"Maybe you should try and do their way..." this piece of advice came up when angry I just couldn't understand some people reluctance to "playful" teaching. Why do people imagine that following the same rules, the same old path,children have better results? The worst part is dealing with students' parents: "He/She should try and pay attention more to the discussion we are having and less to noting down some words or grammar rules...",these words are like some amazing confused emotions triggers, their eyes widen and they nod their heads as if understanding when I simply realize the same words running their minds" what is she talking about? she is young and she thinks she knows better, but poor girl..."
The most important part in teaching-learning is the liberty to think and act normally, as if leading a normal life among the others, foreign language learning is not a math problem, an abstract concept, it is the ability to express feelings, desires, chores, needs; mainly it is the ease of doing so in the presence/company of a person that speaks a different language from your own. In order to speak a foreign language a person needs to develop the same courage and freedom one feels while expressing himself among his fellow speakers.
That is why a teacher, in my opinion, is a trainer, an actor and a doctor in the same time: a teacher should train his students into the process and means of using a foreign language, a teacher should cure his students fear of the unknown, untouchable meaning and undearable and, most of all, a teacher should entertain his students , simulate with their help those instances when people want or would need to use that foreign language.
Reading the last article that Scott Thornbury wrote on his blog - M is for Metaphor you can read here I found some interesting ideas that confirm my own opinion about language teaching; I quote:
"I found that A LESSON IS A FILM was a popular choice, one reason being that “in
a good class there have to be changes of rhythm, it has to be
agreeable, amusing, and it has to take place without you realising it.“
I admit this type of process might take some time (first you need to train the students into understanding of means to deal with the tasks),but the moment they feel the rhythm and they use the language tools properly you can actually have a real learning feed-back from them.
So, the best approach remains conversational-based, not because it is modern and it looks good on a teacher attitude, but mainly because a language is a tool for communicating and this is the ultimate aim of a pedagogical pursuit. When I ask someone "How are you today?" the response I expect is a natural, on-the-spot one, not a grammar analysis on the topic of these following sounds I-A-M-F-I-N-E-T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U.
And I also need an emotional response, a glowing face, rubbing hands, even sad down-looking eyes can speak more about the understanding of the question rather than a perfect grammatically given answer.
Communication is a vivid process and teaching should be the unaltered reflection of that!
