TEACHING ACROSS PROFICIENCY LEVELS

·        Teaching beginning levels

In this level the students have little knowledge of the target language and their capacity of retention is limited that is why teachers must not overwhelm their students because they will not understand anything.

It is really important that the teacher design a classroom technique in order to help them, giving them activities that help them to develop their hide skills. You have to be patient, maybe you will se that your students are not progressing but you have to know that they are going to learn little by little; they will always depend on the teacher because he is the center of attention and a model to follow.

The teacher talk has to be very clear because if not the students will not get what you want and it will be a big problem not only for you but also for them. It is a good idea to use a slow speech for the comprehension of the student; also you can use simple structures according to their level.

Teaching intermediate levels

In this level the students are supposed to participate in short conversations, ask and answer questions, they can work in pairs or groups to develop theirs skills like speaking, that is why the teacher has to let the students talk and they can use the native language in some situations.

In this level the teacher can start talking about some grammar points so that the student get accustom to that.

Teaching advanced levels

In this level the student has the sufficient fluency to speak they like to participate and give some short explanations. The job for the teacher is little because he let the students do the tasks by themselves. They know a lot of vocabulary, idioms and other language features. People in this level is able to participate in debates, argumentation, complex role-plays, scanning and skimming and so on.

TEACHING ACROSS AGE LEVELS

Many people think that adults have many problems to learn and to understand but the truth is that children are far superior to adults. The thing is that children have a spontaneous attention, and adults focus their attention on a single thing.

Each of them has something good because each of them has its own characteristics. For example, adults can retain information better, they learn more vocabulary and they use it. On the other hand, children have special skills and intuitions that help them in the learning process.

There are five categories that may help when teaching children:

1.     INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

The teacher must know the limitations of his students. As they are children, it is not a good idea to give grammar explanations because they will not understand. What is important here is the repetition so that they will get the meaning.

2.     ATTENTION SPAM

The teaches has to know how to catch the attention of the children because they get bored very quickly, that is why the activities must be applied and designed to catch their attention and interest, therefore the teacher needs to be active with much enthusiastic when presenting an activity and do not forget to keep the children laughing and of course learning.

3.     SENSORY INPUT

Stimulate the senses of the students to have better results in the process learning. You have to maintain your students active all the time by giving them activities like role-play, hands-on, or play games for example.

4.     AFFECTIVE FACTORS

We know that children are very sensible that is why they need special attention. The teacher has to help the students to laugh with each other when making a mistake so they feel comfortable. Another thing is that you have to be patient with them.

5.     AUTHENTIC, MEANINGFUL LANGUAGE

In this part the context is really important because you take advantage of it and you can give them tasks like: real life conversation, familiar situations or story lines.

In addition we have to know that some adults have superior abilities and skills, also they acquire self-confidence that is really important because they ask and answer questions, in other words their relationship is better.  

My presentation about the activity types

What I liked from my presentation is that with these activities we learn in a funny way; furthermore, the students learn very quickly because they enjoy the activity, so I think that Suggestopedia has one of the most effective activities we can perform in the classroom.

A very important point is that you have to know the correct way to develop the activity because sometimes we can have some problems, for example: your students can be very excited and they can make too much noise, so you have to be the authority in the classroom and then they are going to learn better.

In my case I think that I could have improve my preparation in the presentation because I think that sometimes the students can have a lot of questions, and if we are not prepare we are going to have an embarrass moment in front of everybody.

Also, I felt comfortable in my presentation because the environment was good, but as I am not an expert I made mistakes, and I felt a little bit nervous but I think that it is normal. And I enjoyed my presentation because actually I learned, too.

What I think about the activities my other classmates presented is that as I said we have to know the correct way to develop the activity because then there is a disorder, and the students don’t learn so much; nevertheless, I enjoyed the activities they presented.

In brief, it is really good for the student and for the teacher to develop an activity because the students learn, and it is an advantage for the teacher for he has another way to teach; therefore we have to use them because it is a really useful tool.

teaching is the profession that teaches other professions

“LEARNING IN A FUNNY WAY”

(SUGGESTOPEDIA)

Suggestopedia is a method, in which students learn in a funny way because this method helps the student to have a better concentration in their learning; also this method has many advantages that make an improvement in the education of the student, in other words, it is a big benefit for the teacher and for the student.

What I like about this method is that students learn very fast because the classroom is very bright and playful, also the environment is comfortable, and the teacher plays a really important role because he or she has to change the activities very fast for the reason that students get bored quickly.

In my opinion Suggestopedia is a method that develop the learning process because students learn by practicing speaking in order to have a better memorization without fatigue. In this method the teacher has to be very positive, furthermore I like this method because the relationship between the student and the teacher is really important. So I can say that I like everything about this method.

What I understood about the other method is that the teacher makes a usage of the gestures and movements in order to catch the attention of the students. Also I learned that the teacher doesn´t pay attention to the number of students he or she has. Likewise I understood that you develop the skills of speaking and listening.

All the methods we have seen in class are so important because you need at least one, in order to have better results in the learning process because if not the students are going to find difficult the target language.