Experiences of a teacher of English

  I’ve written a lot in this blog this far, I hope it may somehow help you teach your lessons. And I’ve also written a great deal on excellence, and we teachers – in principle – wish our lessons help our dear students.  But what if my classes are a disaster, or if some of them are so, or my students put me to the test all the time?  Today I’d like to say something on that. No one is perfect, and what teacher doesn’t have a bad day? Perhaps when you would wish to hit two kids’ heads to each other? I don’t recommend you to do that.  Not long ago – and I currently teach adults – I remember I had a bad day, one of those days when nothing in class seems to work well, or nearly so.  I’m now going to try and say something that hopefully might help out somebody else in our planet. Another teacher I mean.  And I want to point out that all good I have has been received and inherited from somebody else – it’s not my merit.  Some days ago, I was saying, in class I...

  You know what? A couple of days ago I came across a new class of students I have to teach English to. They are adults, with a big wish to learn that language.  I had planned to convey the same messages both in English and in Spanish, their – our – mother tongue. I came to the classroom with enthusiasm, prone to serve those great people.  And you know what I encountered? They are beginners and false beginners! Great students though.  My assistant teacher was with me – he is learning how to teach English and is a native speaker himself, from San Diego, California. Ok, they knew nothing or close to.  I had brought photocopies for them, taken from a textbook of A2/B1 level, this is, low beginner to lower intermediate – more A2 than B1, because that copy was from the very first unit.  But my dear students needed I had to explain and present absolutely every detail from basic questions, you know, present simple with Do and Does, and similar basic stuff. Oh, man...

  You may be a hectic teacher and even a bit stressed out, and in no way do I wish to overcharge you with more difficult points for your lessons. I just offer you points that might help you work better and become a better teacher, if I can afford it.  I knew a teacher who tried the following, which might help you out.  He taught English, and all this stuff I’m going to tell you may fit adult and adolescent students.  He tried to think the lesson was one study hour of that language, if classes last one hour. I mean, he came in the classroom to hold one study hour with his dear students: they would be learning English together.  You know, on those lessons he also learned English, with the very same points he dealt with those students, so it was kind of some review for him.  And he kind of tasted when dealing with such or such grammar pattern. In that way he was more relaxed – otherwise he would be tenser if just dedicated to teach the lesson.  Do you kno...

  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 also know that most of you are or may be busy and committed teachers. I was wondering if write about this topic or not, but in the end I’ve decided to write about it, yes, let’s go with it.  As I said, you may be hectic teachers, yet I presume that you devote some time of your valuable and precious time to just thinking about what you do in class, so you can improve your teaching work, also precious as it is, indeed. Because you wish your dear students learn effectively.  I mean, the happy teacher – busy he or she may be though – knows how to extract some time for thinking about their dear students and how they can learn better and more effectively.  I knew a teacher who used to dedicate some time for example at the end of the school year to think and write down some points about his lessons: how they had proceeded, you know, how they’d improved that past year, how could they improve next year, what points are paramount for bettering those lessons, what points I ...

  If you know about teaching and learning another language, you may know that some experts have said that that teaching should be student-centered, right?  Yeah, I can see the point, but to achieve that, the classroom has to be also teacher-centered.  All of us teachers want our students would learn for example English, and to attain that goal, well, the teacher is a central piece in that classroom.  Most students who have gotten to learn and acquire that second or foreign language, well, mostly they have also had good teachers.  If we wish a number of learners in a schoolroom will learn a tongue, we have to get very good language teachers.  No good teachers, likely no good language learners.  Behind a good learner often is a good teacher.  Well you may also have a good student with a poor teacher, of course, but what I mean is that we have to invest on getting good teachers if we want those students will attain to learn English.  And that go...

  I’m back with you again, my fellow readers.  I wanted to tell you something that may be of any interest to you, both if you are prospective or novice teachers, or otherwise experienced ones.  I’ve been thinking lately that, for a teacher, practice and experience are so paramount important. And as well another key point to bear in mind when teaching in the classroom or remotely teaching is that we should have our students in mind when lesson planning.  Something you can do before the actual lesson planning is just to think on your specific and real students.  On a parallel way you may know that when our students have to write an essay, well, you know, they should have a reader in mind.  Equally when the teacher is about to plan a lesson – and every lesson ought to be planned – he or she may think, Well, let’s see how my students are in class and how last lesson worked actually.  And I invite you to write a few points before the actual planning, consid...

