Experiences of a teacher of English

  We communicate with one another by using for example verbs, and so we need to master verbal tenses in the target language. I their teacher should follow a logical and naturalistic sequence, so as to teach a verbal tense to my students. I can follow the skills we use in real life to acquire and learn some way of expressing ideas, in the following order: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Thus I their teacher can say many realistic examples with for instance present perfect; I say sentences about specific students, with present perfect. After that I ask my students to say sentences similar to the ones I their teacher have said, by using questions and gestures as prompts. Then I write on the chalkboard examples of that verbal tense. Or one student does. After that students read out those sentences. And last but not least they copy and write examples of sentences with present perfect. Afterwards I can implement a drill with present perfect, before I proceed...

Quite often our students do not know how to get the most from grammar charts or boxes in their textbooks.  They say nothing to them; they aren’t meaningful.  We teachers can tell them: study this box on page 69 and make five or six sentences at home. Plus we can provide one or two examples, with the book open on that page.  This is the basis for later communication: yesterday I assisted a private student to use this factor. / Photo from: textbooks www alibris com

It’s of a paramount importance that learning and acquiring a foreign language would serve the purpose of communication with other people.  When working on grammar in classes we can implement an activity that is useful to make sentences and messages with sense.  Write on the chalkboard the words of a sentence in a jumbled and scrambled way. Ask your students, by turns for example, to put the words into the correct order to mean something.  That activity can be helpful for all ages and all levels of the target language, English in our case.  Another way to implement this activity with young kids is to write words on stripes of paper, big enough for every student in the classroom to see them, and put those words into a correct order, sticking those labels of paper or card with plasticine™ or blu-tac™. It’s cool and different students can contribute to making up the sentence. / Photo from: bricomania fijar argolla en techo www hogarutil com

Students who want to participate in games in English in class need grammar and vocabulary.  You can tell them that that is one more reason for learning English. / Photo from: marriage watching tv.  www dailymail co uk. The photo of this post is a mere illustration.

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “A game you can try with your class is repeating a sentence as a chorus, word by word, subsequently increasing the number of words, starting with the last word of the sentence. It’s amazing to see students’ capability to remember each chunk, which becomes longer and longer. I’ve done this with students from 10 to 12 years. In this way you make them develop their memory and some awareness of syntax-with-a-message. They like it. They’re able to repeat long sentences. It can be helpful to practice the grammar and vocabulary they’re learning.” / Photo from: sierra-nevada costasur com. A hotel in Sierra Nevada, Granada, Spain. This picture could have been taken these days.

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “On post #259 I gave you a lot of activities and games that may help our students play with English, and construct sentences or texts in English. With passing months and years I’ve invented more games/activities and as well learned from the reactions and ways of doing things by the students themselves. On label ‘more games’ in this blog you can find some more. Now I offer some new games, briefly: 1. The teacher invents and tells a simple story, by speaking, with 3 or 4 words the students provide; young students are very imaginative. 2. One student says a sentence with one word he or she has learned lately in the classes. 3. Elicit and give terms related with computers and the Internet. 4. They say, by turns, words that include one letter, but which words don’t begin with that letter. You can write them on the board; students like to see filling with columns of words by themselves; it’s like a competition. 5. They, with your ass...

A worksheet for my students. Benvenuta, Laura, ti ringrazio diventare sostrenitice dil nostro blog (scusi se io sonno commettito cualche errore; ho studiato italiano nella mia facoltà, a Siviglia, ma molti anni prima). As you can see their level is very low. But they are learning, thanks to God. This current school year one of the students – the only one I have - and I speak all the time in English, the half hour of the class-period. I “don’t understand” Spanish, so he’s got to tell me the things however he can do. I make faces, trying to understand him. I catch the words he says, and make out what he means. It’s funny, because he “invents” some words; if they are too similar to Spanish ones, I keep on not understanding him, and ask him to carry on to explain his message. I composed the sheet below for the private use in the small group then (3?), yet I didn’t write the source sites. Anyway, these pictures appear on previous posts. Sorry for the formatting bugs – this is a Word doc...

