Task #2
Task #2
As I mentioned in a previous comment I fell in love with the language, just as most of you I guess, and I was lucky because my mum was an English teacher who never worked but it meant that I had extra English books and resources at home. For the first years I concentrated on learning until I became fluent, soon I started teaching English as a private tutor to make pocket money, then worked as an au-pair in England, I just wanted to become a translator. I have never stopped studying English but for the last few years I just use it all the time and tend to read in English more than anything for example, hardly ever in Spanish... I just enjoy English so much, for me it is second nature even though I am not a bilingual, I wish I was, but then again maybe I would not love it so much. I used to say that I did not want to stick to Spain or Spanish people:-D. But I haven't studied English for a long time, this is the good thing about being an English student/teacher, that you can just enjoy the language. I always think how fortunate are we to have the best subject in the world. But some students seem to hate English. We must turn this around. One student answered to my questionnaire that he preferred a teacher who did not speak English so much... I never thought that teaching would be this challenging, yet so beautiful and rewarding. But teaching a whole class has very little to do with private tuition. This is my current challenge.
As I mentioned in a previous comment I fell in love with the language, just as most of you I guess, and I was lucky because my mum was an English teacher who never worked but it meant that I had extra English books and resources at home. For the first years I concentrated on learning until I became fluent, soon I started teaching English as a private tutor to make pocket money, then worked as an au-pair in England, I just wanted to become a translator. I have never stopped studying English but for the last few years I just use it all the time and tend to read in English more than anything for example, hardly ever in Spanish... I just enjoy English so much, for me it is second nature even though I am not a bilingual, I wish I was, but then again maybe I would not love it so much. I used to say that I did not want to stick to Spain or Spanish people:-D. But I haven't studied English for a long time, this is the good thing about being an English student/teacher, that you can just enjoy the language. I always think how fortunate are we to have the best subject in the world. But some students seem to hate English. We must turn this around. One student answered to my questionnaire that he preferred a teacher who did not speak English so much... I never thought that teaching would be this challenging, yet so beautiful and rewarding. But teaching a whole class has very little to do with private tuition. This is my current challenge.
I have learned to love what teaching is. My original plan with English was also to become an interpreter; however, life led me into teaching and I don't regret a second of it.
ReplyDeleteHi Silvia! Thank you so much for sharing your love story with English. Not everybody enjoys the language as we do and it is essential for us as teachers to understand why students feel this way in order to make changes that will bring better learning. We can have both individual and group moments in which we talk to students about learning and to get feedback.
ReplyDeleteCreating a welcoming environment is the first step to make students feel that they are safe. Asking them what and how they like to learn allows us to bring relevant material in student-centered ways.
I always like to get students to draw a timeline of their English learning history in the beginning of their courses. Having students share their learning stories with each other is a powerful way to see that most of us have motivation fluctuation when we face linguistic challenge. When we verbalize and socialize these feelings we gain control over them and have strategies to keep on learning.
A last point to share with students is that they might have not learned well in the past because of the methods and the teachers and not because of their linguistic competence. That changes everything!
Wish you great affective classes!
Thank you very much. What a good idea to have them draw their learning timelime.
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