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denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

Something that I read on another thread--I think the EFL vs. ESL thread--got me thinking...

A professor of mine said that it was often difficult for language teachers to return to the classroom as language students, because we have our own ideas about what constitutes "good" teaching. We become hyper-critical of our teachers--"Oh, I would NEVER do it that way!" When I was still in the States, I signed up for a Spanish class at an adult school. It was totally laid-back and informal, yet I could not relax! I spent all of my time observing the teacher, noticing how she seemed to favor certain students, she once tried to end class 15 minutes early because we hadn't taken a break that day (ooops! somebody didn't plan enough activities!), she left us in pairs for too long, so we started getting off task, the themes of the lessons were a bit arbitrary ("today we're going to describe our houses"), etc.

I think it's good to be aware of what we do and don't like as students, but sometimes I felt way too judgmental of the poor woman (who was actually a retired high school teacher, just doing the adult class for fun, I think--she didn't take it any more seriously than the students did). Have you guys/gals noticed similar behavior in yourselves? Any anecdotes to share?

d

Cleopatra · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2003 11:24 am Post subject:

I've heard that lots of actors can never enjoy watching movies because they're all the time thinking about camera angles, line pitching and so on. I suppose it's the same for us teachers: I have never "formally" learned a language since uni, but I'm sure that if I did, I'd be all the time putting myself inside the teachers' head and wondering what I'd do if I was him/her.
BTW, I think all teachers should be students at some stage in their careers, just to remind themselves about life on the other side of the desk. It doesn't have to be a language class. I did a yoga course recently, and doing it reminded me of how sensitive people are to even well intentioned criticism and of how, when the class comes towards an end, most students are happy to just go - even if it is 5 minutes early! That was a relief!

struelle · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 2372 Location: Shanghai

dduck · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 422 Location: In the middle

A few months ago when I was studying Spanish in Guatemala, one of my teachers treated our 1-to-1 lessons as her personal therapy sessions. In one of her lessons she descirbed the death of her mother to me. Shocked

It was extremely touching, but not what I'd put in a lesson plan!

Otherwise, she'd explain how poor the people were, how bad the education system there was... It was incredibly depressing, besides being frustrating because I wasn't getting a chance to get a word in edgeways. Eventually, I changed teachers and things improved somewhat. Confused

Iain

Corey · Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 112 Location: Canada

Much more critical.

Lynn · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 696 Location: in between

Guilty as charged! I did the same thing here in the states.

Irish · Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 371

Since I'm only just getting started as a teacher, my problem is different. I'm not really critical but I often catch myself paying more attention to what the teacher does and figuring out how I can adapt/steal her ideas for my own lessons rather than trying to learn the language. But I'm sure I'll turn into a critical know-it-all once I've got more teaching experience.

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

Definitely more critical... but then I think I always was critical anyway.

This has to be the main reason why I have never managed to stay in a Japanese class for more than a few months at a time. In fact, I once caught myself focussing not on the japanese the teacher was trying (bless her) to teach us, but on analysing her question forms in a little diagram in my notebook.

Time to change the scenery I think Wink

nomadder · Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2003 5:54 pm Post subject:

My story is pretty much the same as Shmooj but I wondered if there were any good Japanese teachers out there.

Will. · Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 783 Location: London Uk

Seems to me that being a student is not easy if you have been taught how to teach. We have too much incoming input of our own and not enough attention focused on the teacher's input. the distractions we cause prevent us from learning as the average student would.
I have had intro language classes at schools I have worked at but my best results were achieved in the field in the tried and trusted trial and error method. One thing to bear in mind, the proximity of other speakers of your language (or languages) has direct correlation on your progress at learning and applying a new language. Remove the safety blanket of someone to rely on, or to be seen by, and you seem to make better progress.
Oh yeah getting drunk with people often helps too, I never did figure that one out. I could never remember the conversations but at the time I knew they were really complicated and regretted that none of my colleagues could see how well I was doing. I felt different about it the morning.