One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Yesterday I invented a simple game. It helps learn present simple, because it refers to habits. It’s for a low level class. On the blackboard I write a series of times of a regular day, like 7:30am , 8:00pm , etc. That part on a column. On a parallel column I write activities in present simple, like ‘I rise’, ‘I do my homework’, etc, at random. And they’got to match the times with the activities. As simple as that, as useful as it sounds to practice that verbal tense.” / Photo from: www vetforu com

Agata Zgarda asked for help to teach students of different countries. This post of hers appeared on www.teachingenglish.org.uk , the site of BBC – British Council. Underneath is my response to her post. Photo from Farsi Crop. How diferent is it to teach students from different countries? Submitted by Agata Zgarda on 26 July, 2010 - 23:08 I've been invited to take part in a webinar with a title (that's not the final title yet) "Cross-cultural communication". One of my ideas was to look at the communication from a different point of view: teacher-student communication, provided that a teacher is of a different nationality than a student. I am one of the examples - a Polish person teaching English in Brazil. So for that I need to collect characteristics of English students from different countries. Have you ever had an opportunity to teach people of a diferent nationality? How would you characterize them as learners? What kind of difficulties (that come from cultural ...

One day teacher A said to teacher B, "You've asked me for a class planning of mine, so as to have one example of my classes. Here you go. These notes are for a regular day of my schedule: they may be not the best-thought ones, just one class at random. I've written them briefly, as a prompt for myself: behind are years of experience and battle. In no way do they show exhaustive notes of the class planning. The main goal of the current course is some craic in the classroom: practicing listening and speaking - it's an extra-curricular course. Kids 11 and 12 year-old. One hour approx." 1. Learning their names. 2.Tell them "I do not understand Spanish at this time..." [So they've got to say their messages however they can] 3. Competition. Two players. Topic: means of transportation. 4. Competition. All the class vs me! Topic their choice. 5. Revise alphabet. 6. Hangman. Clue: objects in this room. DICTIONARY. BOOKCASE. TRASH CAN. ATLAS. 7. Dictionary com...

From the web site of British Council – BBC, www.teachingenglish.org.uk It’s a comment by me, about the usage and difference between present continuous and the present participle. Photo from andreselbarbero blogspot com Oh, sorry, I got to say that this, my comment, is one more contribution to what other teachers have said on this site. Worth to visit this teachers’ web site, no doubt, awesome. Submitted on 3 July, 2010 - 12:29 Hello shyamag, Heath, mhinde, and everyone, For present continuous and related progressive tenses: I'm trying to give some, hopefully, useful clues. For my classes I draw puppets or sort of characters, even with their names, and I ask: "So, what is Anne doing?", emphasising the -ing word, and my students say, e. g., "Eating!". Funny: they shout out the same word!, as high as possible, as though that shouting would make them be more right than their classmates. Well, this is the way Spanish kids do; I had two German brothers, few years a...

One day teacher B said to teacher A, "I offer you some more games for your classes. For example, on grammar and memory: The teacher writes one sentence of his students' level, on the blackboard or whatever. One sentence their level or a bit above. The teacher and a few students read the sentence aloud. You then, the teacher, erase it. Then you say it from memory. And then you jog their memory, one by one: you ask them to repeat the sentence - as much as they can. They like competitions, freeze this point in your memory for your teaching. Oooops, silly me, I forgot my class-notes at my school, and I had some other games. Next day I'll tell you more games. I have learned many games from my students themselves, from the way they work in the class and their reactions to my prompts and their capabilities or flaws. Thus, you learn how to treat them and what you can expect from them; also, with more ample lenses, you learn, one day after another, how to get the best out from them...

One day teacher A said to teacher B, “ How they learning to make stories , how they learning to link diverse sentences so as to bond a story? One example: I’ve tried training my students to do this by writing myself one story on a sheet of paper, a simple one, a funny one. Then, that done, I cut out the story into stripes of paper. In the class-period I hand out two, two different stories, jumbled inside those sets of stripes of paper, to two teams, which have got to make out the stories, by moving around the stripes, over and over again. The winner team is the one that finishes first. They learn to construct meaningful stories.” thecia com au, thank you for the picture. Some hobbits, Frodo Baggins as head. I guess this shot is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring.

