Anita Kiwatkowska, a.k.a. Little Miss Bossy, is a rising star on the ELT blog scene. She is currently a YL teacher at private school in Istanbul, Turkey. She also happens to be one of the few people in my PLN I have met in person. Her blog deals with YL in ELT among other things. I am very happy to have her over here for a guest piece, so without further ado…
There are three kinds of foreign language teachers.
- A teacher whose nationality is the same as the students’ and they share the same mother tongue (e.g. a Turkish teacher of English teaching Turkish students)
- A teacher who does not share the same nationality with his/her students and does not know their mother tongue (e.g. an American teacher who does not know Chinese teaching Chinese students)
- A teacher whose nationality is different from his/her students’ but he/she knows the students’ mother tongue (pretty) well
In a great majority of countries priority is given to teachers type 2 i.e. native speakers who do not know their students’ mother tongue. But is it really the best option?
I have been lucky enough to pass through all these stages. Teaching in Poland I knew the mother tongue of my students – Polish. Having started my job in Turkey, I knew no Turkish whatsoever. Living in Turkey for almost three years now, I know enough Turkish to get by.
Of all the kinds of teachers, number 2’s job is the most difficult, especially when you have to teach Young Learners. With adults it is a lot easier even if they are beginners. Adults are capable of abstract thinking, can concentrate longer and their knowledge of the world enables them to guess a lot from context.
Young Learners, on the other hand, come to the classroom knowing (almost) no English. Eliciting usually fails, as they have no previous knowledge of English. Teaching them basic instructions involves a lot of miming but eventually a teacher is still not sure whether his/her students got what he/she was trying to explain or not. And how to check whether they understood? Concept check questions are definitely not recommended. Those of you who do not agree should try to explain the word ‘only’ to a bunch of seven-year-olds.
Another issue is classroom management. Even if you succeed in having the kids sit down and do their work, there are always cases of students misbehaving. If you tell them off, the only thing they will understand is that you are angry and possibly why you feel so. Your exact words however will remain a mystery to them.
Some students, to make the matter worse, curse and use bad language in the classroom. The only way for a teacher type 2 to find out that it takes place is after other kids start complaining to their parents. And who is then to blame? The teacher, of course.
Teachers type 1 are in a much better position. In case of an emergency caused by bad behaviour or any other problems, they can immediately switch to the students’ mother tongue and have it all settled in a couple of seconds.
These teachers have also learned the foreign language themselves. They know what the process feels like and can easily anticipate learners’ problems. Most likely they will be able to explain the rules of grammar to the students better having experienced learning them before.
On the other hand, teachers type 1 often overuse L1 usage in the classroom. It’s not that I am criticizing non NESTs – explaining things in the students’ mother tongue is simply faster and a lot easier.
To take the matter further, non native speakers of a given language tend to mispronounce certain sounds absent in their mother tongue or have difficulties with stress and intonation of English. Consequently students of non-native teachers, being exposed to mispronounced words, start copying the teachers’ mistakes and the vicious circle goes on.
In contrast with teachers type 1 and 2 is teacher type 3 – myself at the moment. I no longer have the same problems as teacher 2 and knowing my students’ mother tongue well enough lets me have more control of what is going on in the classroom.
Comparing all the types, I can honestly say that being teacher type 3 works best both for me and my students. We feel more comfortable and relaxed in each others’ presence and dealing with difficulties is no longer the main issue. Most importantly this situation provides an opportunity for a constant intercultural dialogue which enhances learning on both sides – what more can one wish for?
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December 25th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
I completely agree with Anita, I can also refer myself to the teachers type 3, I’ve come through the similar stages Anita has mentioned in her article, and consider myself lucky now to be a type 3-teacher according to Anita’s careful and original division.Even though I never use Turkish in the classroom,knowing and understanding this language while teaching in Turkey, helps me realize students’ needs and preferences which show me the right way how to make fruitful and furtile but not futile teaching happen. And on the top of all you are also gaining one more positive experience in your life- you are learning another foreign language- just adding up a precious stone to your teacher’s “Knowledge Bag”
December 26th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
There’s a 4th type, or maybe it’s a variation on type 2. The teacher with mixed nationality students.
