Experiences of a teacher of English

  What is the ideal teacher like? I can tell you about the foreign or second language teacher. He’s an actor, a performer, a prudent showman, a prompter, an assessor, a resource fountain, a presenter, a speaker, a bit of some prudent clown, a serious judge too. He animates his class of students, he encourages them, he directs and conducts his dear students like an orchestra conductor, who knows when he has to extract the best from his pupils. He holds his students at odd and negative dire straits, even he sings –at college I had a professor that explained Anglo-Saxon history and culture by singing when it was appropriate for presenting either the African-American slaves at plantations or other characters I don’t remember now. He was Welsh and sang pretty good. His name is Michael Gronow, from Wales, like I said. Where might he be now? He was my teacher at Seville, south of Spain, and I was studying English philology: literature, linguistics, history, geography… He...

Lately I'm reading The Hobbit - it's simply great. Also philologist comrade J.R.R. Tolkien is so great. Now famous and close to any spectator by means of the movies. What if I tell you that I'm having a rather big laugh at the people popping up in the book... It's been for ages that I've been about to read The Lord of the Rings but eventually I did not read it at all. My students love the sequels, also by reading the books. And as well it's so great because the author drinks from many mythology backgrounds as well as from Christian sources. Moreover it's giving me chances to learn many a word... I've borrowed it from my school or center library. / Photo from: Paste Magazine

    We English language teachers teach English, evidently. But this thing we teach every single day was so different in Medieval Ages. What was English like from 450 to 1100? Here you have an example of the changes which have happened in English – you have Our Father prayer in Old English or Anglo-Saxon, and in today English. My friends and acquaintances say it sounds like German, and they’re right, because it was a variety of an old German language. Let’s go with it! / Photo from: St-Andrews-Old-Church bscrittersitter blogspot com. This church is in Yorkshire, England. Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum; Si þin nama gehalgod to becume þin rice gewurþe ðin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele soþlice (note: the old english "þ" is pronounced "th")   Our Father, Who art ...

  So we have seen there are a learning process and an acquisition process, of a foreign language, like English. Okay then. And the students have to learn grammar rules and the irregular verbs alike, for example: it’s a help for learning and acquiring English. So they have to spend a lot of time by studying and learning grammar and vocabulary. Yesterday we saw that acquisition is okay for learning a foreign language like English. And it’s sound too to dedicate many hours to studying manuals and textbooks. Well, that’s what I’ve done with my learning English: I can say I’ve spent a lot of hours before my books, at a library or a study hall. And any student ever will have to do the same. They have to engage their brains and memories peacefully at libraries, study rooms and at home as well. A person who can say he’s learned English – and he keeps doing so, because learning English takes a lifetime, will have to say he’s spent many hours at studying, he’s sunk the elbows. ...

  This blog would be incomplete if I didn’t talk about the study habits I got when I was at college. I have studied a lot of English at a study hall or library, for many, many hours. I’ve got to tell you about this point. I’m thinking of my degree for example. I studied the degree of English Language Philology, 1987 through 1992. Now what I mean is that I’ve sat for many hours to carry out my degree as a philologist. I well remember so many hours of sitting to study, as I said, at libraries or study halls, at college centers or residences. I got good study habits, thank God. I would write an incomplete blog unless I wrote about this point. Something interesting and curious: in those years people and college students alike used to smoke at those locals and obviously there were ashtrays on the studying tables. Thus you could see a stuffy and smoky atmosphere, close to a cloud or some mist at those places! After my graduation I’ve carried on by studying at those center...

  I think I could help someone by just telling how I learn and acquire English, which is my target language, and which entails a life-long learning. Constancy is just paramount, plus perseverance, to face up with problems at learning and acquiring English. Practice is also pretty important, otherwise I would not use the language properly. It’s so and I commit many mistakes and errors yet! But let’s persevere: each word I learn is one step forward! Buildings and edifices are constructed and built brick by brick, word by word. Effort is also important: what’s important, it implies effort; no language is learned and acquired without effort. Endurance as well is necessary, for learning a language is hard sometimes, but if you persevere, you shall progress, no doubt. Motivation: it’s necessary for learning, but also it is a consequence and result of that learning. I’ve sometimes thought of learning a different language too, but I’ve changed my mind and devoted that pre...

  We are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of grand William Shakespeare, as you all know. I’ve just read an article about his obscure life but brilliant work. I say “obscure” referring to the fact that we have close to no knowledge about his life – I don’t intend to say he was obscure (or dark). It seems he wished to slip through the history of his time… I’ve made the resolution of reading his dramas one more time – I’ve read some, and we had a whole academic year dedicated to him and his theatre (or “theater”, as you like) at our college degree of philology of the English language and literature, and now I would read one drama at least. He’s awesome, and worth to read, or what’s more: he’s a must-read, for some of his dramas. And adaptations can be brought to the classroom, for our kids, and with so many human values and interests to be worked out! – I count on your discernment as a teacher, for a very few plays require some moral education. Moral ...

