If you missed the first part of this article, start here

Previously, I outlined how much I’d been changed as a teacher by the realization that language students would benefit from a lot of the instructional practices of “special” needs teachers. Accommodations and modifications of content, behavior, use of models, explicit teaching of learning strategies, small class size, differentiation and what I’d like to talk about today – “repetition”.

To begin, see an example HERE. I’ve been cheerleading Gary Bishop’s amazing Tarheel Reader for a long time. Developed for students with learning disabilities, it is outstanding for ELLs. Why? Because of the intense use of repetition.

Repetition is needed to learn a language and it is a basic remedial technique. Language is NOT a knowledge laden subject but is performance based. We have to do things over and over, listen over and over to achieve mastery. Just like driving a car or learning to pack a parachute. As a child, that’s how we learn too. Here’s a photo of the math notebook of the amazing mathematician, Kurt Godel. Look familiar? Even Godel had to master the basics and we should be doing this with our students. [as an aside, I really do hope one day to write about the implications of his incompleteness theorem to language - it is fascinating ] I’m sure you remember lots of this in your younger days, lots of copying and “mastering”.

But I’m not advocating that teachers set up classrooms like this infamous Chinese way…. full of parroting and useless repetition. No. There are better ways to do this and here are a few of my ideas on how you can best make “repetition” part of your instructional toolkit.

On the Lesson Level

1. Chants and Drills. Yes, don’t do them a lot but do them! The key is to make them so the students have some freedom and personal input. Always allow for students to change the words or omit words (substitution).

2. Controlled Practice. This is a standard lesson component and should allow students to repeat basic grammatical structures yet “push in” new content. Make sure the structure is always on the board for reference and get students used to repeating it (by rewarding them, ringing a bell etc..). Example. “Yesterday, I went to the ………. and ……….. ” – that’s the target language for use with a set of flashcards of places and things.

3. Repeat student’s phrases often in class. We call this echoing. It allows other students to hear the language again but also gives students a chance to process the language and repeat inside their own heads.

Teacher: “What did you do yesterday Mirka?”
Students: “I went to the mall”.
Teacher: “Oh, you went to the mall!”

Even better if the teacher doesn’t repeat but another student does. Recycle the language during the lesson. For example, in the above exchange, the teacher could ask other students – “What did Mirka do?”
Disappearing dialogs are also a great way to repeat language!

4. Review! Every lesson should at least end with the question – “What did we learn today?” Then, list the vocabulary, structures, ideas covered. Even better if you have time to end in a game, quiz. Even better if the students make the review questions! You could also make it standard to review the previous lesson at the beginning of the next.

5. Lesson Sequencing. Students really, really need to know what will happen each class. Make an agenda and stick to it! Meaning, every class, the students know what will happen the first 5 min. / the next 10 min. etc…. You do the same things EVERY class but with different content. I really, truly think there is too much variety and too much “different” coming at students in our English language classrooms. A predictable lesson sequence is vital and students need this kind of “repetition”. An example lesson sequencing might go like this.

0-5 min: Chit – chat, check student attendance, problems…
5-15 min. Review of the previous lesson.
15-25 min. Elicit background knowledge: Song and brainstorm
25-40 min. Controlled practice activity: Flashcards
40-60 min. Performance, presentation using target language.

On the Curriculum Level.

1. Recycling. Recycling of content or “spiraling”  is done by textbook writers but it isn’t always done well. Teachers need to be aware of the need to recycle into new units, the grammar, vocabulary and functions previously covered. Students need to encounter them in new situations, in order to master them.  Jerome Bruner first outlined these curriculum and constructivist principles and his thoughts are very pertinent to ELT.

So for example if the previous unit was about “Telling the time”. In the next unit, “Shopping”, the teacher should make sure to use a lot of “time” references and prepare lessons which insert this. Thus, the dialogue from the textbook could be changed to include times about meeting/opening/closing of shops.
____________________________________

I know I’ve just touched on a few of the ways you can “repeat” and get your students learning more effectively. I think it an important thing for every teacher to think about and this summer might just be the time for such reflection.

David Deubelbeiss is an EFL teacher and teacher trainer living in Seoul, Korea. He runs a social network for teachers called EFL Classroom 2.0 and a website of teacher-submitted teaching ideas called Teaching Recipes. You can also follow David on his blog, Teacher Talk and on Twitter.

