Mike, I guess this is where you should cue The Flight of the Valkyries... :-) Dear Rob--- I certainly did not find anything you wrote as an attack...actually ...
Dear all, I'd like to offer a little classroom snapshot - you can decide for yourselves where (or if) it fits within the present discussion... Teaching a group...
Dennis writes: "Relatively few English teachers, I would have thought, speak the mother tongue of their learners." While that may be true of many of the active...
What I have to say is uncharacteristically short: it strikes me that the best way to teach is as it comes naturally. If it feels right or necessary at any...
Outblaze powered by Simon prompts me to say that my couple of suggestions that it might be time to end this thread came from a concern that members might be...
Peter, An interesting account, and I'm quite sure in terms of your relationship with the class you did the correct thing. But protected by distance and nothing...
Why do I go on and on about "English only"? It is because I believe such excellent results can be achieved with it and I'd like colleagues who don't use it or...
Dennis has again pushed the boat out and I hope he doesn't get a large number of e-mails over it. I am paid to be an English teacher but with some classes and...
I agree with Dennis - almost totally, in fact. Â Several months ago I attended, for a brief period, Arabic classes. It's sad to say it, but the class was...
Dennis, Two points: 1. My students were not "being required" to discuss anything - the topic naturally emerged from an activity comparing traditional to modern...
Probably going to be more characteristically long this one... firstly, Jeff's experience put me in mind of a Mandarin class that I had once upon a time, at...
Peter, It was clear to me from your first posting that the English lesson was enriched in general learning terms from not stopping a limited use of of the MT. ...
Dear Dennis, the very amount of messages on the topic of L1 x L2 shows that the interest of this list members has actually increased a lot! As Simon wrote,...
Dennis, You said: "It's great you want to discuss that with the learners, but first they have to be given the language to do so." Why "first"? By the time a...
Peter, I guess it depends on Diarmuid's distinctions - do you see yourself as (1) a language teacher or (2) an educator. If (2) there is no need to adopt the ...
Celso, I'd be interested in figures of how many teachers of TEFL can speak their learners' mother tongue. I'd maintain, in the meantime, that an awful lot ...
Hi Dennis, Figures - well let's take a country like Serbia with something in the region of 10,000 English Language Teachers (at least those were the figures...
I agree - I suspect that Dennis is thinking of Germany and the non-school system i.e. universities, Volkshochschule (adult education colleges) and the Business...
John, I think that Dennis is thinking of the countries with which he has some contact, and secondary schools rather than universities - Ghana, Sierra Leone,...
Separating languages - on not switching I'm aware of the linguistic view which states that if a person is bi- or trilingual the languages are stored in a...
Aren't most teachers of English nationals of the countries in which they are working? If so, most TEFL teachers can speak their learners' mother tongue. ... ...
Yes, I agree in the main. As a tool it has limited usefulness but it can be useful nonetheless - that's why I am advocating not excluding any technique in...
Mike, thanks for the clarification. I would say instead of *not allowing L2* you plan to *encourage exclusive use of L1*. I also like to introduce "classroom...
Dennis, I think you need to clarify exactly what you mean. If you are talking about English people teaching English abroad, then yes many do not speak the...
I fully agree with Peter here. I reckon that too often, teachers tend to be obssesed by the "target language", more than by the students who are there to learn...
Marianne, I do accept the force of your argument, but I certainly did not when I was a practicing teacher, though I have to say students were eager supporters...
Dr. E.and Patrick, Surely it is clear I've been talking about native/English-speaking teachers working mostly abroad. What sense would it make to be discussing...
Patrick, I can easily see that the MT can sometimes be a useful tool. My anxiety was/is that once used learners will want more and see it as an easy way out of...
... Celso, I do so agree with what you say in this message that the refusal to allow ANY mother tongue in classes ( which is now happening in ESOL classes up ...
Hi Alastair I don't agree that refusal to allow mother tongue in classes is "happening in ESOL classes up and down the UK". I am quite familiar with practice...
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