Teacher language
Before starting implementing a teaching unit, it is very important to reflect on which will be our language needs. The grid that I present now is the result of this previous reflection, which has been completed with some language frames that I ended up using too.
You will find some sentences which can be applied to any session, but some others that are specific for Rose Mary's case.
You will find some sentences which can be applied to any session, but some others that are specific for Rose Mary's case.
Daily routines- Habits
Opening the session
Closing the session
I also wanted to highlight that in this webpage there are only three out of the different topics that should be prepared in order to have a complete teacher language. You can find the other topics in my classmates' websites:
Language support and scaffolding for students
Click on the images in order to have access to the document |
We wrote subtitles in the video to help the students to understand.
|
Language support to write an email in English.
|
The important parts of the Wikipedia are highlighted in colour blue. The change of topic is well indicated.
|
Having the map in the website helped the students to identify which was the mission of each school and not get lost with so many different names and "W" questions (what, where, who and when).
|
Solving the letter soup helped the students to know which were the professions of the suspects and how they were spelled.
|
All the pack of clues had at least one picture as a language support.
|
This self-correction had pictures and different colours for the genders as a language support
|
The last clue was carefully planned by me, taking into account which would be the relationships between the letters and the numbers revealed at first. The only letters that I was not giving where those that I knew for sure that children would discover, because the words were familiar to them.
|
The teacher assessment had different emojis in order to help children to understand the different feelings.
|
A part from this language support, during the lessons I also provided scaffolding, which I did it by:
- Restating what I was saying but using other words
- Using synonyms
- Interpreting
- Facial expressions
- Pointing
- Doing an example
- Repeating
- Asking some classmate to explain it to the other in their own words
- Looking for images in the Internet
- Etc.
This teacher language was very useful because it was very specific for our teaching unit. I think that as future teachers we need to take into account that language is alive, and for this reason we will not only be saying the vocabulary that we have prepared for our activities.
From my short experience teaching in English I have realised the importance of being prepared in terms of language and vocabulary. It is good when we implement in a second language that we explain the same activities with different words, because it can help children to understand the activities. Thus, we need to be prepared with synonyms, language structures… we need to have a wide range of language resources in order to facilitate the understanding in a foreign language.
My tips for future teachers are:
From my short experience teaching in English I have realised the importance of being prepared in terms of language and vocabulary. It is good when we implement in a second language that we explain the same activities with different words, because it can help children to understand the activities. Thus, we need to be prepared with synonyms, language structures… we need to have a wide range of language resources in order to facilitate the understanding in a foreign language.
My tips for future teachers are:
1. Do an internship in an English-speaking country.
If you have the opportunity, do at least one internship in an English-speaking country. There is no better way to learn English than experience the language in its real context. I had the opportunity to do one of my practicums in Richmond-upon-Thames (London) and I learned a lot there. I realised that knowing English is not just knowing the translation of what I would say in Catalan. It goes beyond. They have specific expressions with no literal translation, and this enriches our use of English. For example, “line up”, “two wrongs don’t make a right”, “learn it by heart”, “off you go” and “go there sensibly” are some of the expressions they used in the class. I did not know them before, and although I have not used them during my teaching unit, I know they have helped to fill my backpack as English teacher.
|
2. Don’t be ashamed for not knowing something
We are not natives. We have to give the best ourselves, but it can happen that sometimes we don’t know some word or expression in English. It is ok. My tip for future teachers is to share these moments with our pupils. I think that sometimes they can feel frustrated when they do not know how to express in English, so why can’t we empathise with them so they can see that it is human to mistake?
3. Look for solutions
Internet is great. It has a huge number of translators which can enrich our vocabulary. My top ones are:
I recommend WordReference because it gives a very completed list with all the translations and uses of that word. Moreover, it gives some comments that help to know further about that word, like “US and UK”, depending on the country that uses it the most, or “colloquial/ formal” which can help to decide if that word is appropriate for the context or not.
|
I recommend Linguee because it is a tool which selects real Internet posts that contain the word you are looking for. It is useful to see which are the most common expressions of what you want to say.
|
4. Keep being interested in language
I believe that it is a mistake when somebody thinks “Ok, I have the advanced certificate of English, so I know all I need to know”. No... it is great to have a certificate, but it is also important to keep updated. Watching TV series in English can be a way to keep improving the pronunciation. Also reading in English can enlarge our vocabulary and expressions in English.