I have been a teacher of English for many years now and I always wondered why students did not learn the way I wanted, or, in other words, as much as I wanted in the time I wanted. They seemed to start well in the early courses but there is a moment, after two or three years, when I feel students loose their interest in the subject (“Well, they are teenagers, you know!” everybody tells me!) and no matter which lesson you are teaching there is always a group which does not looks interested at all. One brief look at text books will give you the clue: it is the same song with a different tune over and over again: family, school, sports, your neighbourhood... English school books are written to suit the needs of people from all over the world and the subjects have to be as general as possible, with no cultural reference (or just very little) and loads of boring and decontextualized grammar drills provided (on most cases) to keep students busy and, that way, quiet. And we go like this once and again, working with adapted texts, which means texts written bearing in mind the limited vocabulary of students and their (also limited) language knowledge. And most students believe they are learning the language (or teachers believe they are teaching the language) just because they keep going unit after unit, chapter after chapter, following a mathematical order and doing exactly what the author suggests the way the author suggests.
But what happens when students, by any chance, come across the “real world of the language”? It happens that most of them feel cheated by a system that does not provide them with enough “tools” to face it. And then, we, their teachers of English, have to hear once and again the same: students are unmotivated because they KNOW it is not possible to study English in a classroom (an artificial context anyway!) and they believe that if they go to England and live there for some time they are going to learn the REAL language there! And what is worse: this is not only our students’ belief, but their parents’, other teachers and, basically, most members of our own society!
So what can we do to change this way of seeing the teaching/learning of English in our schools? Well, of course, I would like to have a magic wand and make my students go through time and space to an English speaking country and stay there, interact with people and hear (and use!) the REAL language at least during the time they are in my classes. For the moment, I am totally unable to fulfil these expectations, but what I CAN DO is bring the real world to my classes! This is possible if we limit the use of (what I call) “artificial language” and focus on real, original English teaching resources. That is to say, if we introduce in our classes original texts, songs, films as means of an attractive and interesting teaching approach, students will be more motivated and willing to participate in the classroom activities. By means of projects, webquests, podcasts, blogs, chats, original version films, poems, short stories, novels, songs and also inviting native speakers to visit your classroom and talk to your students, kids (and the others!) will see they are interacting in a world that can be easily recognized by anybody, particularly by our own students.
The results are truly worth the effort!
But what happens when students, by any chance, come across the “real world of the language”? It happens that most of them feel cheated by a system that does not provide them with enough “tools” to face it. And then, we, their teachers of English, have to hear once and again the same: students are unmotivated because they KNOW it is not possible to study English in a classroom (an artificial context anyway!) and they believe that if they go to England and live there for some time they are going to learn the REAL language there! And what is worse: this is not only our students’ belief, but their parents’, other teachers and, basically, most members of our own society!
So what can we do to change this way of seeing the teaching/learning of English in our schools? Well, of course, I would like to have a magic wand and make my students go through time and space to an English speaking country and stay there, interact with people and hear (and use!) the REAL language at least during the time they are in my classes. For the moment, I am totally unable to fulfil these expectations, but what I CAN DO is bring the real world to my classes! This is possible if we limit the use of (what I call) “artificial language” and focus on real, original English teaching resources. That is to say, if we introduce in our classes original texts, songs, films as means of an attractive and interesting teaching approach, students will be more motivated and willing to participate in the classroom activities. By means of projects, webquests, podcasts, blogs, chats, original version films, poems, short stories, novels, songs and also inviting native speakers to visit your classroom and talk to your students, kids (and the others!) will see they are interacting in a world that can be easily recognized by anybody, particularly by our own students.
The results are truly worth the effort!
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