Experiences of a teacher of English

  One month ago, while I was suffering some Covid-19 at home with minor symptoms, I wrote a series of remarkable points to take into account for my English lessons, if I wish my students would accomplish to learn and acquire that adorable language. Namely they are:  1. To read English graded readers or books they could get at a given recommended bookstore.  2. To foster they would give oral presentations in class about a topic of their choice, for a quarter of an hour or so.  3. To pass them on the lure of learning English also on their own, so they would become “autonomous, independent and self-relying learners” (Jeremy Harmer 2003).  4. To have discussions in the class about the activities we are carrying on in that class, or about pictures I show them, or about topics they like (my students are adults).  5. Assign homework to them by emailing, and demand that homework in the class.  Well, actually I wrote down more points, yet I wanted to pinpoint t...

  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 second language teachers do wish our students would learn that language, right?  In my opinion the communicative approach is the best one to teach/learn a language. Even better we could follow a more eclectic approach, by taking from different language-learning methodologies.  If we want to follow a communicative method we have to create chances for real communication in the classroom.  As well we could try to implement activities where our students have to carry out diverse tasks. In those tasks the students have to use the second language in order to fulfill those aforesaid tasks.  In that way they can learn and acquire that tongue: They have the necessity of using the target tongue.  Thus they will see they are carrying on an activity which is worth to invest their best efforts in: They will feel they are doing worthy and meaningful exercises, and eventually they might get pretty motivated.  In other words: They will feel the ...

Teaching is great, tiring though. Currently I teach adults. And at the beginning of the lesson, as a warmer or warm-up activity, I do what I tell you now. I teach English as a foreign language. First I write on the whiteboard today’s date, and we have a brief discussion on today’s weather.  Then I tell them about learning English: tips which could help them learn English, from some scholars and experts like H. D. Brown, Jeremy Harmer, Rebecca Oxford.  My purpose is for them to get aware that it’s the student who has to be like a powerful learning-engine! Each learner has his or her own personal learning style, which it’s them who have to find out about.  The learner is the main responsible one to learn.  You wish to learn, you will achieve it. You don’t really want to, no learning is accomplished. There’s effort, there’s a step forward. Each item learned, one step forward. Each effort invested at communicating in English, one step has been walked for...

I have some students that achieve to understand me in English, our common target language. But others do not, what to do?  I would intend to speak at a level all of them can understand me. That level should be a bit higher than the one they already have. This is, at a bit more advanced level than the one they speak in.  For that reason I will utilize the marker-board or chalkboard more often than not, as an aid. As well I’ll use cognate words in both Spanish and English, when possible and when meanings are not misunderstood.  Also when naturalistic: the classes should be realistic.  Spanish, namely, is our common language. I’ve been saying the same message both in L1 and L2, sometimes, but, you know, I don’t quite like it: I guess Spanish should disappear in the classroom.  Nevertheless if the message is so important I’ll say it in both tongues, like for example important announcements they shouldn’t miss.  So English should be spok...

Today I taught my second lesson to one of my classes of adults. It was okay. And they worked hard and pleasantly too. I teach English.  And today I got to have some nice discussion about some point like global warming. Today they said more things along the discussion. Because last week I got little speaking from them.  Now they feel more comfortable.  All these things could also help you with your classes with kids as well.  I prompted them by showing them pictures of ice stars from a magazine. There were quite some pictures of those ice and snow stars, taken with microscopes.  Today they said more things. My new students also are getting my teaching way, thus they participated something more. I guess I could have nice lessons with those people.  At the beginning of this post I said that I had taught English lessons. More properly I don’t teach English lessons. It’s not like giving a talk or a speech: precisely they are speaking...

I’ve been thinking. If I make somebody talk, which is the case with the one-to-one classes I’m teaching lately, and that person, or that class of students, actually speak, all the thing is gotten!  I mean, I implement a communicative approach to teaching English. If the students actually speak, all the work has been achieved, or nearly all.  Also I could teach and make them practice functions too: apologizing, asking for, promising, offering help, etc. Yet that teaching functions will be for another day of classes.  If I implement warmers at the beginning of my lessons and those warmers serve the purpose of talking in English… okay then, objective accomplished! And if the warmer takes one fourth of the lesson, I’d say the purpose of my classes has been gotten, right?  When I plan my lessons I write “discussion” attached to other activities, for example describing photos in English. And then at those activities of describing pictures I try and mak...

