To Mxsmanic -- what are your teaching methods?

I know that you are a teacher and you teach English language to students. What I want to know is that, which methods do you use in your class in order to impart the language to your students?

If It doesnt bother you - you may want to answer some specific questions like:


1. How many students are in your class?
2. How much time is devoted to each class?
3. Which level of students do you teach?
4. Do you give extra homework to them at home?
5. When students are new to the class, how do you initiate your class?
6. Do you teach them slang, idioms and phrasal verbs?
7. Are there listening, writing, speaking and reading activities?
8. Do you teach your students how to read texts, how to listen key information and how to write in the language?
9. Above all, do you teach from A-Z grammar rules? Do you give them quizzes to solve?
10. Are your all students naturally motivated? If you motivate them, what techniques do you use? What do you say to them?


Of course, I'd like to read your detailed explanation regarding your teaching methods.

Thanks a lot.

1. I teach mostly one-on-one classes. Sometimes I teach mini-groups (up to 4-5 people), and on other occasions I teach classes of typically 12 people. All students are adults.

2. Most classes are 90 minutes long, but they can vary from 30 minutes to four hours.

3. All levels, although most of my students have at least a very basic knowledge of English (since it is taught in French schools). A majority of students in recent cycles have been between pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate, inclusive.

4. Not usually, as they rarely have time to work on English outside of class, and most of them need practice with the spoken language, anyway, which is hard to get outside of class.

5. For individuals and small groups, with conversations. For large groups, we simply start with the first lesson, although I do ask for their names.

6. I don't teach slang. Idioms are rarely on the agenda, as there are so many of them and they have to be memorized, and they aren't really essential. I do teach phrasal verbs, although there also it's a matter of rote memorization.

7. Most activities are reading and speaking. Students also listen (to me or to recorded material). I rarely do written exercises, as they can do those without a teacher, and most of them have much more trouble speaking and understanding than writing or reading.

8. No. They are adults and they know how to do these things already. They just need to do them in English.

9. No. Many have a vague knowledge of grammar. If they make a lot of grammar mistakes, I correct them. I do go over basics of grammar if necessary. But the vast majority of them need to be able to use English, not learn grammar rules; they were exposed to all the grammar in school, and now they want to actually learn to communicate in the language. I don't give them quizzes or unit tests. If they need to work on something, they will usually ask for it, and there's no need for them to do tests just to prove to someone that they've learned something, as they can tell that for themselves. Some of them do take tests like the TOEIC, though (required by many employers).

10. Some of them are highly motivated to learn English out of personal English. Most are motivated by a need to speak English for professional purposes. Some have been frankly told that they must either learn English or find a new job. Some are learning English in order to help them find a job. I don't try to motivate them; it's a futile exercise, and if they aren't interested, they aren't interested.

All of the methods I and my school use emphasize practical results, as that is what the students (or rather their companies) are paying for, and they are paying a lot.

Thanks for your reply.


<<I don't teach slang. Idioms are rarely on the agenda, as there are so many of them and they have to be memorized, and they aren't really essential. I do teach phrasal verbs, although there also it's a matter of rote memorization>>.


My question is how your students understand American movies. They are full of idioms and slang terms. American native speakers ( actors and actresses) speak a lot of informal terms in TV interviews or in the movies. I individually studied idioms and slang terms. For example, yesterday when I was watching an American movie "the school of Rock" I noticed many idioms and slang terms that I studied. I recognized them in the movie and I felt great because I could understand them. Could your students feel the same way that I felt? What's the point of paying so much money for English classes when they can't understand American native speakers in the movies or during interviews? Shouldn't they pay half of the money for learning only standard form of English?

Students have to be very advanced to successful understand movies in English. I like to use movies because it exposes students to English the way it is actually spoken, for the most part, but they are often frustrated by their inability to understand more than a fraction of the dialog. I assure them that, with time and practice, they will eventually understand it all. I went through the same thing with French (and I still have trouble understanding some types of dialog), so I know how it is. I also point out that even native speakers never understand every word of dialog in a film; they simply understand enough of it to follow what's going on.

DVDs are a godsend for ESL. You can start and stop them at any point, you can pause and repeat any sequence to your heart's content, you can listen to the original English dialog or a dubbed version at the touch of a button, you can read subtitles in your own language or English at the touch of a button, and so on. For students with good self-discipline, DVDs can provide a lot of useful listening practice.

I use short (90-second) excerpts of films as listening exercises, with complete orthographic and phonetic transcripts. Students find these difficult, too—but they have the advantage of realism as compared to the exercises in ESL books. Only a fraction of ESL coursebooks use realistic dialog for listening exercises.

Different films use different levels of English. Older films tend to have more understandable dialogs, since there was less emphasis on realism and more emphasis on understandable speech, as in traditional live theater. Modern films worry far less about understanding what is being said and place more emphasis on making it plausible and real. Still, there are some real-world phenomena that one rarely sees in film, such as simultaneous dialog (several people talking at once).

Learning slang and idioms is a question of memorization. Students can memorize on their own, they don't need to take classes for that. I teach them grammar and useful vocabulary, but I can't teach them the entire dictionary, nor can I teach them ever idiom they'll ever need. And I don't teach them slang because their learning goals don't require slang (they don't need slang for teleconferences or presentations or technical manuals).

Additionally, slang and idiom (especially the former) can vary hugely from one region to another, and even from one street to the next. It's impossible to teach students the exact slang and idiom appropriate for every context. Standard English, on the other hand, works anywhere; everyone can understand it, and most people can speak it if they have to, even those who prefer slang. Standard English is the only international version of English, and the only version acceptable in business and formal contexts. I'm not trying to make students socially acceptable at a U.S. high school, I'm trying to prepare them to communicate in English with everyone in the world. It's a practical goal, not a "fun" goal.

None of my students have felt as you have, as far as I know. Many are frustrated when they cannot understand everything they hear, but none have mentioned slang. They understand that learning slang is largely a waste of time, and that they are unlikely to encounter it in any important situation and very unlikely to ever have to use it.