Job Discussion Forums

[spiral78]

I'm overwhelmed! What a clever bunch of regulars we have..... and me with my paltry 2 1/2.....so far!!

So, here's the next logical pertinent question: what do you all think about the relationship between being a good (or at least interested and enthusiastic) language learner and being a good language teacher?

My own take is that it's a vital ingredient, even for newbies. Not to infer that I think functional knowledge of an L2 should be an entry-level requirement, but I do think that interest and enthusiasm in learning as well as teaching language is a BIG plus.

First, having some language learning experience is obviously important for a teacher of languages. Even though not all learners learn the same way, there are insights into the processes (both affective and cognitive) that one can only gain by doing.

But it's also a pretty big plus in terms of being happy living in a new culture. There are some advantages to not knowing the local language (or not well), as you can easily tune out when you wish. But daily living outside of the expat scene, and making friends among the locals are two signs that a newbie teacher might stick it out and actually take on ESL/EFL as a profession, or move into other positions in his/her new country.

My take, anyway.

[jr1965]

Near fluent in speaking and reading Spanish (Castellano).

Able to read and understand standard Italian, though my command of the spoken lang is now very rusty�probably because I don�t have anyone to speak the lang with�and I�m lazy. Italian was my grandparents� native language; I heard it all the time growing up and was required to attend Saturday Italian school from age ten through high school. I hated it then, but I�m now thankful I was made to do it. I will say that being required to study this lang--on Saturdays--helped me later to appreciate how my students sometimes felt about studying English.

Can read Hangul and still understand some basic Korean when spoken, though the only practice I get now is watching LOST and listening to Jin and Sun speaking to each other in the lang.

[Guy Courchesne]

[Henry_Cowell]

I believe that the more we study languages as adults, the better our teaching skills and insights will be. As it becomes more and more difficult for us to learn a new language (with age), we realize the difficulties and stumbling blocks that our students themselves frequently encounter.

As a result, I think we should be language learners throughout our lives so that we never forget what the acquisition process is like.

[Sweetsee]

Not speaking any foreign languages and teaching one would be a bit like teaching tennis and not being able to play.

[englishgibson]

interesting point with that tennis, since i also teach it...it's a lovely sport, and it does need to be explained properly before one hits the court...wouldn't want to get that tennis elbow

[christee]

Fluent in German, can get around in Turkish and am working to increase my ability.

I'd love to learn more languages to the point of fluency, but I find you really have to live in the country to learn the language well.

Knowing a language is important, but I agree that the enthusiastic desire to learn a language, and the effort one puts forth, is what really contributes to one's ability as a teacher.

[guangho]

Hungarian and (it's been rumored) English. I can mutter in a cryptic, anti-social way in Korean, Chinese, Spanish and Hebrew. Cryptic and anti-social is my speciality. I mean.....

[englishgibson]

some of us are rather linguistic ... it does bring all kinds of benefits, doesn't it

peace to all linguists
and
cheers and beers to all hard working FTs around the world