  As you may know, I have greatly written on this blog about foreign or second language autonomous learners . And that’s ok, for it’s them who really really really learn and acquire that language.  Today I wanted to say, however, that the teacher is just necessary and essential too.  Furthermore I would say that the language lesson has to be student-centered… but also teacher-centered.  We have to recognize that a good teacher may well help and boost his or her students’ learning.  I have learned a lot of English over time, yet I am very grateful to my teachers over the years: they were just so great, and have helped me learn that tongue.  As a matter of fact a teacher also may excite and stimulate his or her students’ eagerness for learning the language. It’s something of what I try hard in my classes to adults, and these ones are great language learners, yep they are.  As well the teacher may shorten the way to learners, because he or she may provide...

  Planning our lessons is a paramount point about the teaching job, right?  Now I’m telling you about something else I carry out when I sit to plan a lesson, in case it may help you.  On my teaching pad or notebook I write down today’s date plus Stuff to do plus the class of students I’m going to plan for.  Then I think about a few points those students are in need of, like for example They tend to explain points in our discussions but they lack standard grammar to utilize , or something briefer, or for instance I guess we may be following the course-book in too slow a pace , or something else those people may need.  Thus I plan the lesson with my students in mind.  Or another point may be To foster the importance of homework for them .  In a few words, what I mean is that just before planning a lesson we have to think of our students’ needs and wants. And then let’s plan with the students in mind.  This pre-planning task takes few minutes, but it...

  So we may be starting a new school year. And thus the first and the second lessons are so important.  Let’s suppose we teach a second or foreign language. On the first and second classes I think we teachers have to set high standards.  Ok, and may we speak to our students in their mother tongue? Because we are giving them paramount information!  I’m personally talking to them first in Spanish, their and our mother language, then the same in English. Chunk by chunk, a piece of info after another piece, combining both tongues.  And over time I will – I hope – speak in the target language, some 90% of the class language, or even more. I am to use their mother tongue because also I have to help them get acquainted with a sound and good but complicate course-book.  Oh, you know, something quite important I have to bear in mind is that along the school year I have to have the main goal as to provide communication in class: a second language teacher must not con...

  Learning a language is beautiful. Learning English is so too.  For learning English, which is my case and my dear students’ as well, tentatively you ought to be relaxed.  Well, some sane tension may be okay, for you struggle gently to learn that tongue and put all your strength into action to learn it.  There should be nice rapport between the teacher and his or her students, and in that way these latter ones will learn with some satisfaction.  Alike the students, the learners ought to be aware of the ways they learn, English for example. They are not just exposed to teaching, but they are eager to learn English. They do not attend lessons in a passive way, yet they are so active to learn English. In that way they do achieve to learn it.  They reflect on what they are doing both in the classroom and out of there on their own. They reflect, think of, ponder, meditate about the ways they learn, and tend to better what is susceptible to better and improve....

  I have been teaching English since 1993 regularly. I like it, it’s a bit hard though. Well, what job is not a bit or very hard?  I like it.  And I can assure you that reading books is a booster of learning and acquiring a language. Not only reading is necessary though. Today I’ll say something about the four language skills.  As I just said, reading helps learning a lot. It’s my experience. And I guess I’ll be all the rest of my life learning and acquiring English. Sometimes I propose myself keeping learning German or French, but… I assume that rather I better keep learning English, together with my dear students. I might dedicate that precious time to English...  Reading is stupendous. Both fiction and non-fiction.  And for our learners reading is some aid to learn English.  I can recall that when teaching kids I sometimes used to bring a bundle of readers and books to the classroom. The students loved that. I used to deliver and distribute those re...

Communication.  That’s sheer important in second language lessons. Otherwise… why would we summon our students into language classes? If I teach English as a foreign or second language, I have to foster and promote communication in my classroom.  Sixteen years ago I filled out a card when I was studying my PhD – I carried out those studies yet I did not finish that academic career; anyway I got a lot of interesting research for my lessons and for this blog. On that card I typed:  Communication 1 280504 “The language teaching profession was still not ready for much real communication.” (x; the underlining is ours). We as teachers should foster as well real communication and not just always simulation. Think for instance of the warm-ups we practise in class: they usually deal with real things of their lives (of our students). So we teachers should also give our logistics announcements to our dear students in the target language or L2, in the classroom. And then, af...

