Here is what I would do if I were a language teacher. This is in response to Jacob who wanted some more constructive comments on how to handle language teaching in a classroom environment.
Here is what I would do if I were a language teacher. This is in response to Jacob who wanted some more constructive comments on how to handle language teaching in a classroom environment.
2 comments on “If I were a language teacher.”
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I really appreciate to listen to a point of view from a classroom outsider and a language lover as well. I have recently begun teaching English and it is quite difficult to get that passion from students, especially from 7th graders, but as you say, I need to get the ability to notice what they like and what they don’t. I like what you say that we need the ability to plant the seed inside them and be more of a guidance.Thanks again!
I am in full agreement with your approach, especially when it comes to learning to communicate in another language, targetting adults. This is based on the assumption and believe that most of the learning takes place out of the classroom, through listening, observing and reading. How did the mother teach her child to speak in a language that is totally alien to the child. There was no grammar, there was no structure, there was only a desire to communicate; to understand and to be understood. Yet at the end of year 1 or 2 the child is able to speak the language. A parallel may be drawn to an adult who is in a foreign country and does not have the time or resources to pay to learn. After 6 months he or she will begin to speak the foreign lanuage and after a year or 2 he or she will even learn to understand proper structures that go with the lingua franca.Hence I am in full agreement on the factors you have highlighted related to attitude, i.e. desire or wanting to learn, believeing that you will be able to speak, etc. The ball game changes completely when it comes to children learning to pass an examination in school or wneh it comes to an adult learning to sit for the IELTS or some other examination to seek entry into a higher institution or for employment. Cheers