Here is the first tip for teachers who wish or need to involve students in a lesson at any level.
There are many things we lose in our attempt to empower students. Asking students to talk about basic topics may seem to be useless due to the progress we have to follow in terms of language proficiency. We assume that the higher the level the higher the register of the topics should be. Yet there are things we do not know how to foster: follow up conversation strategies, fluency enrichment from daily basis activities, vocabulary empowerment from context, language learning strategies, etc.
Our attitude as language teachers can also affect the way students grasp new or old topics. Don't be afraid of sharing personal experiences that can foster new ways to improve their skills in the target language. Give students challenges not in terms of (e.g.) Astrophysics, but on their daily basis activities!
Note: You can follow the links of the words in bold face!!!
Thanks Ivan for sharing the videos. We have talked and learned trough our own experiences as well as in the master that the role of the teacher plays an important part on student’s success to learn a language (no matter what kind of method or approach we use) our attitude towards our teaching in the classroom, the activities that we choose (interesting topics for our students, body moving), the constant motivation etc. are very important in order to have an “energizing class”
ReplyDeleteThat's true Mara. When we are teaching we adapt our materials as well as possible in order to meet the needs of our students. One recipe for teachers is not what we should look for. Classes vary not only in number, but in learning and teaching styles. And as you said, we know our classes and the way to energize them!!!
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