WHY DO YOU LOVE ENGLISH?
Hello, hello guys, good afternoon this time I come to tell you a little
about myself and what I do when I start teaching a new group.
When I get assigned to a new group, it doesn't matter what level it is,
whether it is level one or an advanced level, after doing an icebreaker and I
am ready to start classes more academically, the first thing I tell them is
that to get to know something that it´s going to be part of your life, you have
to know its background, I call it tasting a little bit the language I'm going
to learn.
I always like to explain my students, why English is a language they
should know, what the benefits they will have if they know the language, knowing
that all the students have different reasons to learn it. I explain them a
little bit of the origin of the language, why its sound is different and we
have to pay attention to it, to have a good pronunciation, One of the examples
that I like to do is; expose places such as their homes, those of their
relatives, their grandmother, their mother, their aunt, their cousin, even
their own home and let them know that all houses do not have the same rules and
not because of it, the houses or their rules are wrong, we simply have to
respect all of them, and the same is with the language or any other.
I try to make them understand that English is not the other way around,
nor is there the right, neither upside down or crooked, it is simply a language
of its own, that must be learned by fulfilling all its rules independently, do
not mix it with Spanish, do not think in Spanish to translate, although doing
this sometimes it’s difficult, I always do this in my first class to be able to
give these examples, have them experience these situations so later on, they
can understand the language more easily.
I think that most of the time it has worked for me and I have students
not as confused, when they are in the process of learning, or at the end of it
and what do you think?
What do you say to your students so that they can fall in love with the language,
so that it can be easier for them to lose their fear and have the ease of being
able to speak in English?
Everyone is scared of making mistakes at first but they forget about when they were little, they made mistakes all the time in their native language! Learning a new language comes with learning a new a culture. I've come to find out that different languages have their own "inside jokes" and hidden meanings that make it fun and different.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself into it. It will be difficult at first not translating every little thing but a lot of things can be learned through context. I tell my student that they don't need to know every single word in a sentence to understand what it says. They can take the words they already know and make up their own sentence and find the meaning that way. It's what works best for me and it really puts pressure off the students to not stress over vocabulary.
Hello Isela! I would have loved to have had a teacher in my early stages when I started studying English to talk to me about these things just like you do with your students. I was always afraid to speak for fear of mispronouncation, for not finding the right words and transmitting what I really meant, for translating every word from Spanish to English, etc. However, little by little over time and practice that fear was diminishing as I realized that it didn't matter if I was wrong or if my classmates made fun of me, I wanted to learn and here I am teaching hahaha.
ReplyDeleteThe message I give my students in their first class is that English will always use it in their lives, both now and in the future, when they are already large and studying a university career. My students are small and I tell them that English opens up many employment and knowledge opportunities for them, even to understand the songs they listen to and sing so much and sometimes do not know what the lyrics say and even to conquer someone and impress them hahaha. Thank you for sharing!
wish i had enough experience to be able to answer your question, but, when it comes to me, i wanted to learn english just to be able to enjoy more content (books, tv shows, movies, etc) maybe by showcasing this, other people may be able to enjoy learning a new language
ReplyDeleteSuper! I like the idea of giving them a general tour of the language and the benefits and why it is so awesome. I haven't done it but i am surely going to do it . Thanks!
ReplyDelete