wish to learn, my job would be useless or close to that. Well, you know, they my students want to learn. And they attend the lessons. And when...

  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. ...

As I’ve already told you, both teachers and parents wish our students would learn. Well, and most of students as well.  And these students need abundant time for studying. Just them. They should have some place and abundant time for studying, researching and writing their activities. Just themselves, as I just said.  I can recall with joy and gratitude when I was a student at high school and we the students did have a study hall or a library to study on our own. And we carried out and accomplished high school and after that, college.  Perhaps sometimes there might be a teacher or a monitor in charge of taking care of that study hall and he used to work on his own stuff, but also as I said, it is convenient students on their own would learn how to work, study and write their activities.  It is so because it’s them who have to realize they have to study on their own, just because they wish so, it’s them who have to learn how to work on their own.  When there were ...

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 we teachers want our students would have success at learning and would actually learn, we can help them out by telling them to study in a metacognitive way.  But what does that mean?  Basically it’s helping them think. Basically also it’s for example a student who thinks of the way he or she reads, studies and learns.  The good student does normally know he or she is a good one. He can reflect about the way he or she reads and studies. And they discard what doesn’t work and take up what works. They also use learning strategies. And they are more or less mature.  And we teachers can teach them or help them read and study. Of course we have to teach and address all our students, from low-achievers to high-achievers.  We teachers supposedly do know how to read and study. Because we have reached to be teachers. So we can teach our dear students how to read and study. On last posts I’ve also talked about reading techniques.  As well a good student can come to...

I have some nice remembrances and memories about when I was a kid and carried out my high school period. I can recall the so many hours I used to spend at the study hall of the youth center I attended.  It had a nice library. And that center monitors aroused and waked up my thirst for knowledge. Also its teachers did.  Also I have some nice memories about my school teachers. Most of them, maybe all, were good teachers, both male teachers and female ones. They gave us knowledge and contents, and as well aroused our thirst for learning.  That’s the teachers’ mission: both give contents and wake up the students’ hunger for learning. Thank you my dear teachers. Most of them may be retired or they have departed.  And libraries are in no way obsolete.  Okay, we have Internet browsers, yet libraries are necessary still, and hopefully they will keep being so.  Think of the good that libraries can make to students, more if the books are in accordance to human dignit...

Now I could tell you some more things - interesting ones - from our great author and scholar H. D. Brown. Remember he's an expert at learning and teaching languages.  First I would like to say that the person who achieves to learn a foreign or second tongue is... the learner who REALLY wants to learn.  I myself know some examples of people who have improved their learned language... because they did really wish to learn. A person like that is a powerful engine that takes initiatives and makes firm resolutions and tries to fulfill them.  That person is not passive at all in the classroom and he or she cooperates with their teacher and with their classmates at the beautiful learning process of a second or foreign language.  That person tries to know himself and gets perfectly conscious of HOW he learns, HOW he studies, HOW he improves, HOW he discards what doesn't work and takes up what works fine.  Each class is a step forward, each hour dedicated to learning the...

Let’s continue studying what H. D. Brown suggests for learning a language, which amounts to some very useful ideas.  The key point is that the learner who achieves to learn that tongue has to be one that takes initiatives, and actually and really wishes to learn. That person is very active: no firm resolutions, no learning. On the contrary, if he or she plunges into the cold lake, they will for sure attain to learn that language.  I know a friend of mine who currently has an advanced English level. He has taken and made the resolution of working on a method which includes a textbook of CEFR level C1.  CEFR stands for Common European Framework of Reference for languages, where C1 is advanced and C2 – the top one – requires proficiency by the learner, so very advanced, so as to say.  Well, you know, he practices the four language skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing. Since he is almost locked down by the pandemics, he practices speaking on his own, this is,...