We teachers have to work fine and to teach our students to work fine too.  For example their notebooks, books and iPads have to be clean and neat. Discipline at working neatly is very educative, indeed.  As well we will teach them to think, to ponder, to meditate, to reason. And most of the topics and issues we teach are suitable for making our students think about them.  Even when talking to them we can leave blanks in our speech in order to make them think: silence can help think a lot – it pushes you to think and reason.  Most of our students are used to playing videogames too much maybe: let's also help them think about abstract topics, even more when they already are 10 years. When they’re 10 years, for instance they can understand syntactic and grammar concepts, when teaching a second or foreign language.  Before that age approximately we have to use visual aids for teaching a language: flashcards, posters, realia or real objects, ...

  You all have seen that my methodology for teaching and learning English is communicative. Okay then, one activity which is very appropriate for naturalistic communication in the classroom is for the students – and for the teacher too! – to describe pictures. I bring to the classroom, in my bag, usually a magazine with many varied pictures, National Geographic namely. It has pictures of landscapes, people, animals in the wild and nature… My students particularly like this activity, which I try not to repeat too much, on the other hand. Usually one of my students has got to describe a picture that I chose for him while his classmates cannot see it. After the description the magazine runs through the classroom, for the rest of the students to see the described photo. Except for the describer the other students have been imagining and making out the picture, and often the reality is better than their imaginations. I’ve got to recognize that those guys of National Geogr...

  We second or foreign language teachers foster communication in the classroom, is it true? Okay then, let’s say all we need to say in that target language, as I’ve told you sometimes, even announcements! Albeit we’ll have to explain more and use more plain English (the target language in my case) and use the smartboard or chalkboard as a useful and helpful aid. In our lessons there should be authentic and genuine communication, and not only “artificial” or “academic” communication, as a drill for instance and that’s it. We teach English for communication and not only for drills. Is that right? There should be discussions, from an intermediate level upward, in the target tongue, but also at basic levels there could be some basic discussions or exchange of messages: something so nice anyway. From the lesson conducting and leading by us teachers we can foster and boost all that communication. Evidently also from the topics that arise in lessons, for example from their tex...

  I was thinking… I have two big helps for my English language lessons: the dictionary and the whiteboard. I say to my students that the dictionary of English is like another teacher: it solves so many problems! I call it Mr. Dictionary. I could utilize my smartphone to look up words that show up in the classroom, but if I’m honest… I prefer the printed dictionary book: I can find words more quickly than in my mobile, turning to and accessing the Internet. Often my students can find that word in their smartphones faster, and that also helps us a lot. The whiteboard? It’s like an appendix or extension of myself, I would say. We don’t have a poor smartboard, but for our classes the whiteboard is okay, quite okay. Otherwise: no whiteboard no classes: I couldn’t stand without it! It’s, how should I say? That’s right, kind of myself or part of my body. I use it so often! For everything: phonetic transcriptions, new words, examples, even drawings, presentations, explanati...

I f you’re a children teacher plus a foreign or second language teacher I would tell you something indispensable to utilize at the classroom is realia. Real things or realia. When I taught young children in Jaén (south of Spain, a nice town), some twenty years ago I was recommended to use them, otherwise my students would not have understood me in English, our common target language. I was told by kind and great Mary Jane Amaya to use real objects and stuff as a vehicle for my students to understand me and learn English. Young children cannot think of abstract things, so they need to see realia or real things. I can recall that I brought and should have brought to the classroom: ingredients of food packs, some basic foods, a salad ingredients (great Lucas Huijtbregts even used to make and cook a salad with his young students and in the end they ate up the salad they had made; sorry Lucas if I misspelled your last name), stationary material, fruits, posters (visual aids), etc. ...

Students in the classroom need a quiet atmosphere for working. Their teacher too. Also that atmosphere or environment should be relaxing.  I know a retired teacher of the first years of education that used to talk lowly to their very young students, who need to move around, stand up, they’re swift to move, as I said…  Those students did not move from their chairs at all.  So we teachers need to create that atmosphere.  For example, not to start an activity or a presentation until everybody is attentive and at disposal for that quiet work.  What I do with kids is to keep silent, stare and gaze at each of them or at someone who is chattering with his neighbor till he gets aware of the fault and stops talking.  And I address each student without raising my voice too much.  When I want to say something special or important, I also speak low and slow, playing with eye-contact and face expressions. / Photo from: nsp4kids c...

