A Good Language Teacher Makes His Students Understand the Meaning of Education

by Herminne Tonita - More and more students who graduate the Faculty of Letters and should become teachers choose to work in any other field of activity, except for their own. Why does this happen? Aren't they meant for becoming a good teacher? What are the tips that make a teacher a good one? On the one hand to a teacher is equivalent to be an example of patience, hard working, devotement...

Language Teaching Came into its Own as a Profession in the Last Century

by Monique Barb - Language teaching came into its own as a profession in the last century. Central to this phenomenon was the emergence of the concept of "methods" of language teaching. The method concept in language teaching – the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and language learning - is a powerful one, and the quest for better...

Language Teaching : The Grammar Translation Method

by Monique Barb - Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching by Richards and Rogers (2002), classifies language teaching methods as the “dominant language of education, commerce, religion and government in the Western world”. Latin was once the most widely studied foreign language. Even after French, Italian and English took over its place. The study of classical Latin and an analysis of its...

Children and Their Particularities of Age in Teaching a Foreign Language

by Monique Barb - The age of students is a major factor in our decision about how and what to teach. People of different ages have different needs, competences, and cognitive skills; we might expect children of primary age to acquire much of a foreign language through play, for example, whereas for adults we can reasonably expect a greater use of abstract thought. There is a considerable...

Language Teaching : Class Management and Atmosphere

by Monique Barb - The major difficulty which most teachers face, consciously or not, is how to transform the classroom from a space which is inherently inimical to learning into one where learning can take place. Therefore the teacher can hang posters, calendars, pupil’s drawings on the walls and have all kind of interesting objects that can personalize the classroom. Also there has to be...

Why Should We Encourage Informal Interaction in English?

by Monique Barb - There are four main arguments for encouraging informal interaction in English as part of the language teaching process: 1. Children learn languages best in situations where their attention is focused on meaning rather than on language. This argument is based on research into the way in which infants learn their mother tongue and the ways in which foreign language learning...

Language Teaching : Opportunities for Interaction

by Monique Barb - Children naturally use their mother tongue with any other person who knows it. When children find themselves in the company of others, particularly their peers, who speak other languages (or other dialects of their qwn language) then they will make an effort to understand and use the new language. In an ideal world, we would be able to arrange regular meetings between our...

The Pleasures And The Obstacles Encountered In Learning a Foreign Language

by Cristina Nuta- I have always had an attraction for foreign languages, even from kindergarten when we used to learn the numbers in English or how to introduce ourselves. Then, going to school we had English as the first foreign language to study and I can say I really enjoyed it from the beginning. I was very pleased to discover that I was learning more and more and that my vocabulary was...

My English Teacher - a Good Teacher

by Cristina Nuta - If I were to describe one of my teachers I have had throughout these years, the first one who comes into my mind is my present English teacher. The reasons why I would like to characterize my English teacher are various. First of all, I can say that I appreciate her skills in English and that I consider her a very prepared teacher. I like the way she pronounces, I like...

The Language in Oliver Twist and its Symbolic Meaning

by Herminne Tonita - Charles Dickens knows how to give his novel a social direction, how to deal with issues like the lack of confidence in public situations, as he knows how to underline the action and the gravity of the tone. He has the strenght to raise without difficulty all sorts of problems, to handle a campaign against injustice, using his novels as a way to promote his beliefs. His...

What makes a good language teacher?

by Cristina Nuta - Even if I have finished the Faculty of Letters, the English-Spanish section, I don't want to be a language teacher for the simple reason that I don't want to work surrounded by children who can make stir up my nerves. However, a student who finishes his studies and wants to become a language teacher needs a good grounding in order to be a good and an appreciated teacher....

Towards a Global Language

by Cristina Nuta - How can Piotr in Poland talk to Francoise in France and make sure there are no misunderstandings? For a long time, people have felt the need for a global language so that we can all talk to one another. For a while it was thought that artificial languages would be the solution. Six hundred and fifty languages have been tried and abandoned. The most successful artificial...

Language Variety

by Cristina Nuta - Each language has its dialects and we can travel across one country and find that each region speaks in quite a different dialect and that accents differ from one place to another. Then, we can take the example of the English and Spanish languages which have variety depending on the countries where they are spoken. Therefore, if we are in South America we will hear and speak...

What languages can you speak?

by Cristina Nuta - Being able to speak at least a foreign language nowadays offers great advantages. English has become the first international language, which helps millions of people around the world to communicate. Even if it is a little bit harder for some of us to gain the English accent, learning its grammar and vocabulary is enough in order to be able to make yourself understood....

Who Owns the Copyright of the English Language?

by Herminne Tonita - Several factors contribute to the increase in status of a language: economic power, political and military strength, cultural and religious influence, the need for a common code of communication. It is precisely that need that suggested the creation of artificial languages that would not favor any of the national languages; however, the idea did not prove feasible in...

Lesson Plan : Present Tense, Past Tense

LEVEL: beginners, 2nd year of study TEXT BOOK: English G 2000 TOPIC: Charlie's Lucky Day, Present Tense, Past Tense LESSON AIMS: - To develop Ss's speaking and listening competences - To revise grammar concerning Past Tense - To develop Ss' ability to use language in real life situations OBJECTIVES: By the end of the lesson the Ss will be able to: - Use correctly the revised grammar...