Profesora de inglés no habla inglés en clase

Ayer me encontré con Daniel, de ocho años, y su padre en el parque donde suelen practicar skate los fines de semana. El padre me saludó con un "Hello" y le contesté con "English class in the park". Nos pusimos a hablar en inglés del fracaso del sistema educativo en España en cuanto a la enseñanza de idomas. En ese momento pregunté a Daniel, do you have English class in school? Y me contestó, yes, pero la profesora no nos habla en inglés. Solo nos pregunta, cómo se dice en inglés esto o cómo se dice ventana, cosas así. Lo único que dice en inglés es page 32.

Resulta que Daniel está en tercero y el año pasado tuvo la suerte de tener una profesora que les hablaba en inglés. Por eso le extrañaba mucho que la profesora de este curso no les hablara en inglés. Después de varios días de clase Daniel no podía aguantar más y le preguntó por qué no les hablaba en inglés y ella le contestó que ya hablaría en inglés.

La Niña de Ayer

Muy de vez en cuando me encuentro con una oportunidad como la de "la niña de ayer". Puedo hacer mil fotos en "West Park" cada domingo y como mucho me quedo con un 5%. Y eso sí, después de recortarlas y editarlas. Y, con mucha suerte, entre esas mil fotos hay una muy buena, "a winner". Ayer, cuando esa niña venía hacia mí rodando tumbada encima de la tabla, chocando con el borde y muerta de sueño de tanto jugar, y se paró a unos metros de mí, ya sabía que me acababa de regalar la oportunidad que siempre estoy buscando. La foto estaba hecha. Solo tenía que disparar.

English Class in English - Teaching Second Languages in the Spanish Education System

A few days ago I went to the home of a 10-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister to give them a 90 minute English class. In the end, the class lasted almost 2 hours and we all enjoyed it.

A few days later the mother of the children told me that her son was very surprised by the fact that I had conducted the entire class in English.

It's unbelievable that so many children in Spain are still being taught English in Spanish, which is the primary reason why very few Spaniards finish their education and begin their professional careers with a decent level of English.

Spanish people don't understand English but they think they do!!

According to Richard Vaughan, Spanish people have a big problem. They don't understand English but they think they do. Spaniards only understand 30% of what they hear. Listen as Mr. Vaughan reprimands Sara, a girl from Venezuela, on his radio program.

Correction is not Enough

Correcting students' mistakes is perhaps the most important responsibility of a language teacher. Getting students to stop making mistakes should be every language teacher's ultimate goal. That's why I've written and continue to write these audio exercises.

http://www.myprofe.com/wiki/index.php?title=Audio_Exercises

Linking Sounds

Native English speakers link words together by connecting sounds. The more words you manage to group together the more natural your English will sound and the harder it will be for people to detect your mother tongue. When a word ends in a consonant sound and is followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound, the consonant moves to the beginning of the second word. If we have two similar sounding consonants we pronounce them as a single consonant. Adjacent vowel sounds are joined with a 'y', as in 'I am', or a 'w', as in 'you are'. Recognizing these linked words will help you understand native speakers more easily. And, conversely, if you link words when you talk, native speakers will understand you better. Finally, dividing whole sentences into phrases or thought groups will make it easier to understand those who we repeatedly accuse of speaking too fast.

Connecting the Classroom

Computers and the internet are connecting classrooms to the real world at an ever accelerating pace, eliminating books and fundamentally changing the role of the teacher. Learning is no longer limited to the content of your books, the knowledge of your teacher or the size of the local library, but to your own imagination and desire to learn. After 25 years as an ESL teacher I can't imagine now, giving class without my laptop. Working with video and audio of current events, aside from being entertaining, exposes students to words, expressions and accents that they would most likely never hear from me. Recording students and letting them listen to themselves provide an opportunity to work on pronunciation while improving confidence in public speaking. As for the business world, the fact that your teacher is available 24/7 means that you can get that document or email proofread before sending it off.