I started my teaching career in London, this often meant a group of 10 students had 10 different nationalities. Therefore, every group, no matter what level or age, had to be taught using the target language.
Even here in Poland I’ve found it necssary to do this sometimes. Once I had a group with a Spanish speaker and once with a Russian speaker. On both occasions I wasn’t able to use even my limited Polish during the lessons because it would have excluded the lone student. On both occasions I found my teaching was actually better for the ‘limitation’.
Just like accountants who always use a calculator but are able to do calculations in their head if necessary, every language teacher should be able to teach using only the target language, even if it’s a skill they won’t need very often.
December 26th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Anita is on vacation is snowy Poland at the moment, so she may not respond to comments for a bit. For my part, I agree with Anita and Lyudmyla for the most part. I posted on using Turkish in the class quite a while back here http://turklishtefl.com/?p=90. It really allows you insights into where the students will have difficulties and allows you to teach in such a way as to minimize them. You also know what to spend more time on or not.
There is certainly a difference in need, especially around classroom management, between adult and children’s classes though. The use of L1 for discipline or management issues is highly effective in a children’s class.
Julian makes a good point that mixed classes are a different ball game. There is not the option of using the students’ L1 as it would be discriminating and demotivating to the rest. I think he points out an important danger as well. Teachers who are fluent in the L1 may use it as a crutch and become lazy about teaching in English most of the time. Too often I see teachers translate for students when they are lost. The issues with this are 1) the students stop listening and begin to rely on translation, 2) they start to see translation as a more viable option than thinking in the target language, 3) teachers often translate wrong or the translation only works for a very specific context, and 4) if a student doesn’t understand, there’s a good chance it’s because something isn’t being taught effectively.
All in all, I think a teacher that knows their students’ language can be a much more effective teacher, but, Julian is right, they need to retain the skill of using only English.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:43 am
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you all have written. To me, the most important problem that has been mentioned is becoming lazy and choosing to teach in L1 too often.
Looking back, it seems to have been my biggest mistake when I started teaching. I didn’t even make the attempt to rely on English most of the time as I was sure the students would simply not get it.
On the other hand, methodological courses for nonNESTs do not seem to prepare teachers for various surprises that teaching only in English provides. I learned about grading language, a hundred ways of eliciting etc during CELTA which is aimed primarily at educating NESTs.
Solution? More NEST & nonNEST cooperation, I guess.
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:53 pm
I agree with Julian Gilbert that using the target language regardless of knowing the language of the students is better in the long run. In the short run helping some students in Turkish becomes a crutch for them and they don’t make much of an effort to comprehend once a new word or phrase comes along. Learning things in context is perhaps better. I believe that students don’t necessarily have to understand every single word at the time it is taught maybe it can click with them later. So I never let on that I know any Turkish.
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Hi Leila! Welcome to the site. Thanks for your comments. I think the most important point is about context. Context is so important and if you create a good context as a teacher the language comes naturally and/or is understood easily.
Not worrying about students understanding immediately is also a great point. After many repetitions and seeing the word a lot, they’ll get it. They don’t always need to understand right away. I agree with you that it’s important for teachers to recognize that. Sometimes it’s hard to convince the students of such wisdom though
February 4th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
oh yes ..so hard to convince students. getting red-faced from pent-up frustration at first then hopefully, the moment of ‘ahhh, I get it now’ and the sparkle in the eye. So fun!
August 27th, 2010 at 6:53 am
[...] and labelling is a human instinct and can be good sometimes. Anita Kiwatkowska’s 3 kinds of teachers and David Deubelbeiss’ In Praise of Backpacking English Teachers are interesting blogposts [...]