We teachers ought to be leaders of our students.  This is nice and depends on being enthused at the school subject we teach and on our authority, according to Spanish scholar José Bernardo Carrasco.  The authority isn’t just punishing and that’s it, no. Just both points or premises are joined and interwoven: being and feeling enthused about our school subject plus our moral authority.  Our students look for models so they have to see us we’re enthusiastic about the topics of our school subject.  We all can remember a teacher or some of them that were at their entire disposal of us students, and were happy if you went to see him or her at their office or hall.  Also they looked so concerned about teaching their school subjects.  I also remember Michael Gronow, a Welsh college professor that taught us essentials of Anglo-Saxon civilizations, a hard bone for us beginners, but so interesting: he even sang the music, as a good Wels...

The communicative methodology or approach is the one that many English language teachers utilize.  Coming down, the goal for learning and acquiring a language we need at least two people.  As well that former methodology is combined with notional and notional-functional: we learn and acquire a communicative competence about a topic and in order to solve some task. I assume things are going that way.  However it’s common in many schools that teachers haven’t realized of these points and they assign too much translation, drills, etc., yet. / Photo from: vk com

A learner of English is or must be open-minded to Anglo-Saxon culture, and to all the rest of cultures of those countries whose language is English.  Besides as well he should be open-minded to any culture. Just because he’s learning a foreign language. He’s in that way open to all cultures and considers himself a citizen of the world, and of his own country.  It seems sound to educate our students in these ideals. We as English language teachers ought to include something of this kind of education in the programs of the school subject of English, for example learning about history, traditions, ways of being, geography, folk-lore, music…  We did so in our degree of English Language Philology. / Photo from: www kathyngreeleydesigns com

Some people ask me why my English is American, while in Spain the British variety is well seen, and the American English is considered as not English, by many people, more or less.  Well, I will let you know tomorrow about this point.  Or better said, why not right now?  Look, I’ve trained and coached mostly American university students who have come to Spain to teach English in summer or in winter. 95% of the youngsters I’ve trained are from the USA, and that’s it.  Thus I feel better with American English, I do not discard British English though. I studied my degree in British English, here in Spain, namely Philology of English. / Photo from: US flag in the classroom of a Christmas Story 1983

Teaching. It’s a great thing.  Even more when you see your kids learning and advancing. I like to teach.  Otherwise I would be doing something different.  It’s interesting and curious: in Spain the language that was learned traditionally was French. But I was fortunate: it was my class the first in studying and learning English in the school. It was something providential. / Photo from: Olympic-Games-2012-Swimming. The picture is just an illustration; besides I like to swim

Pragmatics is a rather new area of linguistics: it treats cases like jokes in the native language, which sound disgusting, or in a learner of a foreign language, alike can sound disgusting and impolite.  Bad words (four-letter words in English) said by a non-native speaker sound worse too.  And we should be polite and nice, shouldn’t we? / Photo from: clubgetaway com. skiing

Last Christmas The Wise Men or Three Kings have brought me a book by scholar Carlos Cardona, whose title is Ética del quehacer educativo . It’s just great.  I used it in my last years of my degree – Philology of English.  One thing it says is that the kid or student lets be educated by whom he knows he loves him, with a love of benevolence. 

I have written more than two thousand and thirty posts, and I still think I’ve got lots of things to tell you.  Every day something happens in class or I turn to bibliography to pass knowledge and performance to you.  Thank you for stopping by my blog, and thank you to the people that follow me more or less.

A youngster wished to study History at college.  However her father just suggested her to study philology of English. She was Spanish.  This latter degree is more practical, for instance in order to teach English, and has more chances of getting a job as a teacher. This girl got enthused regarding her degree: the more she studied English and linguistics the more she got enamored with her college degree.  Later on, she said, after some years as a teacher, that she had the vocation as a teacher, that her job was very vocational. If you invest effort and enthusiasm at doing something like the example I’m writing about, you can be happier at your profession. I have seen this phenomenon in various people. / Photo from: teaching_and_education www postgrad com

I’m excited with writing to you readers, with the excitement of the chance or possibility of helping out over there.  I can assure you it’s a hard work, but as I said I get excited in case I would help any of you with my posts.  My doctoral work or thesis is in this blog, so with the way of a blog, chunk by chunk.

Pragmatics. This area of knowledge and performance teaches us for example that the same expression or an equivalent one can mean diverse things.  For example in Spanish I can say “¡Dios mío!” and means to turn to God for help.  However in English it is better not to say that expression, inasmuch as I know, and some people say “Oh, my!” and that’s it. A professor who works in London told me about this.  There’re other similar expressions in Spanish and English.  For instance, in Spanish it’s a bad and wrong word to refer to the Eucharist (God hidden in something that looks like bread, after the priest’s formula in the Holy Mass), by using a synonym of Eucharist, “Hostia”. / Photo from: group people talking in cafe. www handsonsuperhealth com au

Usually we teachers of languages tend to get concerned about our teaching: methodology, the conducting we follow in our classes, management of the class, etc.  However we might forget a bit about our students’ learning and acquiring the language.  Because of that we should direct our attention too to our students’ ways of learning, and their learning strategies, which our students apply (or not) every day to just their process of learning.  Many scholars lately have devoted their research to learning strategies: H. D. Brown, Stevick, Wenden, Rubin, and others. / Photo from: kid skating. kidventurous com

This blog is very extensive and vast. If you want to find something about, for instance TPR (Total Physical Response), you’ve got to go to the list of topics below and click on the topic you want that information about.  Another thing you can do is to read the last updating to the blog, this is, read the last posts. / Photo from: Velocity Aircraft Plane Making Kits. stupiddope com