Sunday, September 09, 2007Non-teaching teacher
- About 15 years ago I worked with a teacher in Japan, who insisted on teaching only students who “could speak English”—only higher-level students. He believed that it was easier to teach students who had a greater skill in English. He was not a trained teacher; he had fallen into teaching as a way to finance his travels in Asia.
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- All the staff at the school mocked him. We called him the English teacher for English speaking. Management was happy to honour his request, and give him only higher-level classes because he was a good-looking, charming man, who was popular with the students and ironically considered to be a good teacher.
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- I don’t believe that there was any teaching involved in his lessons. He was merely acting as a conversation partner for the students. He was giving them the opportunity to practice using language that they already knew.
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- Students do need to find ways to practice using English so he did provide a necessary service. He did explain new vocabulary if it came up in conversation, but he never planned a lesson in advance. He never thought about what grammar or pronunciation points the students needed to be taught. He didn’t know the difference between an adjective and an adverb. Yet, he was very popular with the students and therefore considered to be the best teacher.
POSTED BY Cecelia Sumi AT 10:03 PM
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