Over the length of my teaching career, I’ve changed in many ways. I think my journey mimics that of a lot of other ELT teachers.

1. I have slowed down my delivery and instruction considerably. I used to just screech and scream through content. Now, I relax and pause a lot. I take time to enjoy the spaces together. I’ve realized students need things “a lot” slower and this leads to much more effective learning in the classroom.

2. I risk more, I try different things more. Yes, that would seem against the grain of time and tradition. Aren’t old teachers supposed to be “old dogs” without “new tricks”? Not teachers that have really kept developing and learning on the job. I now understand more deeply, how each student needs to learn in their own fashion and way. That’s why I have to deliver content in different ways and modify content much more thoroughly. In my beginning years, the whole class was a “glob” and I taught that “glob” in one way – my way. Now, I use a multi-modal approach and am much more conscious of hitting all the skills and allowing students to reach the objectives in their own way.

3. I repeat content more often. Even explicitly (there is usually a groan!). I’ve realized the value of this and where I used to just assume students had mastered something, now I assess and if they haven’t “learned”, we repeat, in a different manner.

If there are any “old dogs” out there – I’d like to know if your growth curve has been a long the same lines?

But my development as a teacher isn’t the only thing I’d like to write about today. Rather, it is the shadow cast by my own realization that my development is based upon some sound principles. Throughout my years, I’ve become very interested in special needs and how special educators teach. Mostly because I truly and deeply believe that other than with very young children, we are working with “disabled” students when we teach a language. And we can learn a lot by listening to special needs teachers and the instructional techniques and approaches they use.

One of the epiphanies for me came upon reading Kenneth Dinklage, who as a counselor at Harvard, was stunned how many high performing students were atrocious at learning language. He wondered why these brillant A+ students and “brains”, just squeezed by with Ds in their compulsory foreign language courses. So he set out to get to the root of the problem. It wasn’t anxiety or lack of motivation or even study skills. It was the instruction! The students had a deficit in their L1 which caused problems learning a second language. Once Dinklage applied some of the techniques used by special educators – their language learning blossomed.

Ganschow and Sparks extended Dinklage’s research and identified the Linguistic Coding Deficit Hypothesis (LCDH) stating “that difficulties with foreign language acquisition stem from deficiencies in one or more of these linguistic codes in the student’s native language system.” Brown has since labeled it the somewhat generic, SLAAP (Second Language Acquisition Associated Phenomena). I’ve written about this in detail with some practical advice,  HERE.

To me, what it all meant was that I began to see many of the difficulties my students (and I!) experienced in learning a language, as something that could be overcome if I borrowed many of the “ways”  of  special educators. In part II, I’ll be discussing one such technique – the use of repetition. Stay tuned!

References:

Dinklage, Kenneth T. “The Inability to Learn a Foreign Language.” Emotional Problems of the Student . Ed. G. Blaine and C. McArthur. New York: Appleton, 1971.

Ganschow, Lenore, and Richard Sparks. “Profile of the Learning-Disabled Student Who Experiences Foreign Language Learning Difficulties: Curricular Modifications and Alternatives.” (Revised title: “Impact of the Foreign Language Dilemma on College Bound Students with Specific Learning Disabilities.”) MLA Convention. Chicago, 28 Dec. 1985.

Back with the ink was barely dry on my MATESOL, I had a group of students from whom I learned many, many lessons. This post is about three of those lessons…

The setting: A once-a-week English class at a high school in Japan, in the mid 1980s.

The characters: Sixty 16-year old boys who had never seen a foreign person “up close and personal” and me, a teacher who still thought she actually knew something about teaching and whose Japanese repertoire consisted of hello, thank you, and I’m lost.

Scene One: Why are you bowing to me? I’m not your leader!

I felt uncomfortable the first time my students stood and bowed to me at the start of class. Because this was English class, I decided that my class ought to be a little island of American culture (meaning, in my mind, no obsequious bowing).

The next week, I entered the classroom and waited in vain for my students to stop talking, face me and make eye contact. I spent most of the next few lessons trying to get the boys to take class seriously. Finally, I reinstated the class-beginning bow, and all was well. As long as they had the nonverbal signal that this was a real class (they bow at the beginning of every class) my students were ready to try whatever I asked of them during class.

