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ESL forum >
Techniques and methods in Language Teaching > Native English students
Native English students
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hekateros
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Native English students
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Good evening everyone :)
I have a question, which may only be resulting from lack of experience...
In your classes, how do you deal with English native speaking students? I have a student in my class (I teach adults) who comes from an English speaking country and I must confess I feel a little concerned about making mistakes... I know teachers can make mistakes and all, nevertheless it makes me kind of nervous. Have you had an experience like that? I would love hearing your opinions.
Greetings :) |
12 Feb 2009
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libertybelle
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No problem!
I have a few of those too and thank goodness they are kind and patient!
I usually find a good book or story that they all read and then
discuss in class with questions I �ve made for comprehension.
You can also find some good grammar worksheets to give them if they
are finished before the others.
Don �t worry about making mistakes, just do the best you can.
L
ps why do you have native adult speakers in your class?
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12 Feb 2009
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BRAHIM S
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Personally, I really appreciate the presence of natives in my classes....
I have often had a few of them in my adult classes and indeed, as Libertybelle has noted, they are particularly kind, patient and above all very cooperative, and this is probably why I have never been preoccupied with making mistakes!!!
They do help a lot when it comes to explaining something to the other students
This is based on my own experience, is it something to be generalised to all the native speakers?
The other members will certainly give a few elements of answer
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12 Feb 2009
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vaskio28
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Actually, it may be difficult if the native speaker starts to insist on pointing out mistakes that you don�t acknowledge.
A good teacher is one who´s prepared for the worse.
It�s more than common to have someone disagreeing with you, particularly when talking about BrE and AmE.
The easiest way to deal with it is to let the student say what he has to say, and then explain your point of view. This way, what you�ll say will always cover up almost every point the student made before.
Common sense often becomes a barrier to more experienced learners, because they bring a lot of mistakes and errors with them to the class, and they insist on making them because they�ve been doing it for years and were never told different.
A native speaker doesn�t mean better than the teacher. If that was the case, we would never pay attention to our own language�s classes.
Just be prepared to answer all questions your classes may bring up and you�ll be fine.
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13 Feb 2009
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libertybelle
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And to continue Brahim �s message - many of the native speakers lift the level of the class, rather than bring it to a lower level.
Which I find is a great thing.
How often do we find, that the slowest learners bring down the whole class?
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13 Feb 2009
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hekateros
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Good afternoon!
Thank you all for your kind and reassuring words :) I really appreciate your attention and feel more confident now.
Answering libertybell �s question, this student is taking Management in university and Technical and Commercial English is an obligatory subject of that course, for that reason he is in my class too.
He is very nice and always smilling at me but I always think of the day he will correct me in front of the class  . Like vaskio28 said, it would became a very complicated situation if the student insisted on constantly pointing out mistakes... But fortunately that has not been the case... up to now. Like BRAHIM S referred, I feel that that student will be cooperative too and help colleagues with more difficulties. I hope it continues so  And let us hope my experience will give me the confidence to face this and other situations!
Thank you son much!! 
Greetings. |
13 Feb 2009
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