Comments on: 3 Kinds of Teachers by Anita Kwiatkowska

By: Twitter Talking Time flying out of the NEST « Authentic Teaching by Willy C. Cardoso

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:53:26 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Leila Chirpan

Leila Chirpan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:51:46 +0000

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!

By: turklis1

turklis1 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:10:00 +0000

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

By: Leila Chirpan

Leila Chirpan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:53:42 +0000

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.

By: Anita Kwiatkowska

Anita Kwiatkowska — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:43:59 +0000

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.

By: turklis1

turklis1 — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:45:28 +0000

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.

By: Julian Gilbert

Julian Gilbert — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:32:00 +0000

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.

By: Lyudmyla

Lyudmyla — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:16:56 +0000

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”