Lesson learned: Don’t take away one nonverbal signal unless you replace it with another. If I had started by respecting the structure my students were familiar with, and gradually introduced another way to signal the beginning of class (like becoming quiet and looking at the teacher), I could have most likely replaced the bowing without disruption.

Scene Two: This is English class. Why are you speaking Japanese?

I’m a child of the communicative and natural approaches (MATESOL in the 80s). So, of course, my students did pair work, information gaps, jigsaw activities, and meaningful tasks. But, whenever my students were working in pairs, or in small groups, I heard more Japanese than English. I coaxed, I threatened, I separated, I even deducted points from games. But still, when I gave them an activity, I heard whispered Japanese. What were they saying? Were they totally ignoring me and my instructions? Were they making rude comments about me? It’s easy to become a bit paranoid when people are whispering in a language you don’t understand. Gradually, my Japanese improved enough to understand the gist of these conversations: What the heck does she want us to do? Do you know what we’re supposed to be doing? You ask her. No, you!

Lesson learned: Know enough of your students’ language to understand when they’re lost. Classroom language is largely repetitive, and it doesn’t take long. Regardless of your personal feelings about English only in class, it really, really helps to know what your students are saying. And, if you want your students to do an activity in English, be sure they 1) know the language they’ll need to complete the task and 2) know what they’re supposed to do during the activity

Scene Three: Picture Day and the one-finger peace sign

By the end of the year, I had finally figured out how to work within my students’ notions of class structure to create a environment where they were communicating with each other in English. The boys were willing to do what I asked, as long as they understood what it was I wanted them to do. Picture day seemed a perfect opportunity to document our growth as teacher and students.

I was thrilled when my students asked if they could decorate our class chalkboard with English quotes from movies. They had gone beyond my lessons and made a connection with authentic English! Being the mid-80s, my students’ favorite American movie was Beverly Hills Cop, and all of the quotes included variations of f**k. They’d conjugated the verb perfectly, and had even managed to include most parts of speech. There were pictures, too, to support meaning. I was mortified, but everyone else, including the head teacher and photographer, seemed quite impressed with my students’ efforts.

We stood in front of the board for our class picture. The photographer said cheezu and the boys raised their hands. Looking at the pictures in this post, you can imagine the gesture I expected to see–the ubiquitous Japanese peace sign. Unfortunately, my students only used one finger. It was quite the class photo

Lesson learned: When 16 year old boys as a group ask to do something that constitutes work beyond the requirements of class, get details. Ask follow up questions. Set parameters. And when you still end up with a chalkboard full of profanity and a class photo of cherubs giving the middle finger salute, laugh. A sense of humor really helps.

In one of our first conversations, we talked about how many EFL teachers feel “invisible” within our profession, and about how the Internet offers chances for invisible teachers to be seen and heard. Tonight he shared a poem he wrote about his initial experiences online and gave me permission to share it here.

The other two ladies mentioned in Hamdi’s poem are Carol Goodey and Shelly Terrell

Intersection on an e-ferry

My dear Carol, Barbara and Shelly
You are so gentle, so generous, so friendly…
One day I am sure you will win the trophy
You’ll gain a place in e-history
Nothing is better than being truthful and trusty!

I met them haphazardly on e-ferry
Joyful, gleeful and merry
They were heading for an e-tomorrow
Twittering as birds yearning for a day so sunny
Love, respect and support they agreed to carry
Their life is a long story
Made of pure sweat, toil and glory
Thank you Carol
Thank you Barbara
Thank you Shelly
I admired your kind spirit
Your supportive words
I promise I’ll never forget any

~~Hamdi Erestreams

As an EFL teacher with a long career, I’ve been around the block a few times! I’ve taught all levels from kindergarten to mature adults and I think I’ve learnt one or two things along the way. However, for me, I think the lesson that I learnt quite early in my career remains for me the best and most important and that is; the need, as a teacher, to also be a student. Openness is essential, teachers don’t impart knowledge, they share it and if I can come away from a class, a course or even a lesson with more than I took into it then I believe that I have been successful.

