Essay: My Personal Teaching Approach.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays in Spain, children learn English from a very young age at school. They learn how the grammar works, have a wide variety of vocabulary and a good sense of written English, but they often cannot apply the language when it comes to being spoken.

Acquiring a second language is never easy. A lot of motivation is needed from the student to progress. And here in Spain different approaches and practices to teaching English achieve very differing results.

In this essay, I will look at utilizing the best strategies from various methods and model them into my own method, which I would apply to teaching Spanish people to speak English more fluently and being able to utilize the language in everyday situations.

Matthews Method: Getting the students to come out of their shells.

Teaching and learning goals and areas of language skills emphasized.

In Matthews Method listening and speaking would be given more emphasis over the grammar and vocabulary skills. Students will learn the language and become more fluent, comfortable and confident using it and their use of the language will increase as their ability progresses.

As the main goal is fluency, special attention will be given to pronunciation as this will help the students to speak as authentically as possible. (As per the Berlitz Method)

Though slightly less focus would be given to them, grammar and vocabulary are introduced through activities (As per the Oxbridge Method) this way the students learn a structure, but often without even realizing it.

Students would also learn the culture of the English language, (As per the Suggestopedia Method) through activities as the English language is very polite in its spoken form as opposed to Spanish.

Another very important goal would be the enjoyment of the learning experience (As per the TPR Method) I believe that if you enjoy what you are doing, learning will happen and take place a lot quicker.

Organization of the Syllabus.

A functional syllabus will be followed with units dealing with each skill. The order of importance would be: Listening and speaking primarily, followed by grammar and vocabulary.

Topics would be chosen that would stir up debate in order to get the students speaking and give their opinions and views as well as to test their listening skills and check for understanding.

Authentic material will be used although it may be adapted to suit the students´ needs.

By using this authentic material, the students get the feeling of learning ´real´ situations or live-language.

As the students will be learning about the culture of the English language, cross – cultural activities will be included to show the difference between the two languages.

(All this, As per the Communicative Method)

Teacher and Student Roles and Interaction Conditions

The Teachers Roles:

The main roles of the Teacher will be to co-ordinate the class and to facilitate the activities in the classroom. The Teacher is there to guide the students in the class and be more of a helper towards the answers. (As per the Oxbridge Method)

Once the topic has been introduced and the aims have been established, the Teacher will take a ´back seat´ and allow the students as much talking time as possible (As per the Oxbridge Method)

The only time this role would change, would be in a class with a one-to-one situation,

where a conversation is taking place and feedback is needed between the Teacher and the Student.

As verbal communication is the primary objective, only major, repeated errors will be corrected for lower level students, in order not to have a negative affect on their self confidence for speaking, whereas in higher levels, correction will take place more regularly.

A motivated Teachers attitude will often brush off on the Students, for this reason, the Teachers attitude is of huge importance. I believe if the Teacher is not motivated to be teaching, the Students will pick up on this and this will lead to the Students being de-motivated.

Preparation and correct selection of class material for the specific level also plays an important role. If the Teacher is unprepared, or the class material is either too easy or too difficult, the Students will lose interest in the class.

The Students Roles:

The roles of the Students will be to verbally communicate as much as possible.

In larger groups, once given instruction, the Students will do most of the talking and lose their ´fear´ of speaking in English. They will be active communicators and importance will be given for them to be understood as well as to understand. (As per the Communicative Method)

Active communication will take place between the Students during activities such as role-plays and debates. This will often bring out different opinions between the Students and lead to further conversation.

The students will also be made to feel secure, which will lead to them being more spontaneous in their answers and less self-conscience about using English (As per the Suggestopedia Method)

The Characteristics of the Teaching and Learning Process

As verbal communication is the goal, all of the activities that take place in the class will have the goal of being communicative in order to get the Students to speak. (As per the Oxbridge Method)

During ‘open’ discussion activities, there will be an information gap - where the Teacher does not know the answer, a choice - where the Student has a choice about what to say and how to express it, and feedback - Information received by the speaker, from the listener to know if the purpose of communication was met. (As per the Communication Method)

All in-class activities will be done verbally, thus motivating the Students to speak and gain in fluency. Each activity will have a goal, be it speak or listening, grammar or vocabulary. (Remembering that grammar and vocabulary activities will not be taught per se, but rather incorporated into the class without the Students realizing directly)

The use of the Mother Tongue (First language) will not be permitted in the class. This will add to the Students becoming able to express themselves better in English.

Correct use of English will be praised as this will also motivate the Students and make them feel they are progressing.

Evaluation will be done in different ways. It could be done by checking for understanding of a text, by a question and answer structure or by giving instructions about having to do an oral presentation to the class, be it a group or a single Student.

Finally, although written work is secondary, a small amount of homework will be given to keep evaluating the Students´ progress.

Conclusion

Whilst living in Edinburgh, I came into contact with many Spanish people. Most of which could not communicate in English. As I now know that Spanish people nowadays learn the English language at school from a young age, Matthews Method will be about helping the Students realising their potential, become more fluent in a second language and being more confident when using it, as opposed to just learning the structures etc. It will focus on the Speaking and Listening skills which in turn can be transferred to understanding and being understood.

This method would not change in theory between S1 and L5 learners, although the Teacher would have to adapt to the level of the Students in order to keep the interest in learning English as a second language at a peak.

Finally, I believe that the collaboration between English Teachers to be hugely beneficial to all Teachers. As a new English Teacher on the scene, I find it very important to speak to more experienced Teachers to find what methods work for them, what strategies they implement as well as to give me advice on specific topics or subjects that they have either had difficulty with as well as to hear what works best for them.

I also believe that Teachers benefits from an ‘open’ contribution between Teachers.

Lesson plans can be shared and modified to suit each Teacher and his/her Students needs, as lesson planning takes a considerable amount of time.

Lesson Plan