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...

  I’ve been perceiving a curious fact on Granada streets lately, well, from a few years now. It’s parents with their children, walking or cycling anyway, and they’re Spanish definitely, yet they speak to those kids in English, and these ones sometimes respond in the same language.  I guess Spain is not kind of an isolated country anymore – it used to be one like that after our civil war, in the 1930s and afterward, and now it’s pretty simpler to find young people talking in English on the streets, for example a Spaniard to a foreign person.  And stays abroad now are much easier and more common than forty years ago, so as to speak.  A lot of young parents try their kids would learn English as a matter of fact.  However, today I’d like to point out something I do myself to learn English. On other previous posts I wrote that one way to increase my lexis and subsequently to learn English is what follows, just in case it may help someone.  I read a lot, or quite...

  I teach English to adults, but what I’m telling you today I guess it could be also applied to teens.  I just said I teach English, and it’s so, but also I ought to help my students learn that wonderful language. It’s thus because it’s them who ultimately have to learn English, or French, or …  More often now than before I tell my students that they have to be very active at learning English, as old H. D. Brown said (1989). Say, it’s them who have to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. We also in Spanish use that phrase, to pull your chestnuts out of the fire.  I’m not going to do it myself. Better said, I should not do it myself.  Sometimes when at the end of each lesson I assign some homework, I tell them they can do this and this but also they could do that, just if they wish to do. It’s them who have to feel what they need most, what they have to do to advance at learning English.  Moreover, about the graded readers or unabridged novels we read, wor...

  I’ve been teaching English for quite many years now, you know. Something I’ve noticed is the following fact. When you ask your dear students questions as prompts, and speaking is one crucial skill to practice in class, and out of class, you may note something specific. By the way, we English teachers do ask a lot in class. A friend of mine – a head teacher himself – once told me that we are all the time asking questions, you know, and he meant that half-jokingly. Well, some students answer those questions. Most students do answer those questions. But some of them add something else, from themselves, so they facilitate real communication in class, and they say more things about the same point. And others, with a lower level maybe, may answer with something short and that’s all.  I mean, all of them are in favor of lessons and the teacher, but you notice there’re some learners who try something else. Usually those latter students work on their own, more than the students who j...

  I teach English to adults, as you know. And I would like to consider each lesson as a study session with my dear students. It’s an occasion for us to learn English. To learn new words, phrases, some syntax. Plus an occasion to have nice discussions about the topics from the textbook and from life itself.  If I consider that lesson as a study session, I will not get a bit nervous for acting in public, because on the other hand I like studying and learning English.  Even more, in that way I can have sort of a contemplative attitude in class, and that will positively influence on my students and my students’ learning and acquiring that target language. It will.  Something essential – you know – is planning that lesson, and there will be activities we carry out on the spot, and others that they, the students, will carry out on their own, working silently, and thus learning and acquiring English in some likely peaceful and quiet atmosphere: this latter is also essential...

  We as teachers wish our students would learn a lot, who doesn’t wish so?  It seems sound and sensible they would gain reading comprehension. At least here in Spain quite some or many students have rather poor reading understanding at school and when they leave school.  And experts now state that some drawback for them is they may be so accustomed to screens. Even they may show some addiction to them. Well, it’s ok they use computers and tablets at school, yet it seems more important they’d use paper books and practice handwriting: sometimes you can encounter kids or teens or college students that have no dexterity at composing an essay, or understanding an article properly.  And that’s a big problem.  It is so necessary our students would dedicate a lot of their daily time to study their paper books and write essays. What can you do with a student who reaches college and cannot answer an exam with some appropriate response?  It is paramount our students s...

  Today I’m talking about positive motivation and other topics alike.  The first premise is that when our dear students get involved in lessons and the activities we as teachers implement, they will likely work nice and keep on behaving that way. A person who is getting interested in studying something, that one will carry on doing that way likely.  And we teachers I think ought to also give them oral presentations about the topics involved in the school subject we teach. Presentations and explanations alike. A teacher has to speak a lot in class, in a good manner.  If we teach a second or foreign language, we have to give them a lot of correct pronunciation and we must speak for a lot, plus we must have them speak also for a lot, thus the lesson is something like a nice conversation between the teacher and his or her students.  Also we may utilize audios and videos where native speakers talk.  As well in that way we will be getting them involved in class....

  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...