I began my EFL career in the mid 1970s. I was an idealistic, I-can-change-the-world twenty one-year-old heading off to Indonesia with backpack and guitar in hand! I was a VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) volunteer and I can still remember the overwhelming feeling of optimism that in some small way I would revolutionise the lives of those I was about to teach! I had undergone 1 week of training in Edinburgh, had a degree in Music & English Linguistic Studies, a copy of Thomson and Martinet’s Practical English Grammar and a pocket Oxford dictionary – the future of EFL in Indonesia was assured!

It did not take long to realise that the problems in a country like Indonesia were complex and my arrival there would not make a great deal of difference!

My role during this posting was to prepare university lecturers to take language exams so that they could pursue higher degrees and training in the UK, US and Australia. These were highly experienced individuals in their fields (engineering, medicine, science etc.) and I felt very small as I stood in front of the class with my limited knowledge. They were some of the most amazing people I have met and they showed me that nobody is insignificant and that I too could give them something that they needed and had value. As for what I learned – it would take a series of blog posts – but I returned to the UK after two years with the feeling that I had been the only one to have gained from my experience. That is, until I met a former Indonesian student who was studying in London – had it not been for meeting you, she said, I would never have had this opportunity!

One lesson, which I learned from my Indonesian boss at the time, still strikes a chord even today. I was complaining in the office about several things, students not doing their homework, the Banda machine not working, no electricity etc..

“What’s the matter with you” he said “Did you have breakfast this morning?”

“Er, yes” I replied.

“When you go home will there be lunch for you – and dinner this evening?”

“Of course.”

“Then what do you have to complain about”.

Living in a developing country the point hit firmly home. It was a good lesson.

Another example I’d like to share is that of a Japanese student I taught. She was a middle-aged woman living in Indonesia with her Indonesian husband and two teenage children. She ran a flower business and taught ikebana (she was highly qualified in this). We started our lessons and 3 months later we were still on unit 1! She did not want to move to unit 2 until she was absolutely confident about everything in unit 1. I was somewhat frustrated but she was adamant (if any of you are familiar with Longmans Kernel Lessons Intermediate – the only book available in Indonesia at the time – you will appreciate this more). What I learned from this was the beauty of patience and attention to detail. When I saw her ikebana arrangements  I understood her need – they were truly exquisite.

I’m going to fast-forward for my final examples. The first, a member of a proficiency group I was teaching at a college in London. The class, as many advanced classes can be, was very female dominated but we had one very rumbustious Turkish student in the group. He was the class clown and played to the gallery at every opportunity. He always arrived late and although he was a very lively member of the group he rarely produced any homework and never seemed ready to take the exam. When he arrived at each lesson he would put his head around the door and ask

“Is it writing?”

If we were indeed doing writing he would scoot off to the canteen until the break. I always thought this odd as he was, by profession, a journalist. Most of the teachers had taught him at some stage and the consensus was that he was ‘lazy’. In actual fact (I’m sure everybody has had students like this) he was very uncertain of himself and his abilities and the clowning was a cover. So, don’t judge a book by its cover. Be sensitive to your students’ behaviour and don’t follow the herd when it comes to diagnosis!

One student I will never forget was a Libyan student who was blind. He was in an advanced class and this situation immediately posed many questions for me as teacher. Everything had to be oral/aural and I had to choose material very carefully. My second concern was how to balance the needs of this student against the others in the group. I didn’t have to worry. A core group in the class which included this student had been together for a long time and they all led the way. It was one of the most mutually supportive classes I have ever had the honour to teach. You have to allow yourself to be guided by others who are more knowledgeable and have more experience.

My final example is a Spanish student who was studying for the IELTS exam. She was a fully qualified lawyer in Spain and wanted to come and work in the UK in international law. On arrival she realised that she would have to take a new course in the UK before she could practise. She was accepted on to the course but needed to have an IELTS of 7 in each part of the exam. She found a job in MacDonald’s to support herself and began to study for the exam. She was soon promoted to supervisor. She changed jobs and went to work in the post office, again she was promoted. She and I worked together for a few weeks before she took the exam. She worked very hard and was completely dedicated. I think she showed me how very hard work and sheer determination can have amazing results. She passed with flying colours.

There are so many more examples I could give about how students have helped me to develop and grow as a teacher and a person and how they have often stopped me in my tracks and shown me another viewpoint.

As teachers I think we are especially privileged to participate in this process of flourishing and growth. As EFL teachers we are doubly fortunate in that we are exposed to different cultures and backgrounds which add even more to the experience.

