Job Discussion Forums

[Knedliki]

Sat in a cafe recently I noticed an American delivering a loud political monologue to a woman sat opposite him. She tried several times to interject but was just talked over. At the end of his monologue he said "well, that was a good lesson, your English is really good, just keep learning new phrases....blah blah blah

I nearly spat my cappuccino out.

Has anyone witnessed similar EFL butchery?

[scot47]

Common. The phenomenon of 105% TTT is not unusual. People who like their own voices become teachers.

I don't do it in the classroom anymore. I just bombard the world with self-aggrandising nonsense on internet fora !

[santi84]

ESL? No, not so much. I once quit an Advanced French Conversation course, because the teacher spent 90% of the time talking about her cat. It was pretty disappointing, especially considering it was a government francization program.

[scot47]

It is one of those things that people should be made aware of in Teacher Training. It comes as a shock to some when they realise that they have been doing all the talking when the students should be given some talking time !

[Xie Lin]

[Hod]

I tried studying at Goethe Institut, Instituto Cervantes, Alliance Francaise and a Thai language school. Out of those, one teacher at a Goethe (in Berlin) was very good. The others hadn't the foggiest. TTT was at least 90% due to student interaction being zero, e.g.

Teacher: What's the answer to number 7?
Student 1: Bananas
Teacher: Yes, Bananas
Student 2: What?
Teacher: Bananas

It takes guts to step back, put a sock in it and force students, who’ve never seen student-centred teaching before, to speak to each other. The other teachers at the places above had no such guts, and this was especially grating as the students were all international, i.e. the easiest of the easiest to get talking.

Here we go with a generalisation: I’ve worked with native-speaking English teachers with MAs. They were dreadful, preferring to lecture groups of ten rather than having the guts to step back and put a sock in it.

[fluffyhamster]

Jeez, not the old simplistic "TTT bad" line again.

Let's be honest, a fair bit of STT isn't that great (up to much) either, and tasks or activities are rarely specified in truly sufficient linguistic detail in the average lesson (i.e. how often do unanticipated difficulties arise?). And contrary to what tight-lipped trainers may insist or tell you, many students would prefer to talk to native speakers than not whenever possible.

Either way, it admittedly takes a lot more pedagogical imagination, especially in larger classes, than the example "dialogues" above are exhibiting to impart enough of communicative value than mere "input" (not sure that checking answers is that great an achievement to really farm out though!).

[D. Amokachi]

I've seen a fair few bad teachers and in my opinion it's usually down to a lack of training. A lot of people, myself included when I first started out, seem to think that if you can speak English then you can just turn up and teach it. They're not the same thing.

[Hod]

[adventious]

I don't understand what's gained by stories about incompetence nearly everyone encounters over time in any profession. Vinegary.

[spiral78]

[Hod]

OK, I partially withdraw the MA comment, although I did admit it was a generalisation based on some former colleagues.

For a lot of teachers, though, the thought of stepping back and letting students speak is terrifying, that loss of control. I’d say grow a pair. If it doesn’t work, think it through and try again. Don’t be like those boring entertainers I suffered at Cervantes or Goethe.

[Knedliki]

[scot47]

I am no great champion of pair work and remember how horrified some students were when I suggested that they could learn from other students. "Teacher I want to hear you !" If they are paying customers........................

[Knedliki]

Maybe the customer isn't always right