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LETTER TO LEARNERS OF ENGLISH
Dear Learners of English!
Let’s have a look together at what we’ve all done ... or what we haven’t... till now.
As a teacher of English I keep thinking of what is the best way of teaching, but also learning, probably much more often than you do.
This year at Prime Language Teaching was different and brought about something new not only for teachers, but also for you, learners of English.
We were all inspired by the POWER OF MEMORY. I’ve been trying to put into practice the golden rules in the process of my students’ learning. These were ‘The more you learn the more you can learn’ , ‘The more you know the more you can remember’, ‘The more you create the more creative you become’ or just ‘The key is motivation. The aim is a must’.
And what was our prime goal at Prime Language Teaching this year? Those who attended our courses must admit at least two major common goals: to be able to speak and to acquire a large number of phrases. None of them was easy to achieve but both appeared possible!
I’m proud of all my students who speak, no matter which level of the course they just finished, no matter if they liked the way of teaching or not, no matter if they acquired all of the introduced vocabulary chunks or only half of them, day by day they were getting more willing to speak! I just wanted to thank you all, especially my advanced conversation group, who taught me not to teach them!, but just make them familiar with as much English as possible. These students prove the power of one more golden rule: ‘You will learn even if you don’t really want that. You only need to be there’. The laziest students develop their speaking skill and you observe them and think WHAT THE HELL HELPS TO REMEMBER THINGS if they never make notes and never do homework? Then I congratulate once again all those who were able to make the best of it! To make the best of my classes even when I was sure nobody will remember anything if nobody makes notes ... but, first of all, to make the best of their memory which, as you know, has no limits!
And I thank my upper-intermediate group for their speaking again but also excellent memory for collocations. I believe you’re now the kings of idioms and fixed speaking expressions, you agree, don’t you?
And my youngest groups of kids. I couldn’t believe it when during our speaking exam you answered all the questions! Can you believe it yourself? All the time spent together on games, competitions and singing songs brought about your short but excellent sentences in English!
Anyway, I mentioned also students who didn’t like the methods of teaching or were generally disappointed with either courses with books or little focus on grammar. And those students made me think the most.
I came back again to one of the sources of my teaching techniques, which is lexical approach. Let me quote its great followers, Hugh Dellar and Darryl Hocking ...
‘To begin with, grammatical accuracy comes slowly. Even people who’ve lived in Britain for twenty years still make grammatical mistakes, but that doesn’t stop you being understood. Also, there’s no proof that doing grammar exercises and studying rules makes you more accurate. Some of the best foreign speakers I’ve ever met don’t even know what the present perfect is – but have no trouble using it. Similarly, if you’re always thinking about grammar rules, it can stop you being fluent. Native speakers speak fast because they remember and re-use chunks of language repeatedly. A lot of grammar is used in a limited way and you learn it best by looking at typical examples.’
Can you imagine going abroad and being explained grammar rules instead of getting to know short speaking phrases? You’d get lost before you’d start acquiring language! But, of course, it’s good to understand the most popular grammar structures and it’s good to know when to use them. Then next year I’m planning to explain as much grammar as you need, but first of all, to show you plenty of examples of using it, far more than this year, to help you feel comfortable when you speak.
And some of my students felt they needed coursebooks or other ideas for revising things on your own. And that’s great that you are willing to practise at home, it should make you become fluent in a shorter period of time. But do you really need a book full of exercises for that purpose? Lexical approach says ...
‘You’d probably be best being selective. Think: ‘Would I ever say this? When? Who to?’ If you don’t think it’s useful, don’t bother trying to learn it. After class, copy the language you learnt into a new book and perhaps put it into new categories. You might want a topic page – e.g. language about cinema – or perhaps grammar categories – phrasal verbs with ‘up’ or phrases with ‘will’ ...’
The best thing to do is to collect phrases to do with one topic on one page. Those who don’t like making notes could use lesson descriptions for that purpose and many of you did. But still there were some students who complained that it wasn’t enough for them. And I think that next year I just can’t let my students leave the classroom without the chance of practising language at home. Don’t be surprised if you become overwhelmed with homework, especially some authentic texts, which should be more useful than grammar exercises.
Last but not least, a group of my students claim they feel uncomfortable about speaking because of their pronunciation.
‘When you work on your pronunciation, you may need someone to show you how to form new sounds. Sometimes words sound different when they’re heard on their own, rather than in an expression. ... As a result, it’s probably best to try and practise saying whole phrases.’
Pronunciation is definitely very important, I agree, but for now be proud with your knowledge of phrases and ability to speak more fluently, because pronunciation is the most difficult skill to work on. Your strong need to improve it proves that you need even more listening and speaking during your lessons rather than paper ...
As you see, as your teacher, I have lots of matters to think of during this holiday and still so many reasons to be pleased with my classes! That’s why I thank you for your speaking English, as it's my only desirable reward! I believe that the experience which I got teaching you all will help me design even better courses for the next year. I mean effective courses, not to allow you ever say ‘I’ve been learning English for twenty years and when I finally went to England I couldn’t say a word or understand anybody!’.
Your Teacher of English,
Renata Kozera
Renata jest autorem sekcji 'Fuelled with Authentic Reading' na podstronach Websky Teacher.
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