This week has been busy, but it’s also surprised me and made me feel so grateful to be involved in helping learners achieve their goals. Below are 3 things that I have been reflecting on this week as I’ve had to cope with entirely different levels of learners.
The importance of finding out about your student
I’ve started teaching a low level learner on a one-to-one basis. On Friday I did a review of the present perfect for experience and I asked 30 questions with ‘Have you ever’ (for experience) and accompanying slides. I was worried that this might feel repetitive, but by the end it felt like I really should have done this right away as a means to finding out about what both of us had in common. I found out that we had both been to the same place on holiday and that the student had grown a lemon tree at his grandmother’s house.
Unknown language sessions
The second thing that has got me thinking was that I remembered about how crucial unknown language inputs are and how useful they are in terms of letting trainees know how emotionally charged learning a language can be. It brought home to me how stressful learning a new language is and how true the quote is about "Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery", by Amy Chua.
Experimenting with presentations
When I first moved to Ireland, I did a QQI Train the Trainer course. As part of this we were asked to give (a short) presentation to 11 other trainees on a topic that we were passionate about. This experience and the presentation I gave, I then used with learners to give a model of how to deliver an effective presentation. One student gave a presentation on a game that he’s extremely proficient in playing with another team. I really enjoyed his enthusiasm and this led to a discussion on life goals which I felt benefited us both.
Anything that has surprised anyone this week? 😊 Leave a comment below.
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