Below you have some games that have been very helpful and fun in my classes . On the Labels column, on the right hand of my blog, you have one label which if you clic on you'll have a long list of 107 games, all levels of English. Now just some games, especially popular amongst my students. 1. Dictionary. The teacher writes a new word on the blackboard (or digitalboard or...). The first student who finds the meaning, one point. Very helpful to practice looking up words in a dictionary. Every activity can be done individually or in pairs or in groups of three. 2. The teacher writes words beginning with the same letter. The students have to order those words as they appear in the dictionary: belong, believe, beneath, be, beep, bend, bachelor, believer. 3. Hangman. Also to construct sentences. 4. Simon says … They really enjoy this one! If you say "Simon says" plus an instruction the students have to do it; if you don't say "Simon says", they must do nothing; ...

Further games, both to learn and to have fun. 1. Matching: four words with four meanings, on the blackboard, or on the pc screen, etc. 2. The same as number 1 but orally. Can be difficult... and challenging! 3. The teacher writes one sentence on the BB. You all, teacher + students, repeat it as a chorus... And then you rub the sentence, and they have to say it. Can be pair-work, or individually, or the class as a single team versus the teacher, or... www coolest-gadgets com, thank you for the photo!

Today I have re-discovered something definitely helpful. It has happened a few hours ago, when planning my next class. One key point with learners of English - young ones I mean, some 10 or 11 - is that simply it is hard for them to make, to say, a full sentence! Believe me, I'm trying various ways. Well, I have written a sentence we have used today in the class, namely 'Betty has got two cats, one is white and the other one is black'. Ok, on another post I will let you know what we have done today with that sentence - this is not the point right now. Coming down to the point of constructing complete sentences. I've just done something so simple and quickly-doing! I have written that sentence and then I have cutt off the words into single words, single pieces - a puzzle. Well, something to be said: I've joined some pair of words together, in order to facilitate their work. I usually don't prepare extra material: I programme the activities, objective, some prompt...

Making up the mechanics of words. Picture from manitouheights com. Extra games (spelling) : 1. Similar to 12; they usually confuse the pronunciation of the vowels a e i. 2. You write the consonants of some words and they have to give the vowels. 3. Making up as many words as possible with some given letters by you.

Further games, for you to have fun in your classes! This is the first premise: have fun. Inasmuch as possible. Right a few minutes ago I was talking with a professor of Computering, at a university of Spain, and he told me... Well, let's change round the polarity of the conversation: he agreed with me, it's a great thing if I myself can have fun when teaching my boys. (This was so different when I began teaching: so tough, hard times, well, as any other comrade of mine, I s'ppose). 1 . Simon says … They really enjoy this one! If you don't know what this game is about, let me know: worthy to ask me, believe me. 2. Hangman. Also to construct sentences. 3. Spelling words written by the teacher on the blackboard. Oh, I forgot it. Photograph from www educar org

automotivehistoryonline com. Henry Ford close to a model car in 1921. Here you have the first release of games I have invented or copied to boost communication in English. They are taken from my book on TEFL. Re-outfitting begun November 25, 2009 Apéndice 6 Games for classes Aunque hay un apartado de este libro dedicado a la explicación de cada juego, en castellano, me ha parecido conveniente componer este guión de juegos. Ahora los coloco por orden de dificultad, o prefiero decir de desafío, para los alumnos. Se puede aprender una lengua jugando. El juego es una imitación de la vida, y más en el caso en que los chicos tienen que utilizar inglés para comunicarse en clase. They are really fun, both for the teacher and the students. Besides, they practice real communication in English. Give them points for their scoring. They are just set on a list ---further developments and variations might be applied. They cover from basic English up to proficient learners. The protagonists and actors...

Right yesterday evening I learned a game which is very helpful to practice and foster speaking and vocabulary. It can be used for any level. You get a card with a specific word, say, "vast". You have got to describe it (the word can also be an adjective, etc.) but not by using certain words, like "huge", "big", and an extra one now I don't remember. Fun and fostering communication. The other players engage brain and communicative skills as well. y4food com, I thank you for the photo.