Now with remote teaching you teacher may be addressing each student, individually or otherwise by groups. Let’s hope the Covid-19 crisis be left behind and die out pretty soon. Thus I pray to God it would ensue in that way.  Face-to-face teaching may be the normal thing anyway in most of our cases as teachers. And we may have small classes or large ones.  What I intend to write today about is that it seems good to address and appeal to each student in a direct way.  We may have quite many students in the classroom but it seems sound to address each student. We don’t address a mass of students but we want to teach each individual.  Our students should not hide in a mass of people. We have otherwise to address each and every student.  In order to do that way we can sweep the class of learners and thus appeal to each student’s responsibility when speaking to them. That is the only way we will achieve to teach and educate each student.  As well we teachers sho...

Learning English or any other language can be great. You can communicate with many other people.  You can learn that language and also you can acquire it. This is, you can learn it formally and by means of instruction at a school, and also you can acquire it by being not aware you are acquiring it, by means of reading and listening to it, at a level you can understand.  Infants acquire their mother tongue in an unaware way. Well, adults can also achieve it, according to Stephen Krashen and Henry Douglas Brown.  Okay then, this latter way of interiorizing the language seems better than formal learning, isn’t it?  Both, learning and acquiring, can be absolutely compatible. Furthermore, both ways can be complementary.  Actually, formal learning at a school can trigger and boost acquiring that tongue. They are not antagonist. They are not so at all. Also, because it’s my experience concerning learning English.  Something else I wanted t...

I knew a teacher, a modest one but prone to improve his work day-after-day, who used to think before a regular work day, “Okay I’m going to school to work on English as a second language, together with my students.”  Instead of choking himself before a hard teaching day, he used to think he was going to work side by side with his students.  He was going to do his best at work, day after day. He thought not only that he was going to teach (of course!), but also to work with his students at English, with a content-based instruction (CBI), not talking about just trifles.  He liked teaching, yes he did, but preferred to think that he was going to pass on and transmit his like for that language to his students. He did so because he felt some straining and strength-draining effort at teaching.  He liked teaching but in some way that effort was superior to him and somehow overwhelmed him. He preferred to think that side by side he would work with his stude...

Lesson plans, syllabuses, course planning, official planning for the school principal, more rush planning for the headmaster… Okay, I concede all that is necessary. Okay it is, indeed. But as well I keep so small a piece of paper where I wrote the main lines I have to take into account to proceed into the school year plus what my dear students do need along the rest of that school year.  Also I’ve written something on it that I could consider for next school year.  I reckon that small piece of paper, with its 10 points, is of a paramount importance to offer my students and my school some nice work until we end the school year. As well it’s something useful, for I can have a peek at it and plan next lessons, taking into account what is significant for my students in order to learn and acquire English as a second language.  That little sheet of paper is like the quintessence of my teaching on coming days and weeks. Later on I could add some new point or c...

We teachers have to be careful: we may be too much over-focused on teaching strategies (this is, how to teach) and somehow forget to make our students think, ponder, reason, discern, meditate.  I mean, of course we have for example to teach a second or foreign language but our students also have to learn how to think.  As well we should teach them beauty – in a landscape, a poem, a piece of fine arts… – plus the fact that any person is unreachable and some mystery: any person is someone great.  As well we should train our students at speaking in public, solving problems as a team, holding a nice conversation, explaining some concept…  And before that, before all that, or at the same time, we teachers have to practice at thinking, reasoning, pondering, meditating… In few words: teaching is great and learning as well! We may be teaching our school subject, of course, but let’s remember to make our students think! / Photo from: commuter_reading

  If the teacher teaches from what he has inside, he will likely have success. And his students will likely learn a lot. He will teach in an easy way what maybe needed a big effort to learn himself. I mean, he will make things easy although he may have invested a big effort and a long time to learn himself. On the other hand, if a teacher tries to teach what he does not have yet, he will likely fail. The teacher must be an expert at what he teaches and also he must be an expert at teaching that. Because of that the teacher should dedicate time at learning about what he has to teach plus at learning how to teach and how to manage the classroom – experience will teach him all that also. Even I would say that the teacher should like what he teaches. Otherwise he might not teach well. On the contrary if he likes the matter he teaches, he will pass on and transmit that enthusiasm to his students. As well the teacher must know that the more he knows about the subject he...

  As you well know, busy teachers, we must have lesson plans. Also we may have midterm-goals. Okay then, what about letting our students know about all those goals and objectives…? So they might also cooperate to reach those goals. We can try and see. This is so if there’s rapport between them and us teachers. More often than not, our students may understand what we want to reach together with them. Even more: we can help them to learn what they can reach, what they are able to reach. Give it a try! You may be encouraging them to reach farther! / Photo from: Quora. Our students may be like airplanes which can reach so far!