Teaching is one of the greatest learning experiences.

An EFL teacher/lecturer/teacher trainer since 1977 teaching in Indonesia and then the UK, I set up my language training company RLI in 1995. I launched Gapfillers E-learning site in 2007. We work with advanced level English language students helping them continue to improve and develop. Having taught 6 years of primary school through to university I have seen the ‘education’ process at all stages. My desire is to see more excitement and wonder in learning.

My blog Radical Language

Twitter: rliberni

This time, it’s as one of the Lexiophiles’ Top 100 Language Teaching Blogs. This is the post where I would normally thank them for the award and give credit to my guest authors, who are largely responsible for any recognition Teaching Village receives. However, I just did that about four posts ago to acknowledge our TEFL Site of the Month award, so it would feel a bit redundant.

(We have added 4 additional guest voices to the Village since that post, so I guess I can at least include my thanks to them. Thank you Henrick Oprea, Melania Paduraru, Kathy Kampa Vilina and Chuck Vilina!)

I have mixed feelings about awards. A teacher once told me that he avoids competitions because they tend to be exclusive rather than inclusive. It’s a valid point, since each time one blog is recognized it means that others aren’t. Since I prefer inclusive environments, I’m always a bit uncomfortable when I find myself doing a “solo” in the spotlight. By the same token, anytime someone gives me a spotlight, I get a chance to shine it on other teachers who may not get the individual attention that they deserve. That opportunity seems worth any personal discomfort.

One thing I’ve learned is that recognition can make a big difference to teachers, especially EFL teachers who work in traditional school systems. Some of my guest authors have written to share good things that have happened for them–being asked to write guest posts on other blogs, being asked to submit articles for publication, being contacted by publishers to give workshops, even being contacted by publishers about writing projects. And, for some reason, school administrators are more willing to at least listen to new teaching ideas, if they are put forward by “an award-winning” teacher. So, as long as teachers think that exposure here brings good things their way, I’ll embrace any awards this blog receives!

There are a lot of really great blogs nominated in the same category as Teaching Village. Some are by teachers who have been guest authors here. Others are by teachers I hope to welcome as guest authors in the future. All of them are by education professionals who would really appreciate recognition, and for whom an award might make a career difference.

So, while I won’t say that you should vote for Teaching Village, I will say that you should vote. You never know what kind of difference your encouragement might make for another teacher.

And while you at Lexiophiles, be sure to vote for a blog in each of the other categories:

Language Learning

Language Technology

Language Professionals

And finally, you should definitely check out the history of Lexiophiles Top 100 Language blogs lists. The hows and whys are interesting reading.

I love initiatives like this one, that give us a chance to introduce great people to other great people. “Vale a pena ficar do olho nesse blog” means “It’s worth keeping an eye on this blog”.

I’m honored to be have been tagged by five teachers I admire whose blogs I really enjoy: Janet Biachini in Italy, Sheetal Makhan in Korea , Marta Mrozik in Poland, Sue Lyon-Jones in the UK, and Anita Kwiatkowska in Turkey. Their lists contain some fabulous blogs, and are definitely worth taking a look at!

Being a bit late to this party, I have two challenges. One is to find blogs that haven’t already been included in the lists that tagged me (half of my initial list would have been used up on the five women in my opening paragraph!). The other is to limit my list to just ten blogs.

Here is my contribution–ten wonderful blogs that I haven’t seen mentioned on other lists. They are definitely worth looking at!

Hopefully, the bloggers I’ve tagged will continue the fun. Simply copy the picture, paste it in your own post and include a link back here . Then, add your recommendations for ten more blogs (with links to those blogs). I’ve been amazed at how many “new” blogs I’ve discovered via these recommendations, and I hope the project continues to grow!

Here are my 10 contributions to this initiative, with a brief explanation about why I think these blogs are worth visiting.

Esra Girgin Akiskali teaches young learners in Turkey. Her posts are both insightful and practical. I’m particularly enjoying her current series, An A-Z Experience List of a Teacher: Teaching Very Young Learners.

Conchi Martinez de Tejada is based in Spain. She writes Ken and Karen. In addition to interesting posts about teaching young learners, Conchi also has a  growing collection of materials to use with you own children’s classes, wherever you teach.

