What has been your experience teaching or learning English as a second language?

1. 80

   Shil1978posted 14 years ago

   What has been your experience teaching or learning English as a second language?

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2. 68

   Travel Loverposted 14 years ago

   I taught English as a second language in France for a year and then St martin in the Caribbean for 4 years. It was a great experience. The interesting thing was that in France the pupils knew hardly any English at all, they were almost complete beginners, whereas in St Martin the kids were pretty good at English already, so 2 completely different experiences. The island of St Martin is a French island, so schools are in French, but there is a lot of English spoken on island and most children grow up hearing it. I was meant to teach them English as a second language, within the French system, with the French system's school books, but I ended up creating my own lessons and used my own materials because they already knew so much. Was a lot of fun...
   Not sure this really answers your question, but my experience of teaching English as a second language anyway!

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3. 60

   whataboutpoeposted 14 years ago

   Hi Shil1978, thanks for inviting me to answer your question.
   
   I've been teaching English as a private teacher for the last five years in Buenos Aires. My experience has been really good in general; I've met interesting people, in and out of the classroom. All of them were eager to learn English (well, almost all of them). Usually, they're interested in English because they want to travel or work abroad, so they ask for conversational English, but I've also happened to come across people who just love the language and want to polish their pronunciation skills, grammar, etc.
   
   People are warm here. Classes tend to be relaxed, jokes come and go, it's almost like teaching English to friends, and somehow that's what it ends up being. I always try to vary the topics and methods so my pupils don't get bored. One of the things I like is using music as an inspiration to hone their listening skills, or reading short stories, which I encourage them to write, too.
   
   Today, I have many different kinds of pupils: from an old man who wants to be able to read Shakespeare, to a lap dancer who needs English as a professional tool, so to speak.
   
   I hope this answers your question.
   
   Thanks for asking!

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4. 72

   Maximum Aposted 14 years ago

   In our school, we had this "Speak English" policy where we had to speak in the English language all of the time during classes (except  in our Filipino class). Anyone caught speaking in our dialect was fined or had to wear a sign. Contrary to what the school authorities expected, this policy did not really improve much our English language learning nor did it impress on the students the importance of learning English, one of our country's 2 official languages.
   
   Though I enjoy learning English (most of the things I write are in English), I think that the school administration should find ways to make learning English friendly to students because in our society, most of the people use a person's competence in using English as the benchmark of intelligence or SES.

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5. 60

   leonardobapexposted 13 years ago

   I can say that Teaching English as secong language is easier that learning. I am teaching english in Thailand for about two years and I think the only problem is you should both learn a little Thai language in order to know how to begin your english class. Thai students has a very little in understanding foreign language and knowing a little of their language is helpful.

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6. 60

   rickylifeposted 13 years ago

   It was a Good experience and to prove that im giving my advices to all the teacheres and students , I write about it just look my Hub:
   http://hubpages.com/hub/ESL-LEarn-English

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7. 60

   kevin.bakerposted 13 years ago

   I just wrote a hub about one of my experiences:
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/Free-English-Corners
   
   I enjoyed teaching in China very much! I taught elementary students through university students, and also at several companies. I taught in premiere high schools and also to farming children in remote school houses.
   
   One time I was teaching elementary students, and before class, a child was on the verge of crying. My translator told me that his dog got hit by a car. The driver got out of the car noticed that the dog was dead, and asked the student if he could take the dog home and eat it. Poor kid.

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