This summer I’m helping out in a summer English camp.  My role is picking up single students from the classrooms and have a conversation in English, so we reinforce conversation and speaking in English.  I will take the kids to my office, and talk with them.  It is a complement to regular classes, where speaking is also emphasized.  I will be engaged with this plus some possible private classes.  I will take photos to describe, in the camp, and as a visual aid. I have been attending this summer course for more than twenty years, and it’s ok. / Photo from: Summer-Camps-Slider deaedpostireland com

One post is deserved by the chalkboard, blackboard, whiteboard or smart board.  For teaching English is fantastic.  It is a valuable aid.  It is like an assistant teacher.  It’s an indispensable help for writing new words, for scribbling, for drawing objects or puppets, for giving examples, for explaining a dark point, for writing synonyms, for defining words, for writing remarkable points when a student is giving a presentation, for the student to write a spelled word, for focusing their attention…  Will be there boards in classrooms in the future? / Photo from: studyinthestates dhs gov

One day, at the beginning of the academic year, I took to the classroom visual aids, specifically pictures of objects, scenes, etc. The size of the photos was A4 approximately.  I put the pictures on top of the chalkboard.  I was rookie at that grade, 3 rd of secondary education – the kids were 14 mainly. And rookie in general - it was my first years as a teacher.  I started an activity that obviously had to do with the pictures plus talking something in English. Pretty soon I started to realize that they considered that exercise as so childish.  I got mad, a bit mad or upset, even I could have shouted at somebody of them.  Well, actually you must know where you are. Visual aids are ok with children, but at certain age they think you’re treating them like children and this is no good.  I don’t mean you cannot use visual aids at that age, but other types and in a different mode – for example you can use pictures for them to de...

How could I have my adult learners speak for longer than a mere sentence?  A way I have found out cool and interesting is describing pictures.  Now I know other ways to make them speak – in another post I could show you.  There are several different ways to implement this activity, of course. One is I have somebody describe a picture from a magazine, namely National Geographic . The student describes what he’s watching and gazing, with my help. His classmates, I presume, are making up mental images from the description.  At the end the student shows the photo. There is a bit of an awe when looking at the real picture. It’s cool. / Photo from: motorcycle cruiser comparison + riding left side. motorbikeutopia blogspot com

Most of female teachers of English carry out their labor fine, as far as I know.  Women have special features to teach, like intuition. Also women have a special intuition to learn English or another different language.  They appreciate and observe details.  When we refer to young kids they have also special traits.  I am so grateful to my teachers of English.  I’m not sure, but they have that kind of intuition, they can find out small details from their students. Concerning young kids they know how to teach them fine.  And their classrooms are decorated in a fine way too, with visual aids that help students learn better. They’re good educators for teaching English to babies as well, because they have a special tenderness. / Photo from: Teacher_with_class_in_background. www aboutourkids org

Young kids learn by playing, among other paths.  On post # 259 I gave you a version of a list of more than 100 games.  What they do in the class helps them learn.  One example is TPR ( Total Physical Response ), as you may know. They play the actions, verbs, jobs and professions you tell them in English to carry out.  They live those activities.  In early ages they can somehow connect reality with words. Thus they use their brains and make them develop. Also you can show them shapes – triangles, squares, circles, rectangles, made out of colorful cards or on the PC, and the next day you can ask them what rectangles they saw the previous day, in English, by showing them the shapes at the same time.  You can ask them what object a triangle was, too.  Just try a few days, so as to find out if it works with your kids.  If they respond in their mother language, you could teach them how we call those objects in Engl...

In a summer course of English we watched two movies, Vertical Limit , and Braveheart , by Mel Gibson.  This activity broke the monotony up.  We were watching them, and from time to time I paused and made simple and advanced-level questions, for there were low-achievers and high-achievers.  A simple question can be ‘How many people are there?’, and a complex question can be ‘Why does Braveheart break out in anger after the soldiers’ petition?’ It was a nice activity.” / Photo from: agentes guardia-civil despejando www academiacorpore es