Long time no see

Teachers are usually lacking time! I'm no exception but from now on I'd like to use some of my "spare" time working on the Teacher's talking time!

Have you got some spare time as well, please help! We'll be glad to receive your contribution!

Cheers!

9th Southern Cone TESOL Convention

Powerpoint about use of technologies in ELT

Two weeks ago I gave a lecture about the use of some technologies in ELT. I'm putting the presentation here if you find it interesting to download.

TECHNOLOGY POWERPOINT

Big words!!!

DOWNLOADS

DETECTIVE CARDS

Here goes some cards you can use to play detective with your students. The instructions are in the file. Hope you have as much fun as I have playing it!!!



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Think it through...

WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG??

I often question myself everytime I have to correct a student of mine. Am I doing the right thing? Linguistically speaking, there`s very little that can be considered wrong, but despeite this, we keep correcting students over and over.

It`s obvious that learning a second language is different than learning the first language. Is that why we have to tell our students that they are wrong when they mispell the th, even knowing that everybody would understand them? How can we know when to correct and when not to? For me it`s kind of instinctive. Part because I was trained in certain methodology that describes a fluency practice as being "correctless" and also because I have certain experience.

The problem here is that I want more. Not that I`m asking for a manual entitled "When to and when not to correct your students", but other teachers opinion would be really nice. I think we are still to determine what the limits for correct are. What do you think? Correct them like a grammar book, or let them speak despite the "errrorrss".

Unpredictability

Something that I consider important for us teachers is that we need to be prepared for the student’s feedback. It doesn’t only matter how much we know about what we are teaching, but how we use this knowledge. The reaction of the students cannot be predicted, so it is of vital importance that we are prepared to the unpredictable.

Being a teacher for more than 10 years, I can surely say that some of my most productive classes were the ones that had not been prepared. By not prepared I don’t mean that I didn’t know at all what I was going to teach. I mean that my students and I didn’t follow what was scheduled according to the book. However, we were able to practice everything that was included in the syllabus in a more natural way.

Of course that focusing has always been a bit of a problem for me. The moment you have nothing to follow, you can get a little lost. But this was not a problem that could not be surpassed by any of us, neither the teacher nor the students. I have already been in some classes were the teachers were so stuck to the class plan that they had to look at their notes the whole time, and if any of the students got out of the main topic in the class, they would simply ignore the comment made by the student and keep on following their plan.

So, are you prepared for the unpredictable?
Leave a comment below.