Learning to Teach Better

Very insightful discussion this week- I'd never thought about the potential negative effects of asking students to guess words from the context. It's something I have done in the past and after this week's discussion, I will reconsider its effectiveness... It's also made me acknowledge the difficult students have when reading a text for the first time: they are thinking about pronunciation, comprehension & probably the fact that other class members are listening to them. Perhaps something to avoid in the future with lower level groups...

Very useful insights on the use of L1 in the classroom this week. I like using translation exercises sometimes for students for the very reason Penny cited: to raise awareness. The difference between languages is something I find fascinating and students often share this interest. Before the session, I viewed L1 use as a little 'negative', but sometimes it is necessary with my students and, as it's for learning, means it is not always a bad thing. In conclusion, there is a place for L1 if it's used constructively! Thank you, Penny!

Hello everyone! Does anyone have any tips of how to manage a very talkative class (age is late teenage years)? Thank you very much!

Another very interesting & useful session! Thank you, Penny! I have never heard of jazz chants being used to learn English before- I love this idea! I feel inspired to try it out in my own classroom.

I teach in France, where students are very concerned about knowing every vocabulary item; they will often have a crisis of confidence if there are too many unfamiliar words. There is a true perfectionist culture which is sometimes hard to crack. As a result, I usually like to pre-teach vocabulary items as a means of keeping the class with me and feeling like they can do it, although I appreciate sometimes this approach can be a little heavy. It's been really interesting therefore to have some ideas about how to combat perfectionism, and what the idea of 'success' actually means. If anyone has any specific advice to teaching French students, it would be very interesting to discuss.

Hello everyone! My name is Laura and I run an English language company in Rennes, France (Espace Lingua). My courses are mainly aimed at business professionals in Rennes and further afield in Brittany. I'm very excited to join this community full of teachers. I am particularly interested in topics such as error correction, how to teach listening effectively & classroom management.