  I teach English to adults. It’s so great … and demanding.  Adults have some characteristic way of learning the language. For example they tend to focus on specific grammar patterns and ways of saying things in the target language. Well, it’s something I also do when learning that language myself. And it is something I cannot change. It is something we can take advantage from, anyway.  Even in that way they can learn quite a lot. You know, it doesn’t matter they would ask me questions in class that show they are focusing on grammar. It’s ok. It’s ok ever if also we as teachers facilitate there is plenty of communication in English in class.  I mean, do not confine as a teacher to teach grammar and language facts, but provide a lot of communication in class.  When some newcomer arrives at one of those groups of mine – and I’m thinking of one specific group – that new student says kind of, Oh I can see my classmates have a lot of fluency while in my case … Why do...

  Do our dear students ever think? I gave that title to a previous post, remember?  And the point is that we as teachers have to teach our students to think, to engage their brains, to learn also how to study and learn.  They have to get the most from their textbook: thus we have to teach them to study.  As well we can elicit what they do for studying their textbook, so their classmates will learn new and sound ways to study, perhaps.  By the way, at many schools and in some countries they are starting to think that… it’s better for the students to have a paper book than a tablet.  Ok, let’s proceed.  We teachers also have to make them think: we oughtn’t to give all the stuff too much digestible: they have to learn to study and draw their own conclusions.  Something we may implement in class is to think with them. I mean, you know, the teacher can think aloud and so his or her dear students will see how to think.  Even something I do with my ...

  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...

  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 th...

  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 ...

  If you are placed in the northern earth hemisphere, you may be on vacation. Maybe not. Anyway, today I wanted to say that our students must be, at any level we may be teaching, the protagonists of their own learning. No protagonists, no significant learning.  I saw it last school year: I’m thinking of a particular student who has significantly improved his English – I teach English to adults.  Why so? Why has he lifted off a great deal at English language learning? Because he has strived hard to learn it… and he is like a strong and powerful engine that does a lot on his own.  When I say that our students have to be protagonists, in no way do I mean that we teachers have to come down to foolishly create an atmosphere where they do just what they feel like doing by looking down their teacher. No. The teacher is the teacher and his or her students are right there as students and learners.  Perhaps if we teach a modern language we have to read through Rebecca Oxf...

  You as a teacher want for your students to learn and work a lot? So do I.  Now I can tell you something that works with us. I teach English as a foreign language. And in class we carry out diverse and varied activities, so the thing turns out as something interesting. All I can tell you about is something I owe to others.  As well I try to give some doses of pushing my students upward in their learning process, in class and outside.  For example I write something as a group or class email I address to all of them, and there I insist on some points, like set and assign some homework, I let them know what is working better lately in class, etcetera.  I address those emails to them as blind copies, so their email contacts keep protected.  As well some of those doses are directed to foster learning in them, to arouse their learning. For example I tell them about some learning strategies they can use to learn English, and which ones are taken from my own learn...

  Many of us English language teachers are non-native speakers… and we have to provide with a lot of that language to our students. And we perhaps are life-long learners of English. It is my case.  To learn a foreign or second language you have to practice the four language skills plus learn grammar plus vocabulary.   One way of approaching one of those language skills – reading – is by reading graded readers and full-version books.  Now I’m telling you how I proceed lately with reading, in case it may help you.  At present I’m reading a novel, which brings language you can hear on the street. I enjoy reading it. And that’s quite important.  As well and on top of that I would say that I study the pages I read: I have gotten accustomed to focus and pay close attention to the few pages I read each time.  I attentively read the lines and kind of mentally collect a lot of interesting expressions and ways to say things in English. I like it.  Then, aft...

  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...

  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 ...

  In this new school year we teachers would like our students would work well, would learn a lot, and would study fine too.  And since they are younger than us and we are in charge of teaching them, we have to teach them how to work that fine.  And they thus will learn how to have neat and useful class notes, and they will acquire and develop some like for the work carried out well and outfitted well.  For that goal tutoring sessions are crucial. At those times and in the classroom we may monitor their work: how to write down neat and useful notes, how to keep them in an orderly manner, how to record each day’s date at the beginning of each day’s notes, how to follow and study those notes, how to enhance those notes by consulting other books and websites.  If they utilize laptops or iPads for taking notes, same way we will teach them how to type those class notes.  For work well done is so educative.  And when they sit for studying those notes plus tha...