What Teaching English as a Foreign Language Has Taught Me.
Milan, Italy. The location for where my venture as an English teacher was born. Six months into my journey I thought it appropriate to publish an article on what I have learned from taking on the task of teaching English as a foreign language. So here goes:
- It is essential to turn language into a form of communication. Yes grammar is important, but there's a bigger picture, which is that language is developed through students interacting and engaging.
- Two weeks into my lessons and it was obvious that my students were not improving as much as I had expected. Essentially, one of the earliest things that I learned is that languages cannot be taught, they can only be learnt. The best way is to tell students right away that they are responsible for their own learning process, and the teacher is just a guide who has to motivate them.
- Certainly with teaching Italians where there is very little English spoken in the country, as a whole, many of my students fail to see the relevance of learning English. Therefore, in every lesson I had to instill fun and interaction through creative material in order for my students to engage in the language.
Overall, what I have come to realise as a teacher in Italy is that in continental Europe there is a stress on teaching languages from as early as six years. It is the realisation that languages will be useful later in life which motivates young Italians to learn. In a sense, the United Kingdom should take inspiration from continental Europe and an emphasis on learning languages.