Christina Markoulaki writes a blog for her students in Greece, but it’s great for teachers to follow, too. Christina’s recent post about Earth Day in her school is a great example of how to integrate meaningful content into children’s EFL classes.

Melania Paduraru inspires me in many ways. I’ve learned a lot from following her blog–about teaching, about the teaching experience in Romania, and about teachers in Romania. Melania is unflinchingly honest, whether it’s about the education system in her country or her own struggle with burnout.

The Teacher Talk blog on Azar Grammar has a great group of teachers blogging about grammar (of course) but much, much more. Ela Newman’s recent post about the role of L1 in an L2 class speaks as strongly to teachers in EFL classrooms as it does to those in an ESL setting.

I don’t know who Sputnik really is, or where he’s based (and for that matter, if he’s a he!) but his blog, The Tesla Coil, always stretches my brain. I first visited Tesla Coil after Sputnik left comments on mine, and I’m glad I did.

In her blog Learning to Speak ‘Merican, Vicki Hollett shares keen observations about language and culture. I had a chance to meet Vicky last year and visiting her blog is like enjoying coffee (or perhaps tea, in her case) and conversation with a friend.

Lexiophiles has “Love your words” as its tagline, and I do! They have great articles about learning language, but my favorite posts are their interviews with language learners. Lexiophiles also has a great collection of links to other language blogs. I’m thrilled that this year Teaching Village was nominated for their top 100 language blog competition (Thanks, Marisa!).

The ELT Global blog by Oxford University Press is a relatively new Publisher’s blog. At least, it’s new to me–I just discovered it while following the IATEFL conference. I like their 3-question interviews. I’m a sucker for interviews, anyway, and  I love that these are all based on answers to the same three questions: What’s your favourite ELT book? What or who has had the biggest impact on ELT in the last 25 years? What do you wish you’d known when you started out in ELT?

Tara Benwell writes, and writes, and writes, and her Write at Home blog shares the process of trying to balance a writing career with having a life. I started writing professionally when my daughter was a newborn, and Tara’s posts bring back many memories! You might have bumped into Tara in cyberspace without knowing it (Like I said, she writes a lot). She does the Site of the Month awards for TEFL.net and is a major part of English Club (her monthly writing challenges are great!).

Ten came too soon! I look forward to discovering more blogs through the next round of recommendations!

Earlier this month, I awoke to a lovely message telling me that Teaching Village was the TEFL Site of the Month. While always thrilled to get an award of any kind, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I wasn’t sure what this award was for (I’m still sort of new to this blogging business). So, I went over to TEFL.net and learned Teaching Village was being recognized for having developed “a rich community of English teachers from around the world.”

Since I’m extremely proud of the teachers who are part of this community, and since they’re the reason Teaching Village received this award, it seems only fair that I brag on them a bit

So far, 30 teachers representing 16 countries have contributed posts to this blog. They are very different teachers working in a variety of environments. Some are technowizards and some work in schools where a CD player is considered high tech. Most, but not all, are EFL teachers of young learners. For some, English is a first language; for others it’s a second or third language. What they have in common is a passion for their students, and for teaching, and for learning. They’re written about their own classes so we can better understand how EFL looks in different corners of the world. They’ve written about things they think other EFL teachers should know. They’ve written about the things their students have taught them. They’ve been generous with the knowledge they’ve learned through experience, and I’ve learned from each of them.

Thank you!

The countries in parentheses refer to the countries the teachers live in or have written about, not necessarily the country on the cover of their passports. If you’ve missed some of their posts, I encourage you to explore the “Guest Bloggers” section in the sidebar. If you find a post that moves you or teaches you something new, please let the writer know in comments. Many of these teachers are beginning bloggers and for some this was their first foray into the blogosphere. They all enjoy hearing from other teachers!

If you’d like to read more about our TEFL Site award, and see which other blogs have been recognized, you can read more about it on TEFL.net.

If you’d like to become part of The Village, please consider writing a guest post. We’d love to learn from you, too!

Now, if I can just figure out how to insert the award logo into the sidebar…..

I have two nieces and I love taking them to the cinema as I really enjoy watching children’s movies, which are highly inspiring for me as sources of values I can apply in my daily life and in my teaching career. One of the latest I have seen, and particularly enjoyed as it was my first experience in a 3D cinema, is “How to Train Your Dragon”.

