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Games, activities and teaching ideas > Teaching tips..
Teaching tips..
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suheiser
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Teaching tips..
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Hi, there
I would ask for some help about teaching English... I �m teaching teens from about 12 years to 16 years in a state public school, twice a week each class of 50 min only. they aren �t interested in learning English and they ask me all the time for translations into Portuguese. I tried to use pictures to illustrate to them and I learnt in my graduation course that translation is not the best way to learn a language... So i don �t know Am I wrong to exitate translations all the time? But, I don �t translate everything in the whiteboard, but I speak all the time in Portuguese. I tried to teach them some classroom English, but it is so much noise in the class that they do not pay attention when I say something... I �m desmotivated about that. It �s very difficult. Sorry, I need somewhere to cry a little bit.I don �t know if I �m the only one who is facing such situations... Maybe one of you would hear me and give some advice.
Thanks and sorry for crying...
Sueli
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23 May 2011
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fedi
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Dear Sueli,
We may all had gone through hard and terrible moments during our teaching career. It happened that we doubted if we were really good teachers! It �s so difficult to teach young learners who are not interested in English. I think that translating all the time is not a good strategy because the pupils will rely only on your translation and they will never try to get the information by themselves. Did you try teaching them using songs, games, videos, stories... I think they will be eager to discover English by tempting them using these ways.
Also, I think that you should be a little firm with them to stop being noisy! Why don �t you agree on some classroom rules that they must respect?
I hope for you success in your career and be sure that you are not the only one who cried because of this hard job, especially if you are surrounded by many teens. What makes us persevere and resist all the hardship of this job is that we love teaching and we love our pupils, even if you find only one pupil to love in a full classroom. You see how wonderful, brave and strong we are!! Even our tears, when we sometimes fail to teach, is a good sign that we are warm-hearted and caring teachers! So, don �t stop trying because you are really a caring teacher.
The best of luck
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23 May 2011
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SaraMariam
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I used to speak both languages in my classrooms at the beginning of my career since I didn �t really know how to explain some things in English and other reasons. What I noticed was the same behaviour: the get too noisy, aren �t interested too much and only ask for translations. So one day I just changed to really only use English in class and refused to speak in the kid �s language. The change was amazing. Some of the loudest kids stopped disturbing the class, but instead were really interested, participated more than others and really paid attention as they saw if they don �t try to understand what i �m saying they are having a problem, especially when playing games or doing other fun activities. But one must be very patient, explain things more than once, slowly with lots of visual help and also be able to try to find other ways of explanation when one way doesn �t work. |
24 May 2011
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ayelax
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Hi Sueli !
Don �t worry, you �re not alone. Sometimes I have the same problem so I totally understand how you feel. I face this problem especially when the previous teacher of the class used native language a lot! Here is what I do. I don �t want my students to feel insecure or hate me. I start teaching them in the native language. After a short time, when they start feeling close to me, I use both the languages. For instance, when I say an instruction in English, I immediately tell the native language version. Then I start omitting those native language translations. Most of them do not even realize that I don �t translate any more. After a while, when students get used to my instructions in English, I completely stop using the native language except when I teach grammar. (I think it �s better to teach grammar in their native language). But all the other talk is in English. Sometimes this process takes a whole semester! My point is, you need to be really patient and try not to force your students a lot if they kind of reject learning the language.
One more thing... I remember that in the first year of my teaching I had this terrible class and one day I was feeling so hopeless that I shared my feelings with a colleague and she told me that you are going to be a great teacher �cause you �re not one of those who don �t care at all! Upon that, I believe that you are a great teacher and will overcome those problems because you care.
Have a nice weekend,
Arzu
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27 May 2011
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