In this animation, the main character, Hiccup, has a different attitude towards life from the rest of his community. I believe that, we, teachers have a different attitude from “non-teachers”. Hiccup felt he had to train dragons so that they were able to share their lives with the members of his community. Like Hiccup, we make use of all our patience and tolerance when we perform our role as guides while our students develop skills and strategies to be able to learn a subject or a certain topic. I teach English to teenagers and in the same way as the dragons in the movie, they find it difficult to adapt and to respect certain rules.

In this process of training his dragon, Hiccup learnt several lessons and I am sure that as teachers (or trainers), we learn a lot and we develop a special intuition that enables us to see beyond the surface. That intuition is necessary to be able to foster the appropriate teaching-learning environment, in which students can feel respected and at ease. Hiccup was open-minded in his approach to life and being open mind is essential to accept every one of your students with their particular personality traits. Another aspect we can improve in our capacity as teachers is our emotional intelligence, which is a key element to reach the necessary balance to have harmonious interactions in our classrooms.

All in all, teaching or training others is an insightful experience which is not confined to the classroom but rather extends itself to our daily lives.

I am a teacher of English as a second language, a translator and an interpreter and I live in Rosario, Argentina. I teach one-to-one classes of adult students and  deliver my group classes at a School of English, where I am in charge of teenage students at intermediate and upper intermediate levels.

Visit me: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marisapavan

Read me:  http://linguisticconsultancy.blogspot.com/

Follow me: @Mtranslator

“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”  Forest E. Witcraft

Children are always cute and eager to learn but unfortunately they have very short attention spans and affect each other very quickly. Sometimes you may lose their attention (even if you are playing a game) which means also losing the control of the class. And once you lose their attention, it is really hard to get them to concentrate back on what you were doing. To prevent this, I have ten tips to share with you!

1- Whenever I change activities or the students need to change place (from the table to the cushions for instance) I count slowly up to ten and everybody gets ready. In addition to counting up to ten, you can also rhyme or use a musical instrument (mine is maracas) to make sure they are all ready to start the next activity.

2- When a student wants to go to the toilet, some others also want to go to the toilet not they need to but because it looks fun to go all together. This is also the same for drinking water. When one wants, some others want, too.  So before each class, make sure you have “toilet and water” time.

3-Small children have conflicts, disagree and argue a lot and make complaints about each other. After listening to the problem, make sure they apologize to each other. A simple “I’m sorry!” may be the solution most of the time.

4- Be sure your kids are not hungry, sleepy or thirsty during the class hour. Any of these will detract attention and may spread to all students.

5- Keeping the kids in a row is sometimes really hard. In my class, I take my imaginary magic wand and make a spell that keeps all the kids in a line with imaginary magical glue and it really works!

6- Most of the kids like group work but some may like to work alone. It’s better to let them work on their own for they can disturb others if you force them to do group work. And also, when grouping the kids, take into consideration that kids have different ability levels.  Try to group them as equally as you can.

“My childhood may be over, but that doesn’t mean playtime is.”    Ron Olson

7- As a teacher, you should choose the activities you enjoy as well. If you like what you do in the classroom, your kids will, too. Also be enthusiastic when you are doing your activities. Always keep in mind that a teacher is like a mirror to her/his kids.

8-Immediate feedback will increase the motivation for your lessons. Don’t hesitate to praise your kids with bravos, well-dones, good jobs and fantastics!

9-Balance the energy level in your class by playing both settling and stirring activities during the same class hour. For example after a very exciting  activity ,  I  rhyme “Two hands clap, two hands lap, right click, left click, concentration (eyes closed, take the lotus position), concentration,  concentration… Wake up!” And suddenly, they are quiet and ready to listen to me.

10-Be sure you raise the curiosity especially when you start a new unit.  When children are curious, they explore the language and come up with new ideas.

Above all I mentioned here, the most important thing is to LOVE and RESPECT your kids. Don’t forget that even though they are small kids; they have their own thoughts, personalities and feelings. Let them feel your love and you will see it will return back to you like a boomerang!

“As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.” Dr. Haim Ginott

I have been teaching English to “Very Young Learners” for 7 years. I love teaching children as they are always enthusiastic and fun to teach!

Visit me: http://www.esraakiskali.com/

Read me: http://esraakiskali.edublogs.org/

Follow me: @ekamin