introduction to language learning 7

 Dear Erik,

        This week we are going to do our final teaching project, and our group is going to teach Spanish. I think this is a very interesting project. Although I have experience in teaching English in cram school, I think teaching Spanish is quite different. I have learned English for many years and I think I am quite familiar with its grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. However, Spanish is different; I only learn Spanish for one year and I can only speak a little Spanish. Therefore, it is quite difficult for me to teach other people Spanish. At first, we are trying to teach self-introduction and conversation about shopping, but after discussing with the professor, we only focus on shopping conversation and I think it is a wise decision. I think we tend to put too many things in our teaching; we want to teach as much as possible, but we forget that people need time to practice and absorb.

        In today teaching, there is a native Spanish speaker in our class and I became really nervous because I was afraid that I might make some mistakes. I think I should try to make our teaching more happy and interesting. I focus too much on explaining grammar, and I think it is a little boring. One group teaches German and I think they did a great job because they make German sounds easy though everyone knows that German is probably one of the most difficult languages in the world. The only thing I think they can improve is that they can give us more time to practice. For the alphabet and conversation part, I think they can guild us and let us practice more; they put too much content in their teaching. There is also one thing I think they did great; they tell us some German culture and food at the end of their presentation, and I think it makes their teaching more interesting. As for the other group, they did a great job in the practice part. They gave us a lot of chances to practice vocabulary; we can repeat each vocabulary at least five times and I think it helps us remember that word and its pronunciation. They only focus on asking the direction which makes it more simple and easy to learn.

        I think I have learned a lot from this teaching project. Not just the language itself but also the teaching method. I think everyone all did a good job. They only use 50 minutes to teach and they are able to make me understand part of the basic and daily usage of the language; I think it is impressive. Although I do not want to be a teacher in the future, I still think this kind of teaching activity is very useful. Through being both a teacher and a student, I can know where my problem is and what I really want to learn. Next week, we are going to help them review today’s teaching and give them a little exam to see if they really learn something. I am also very excited about what the two other groups are going to do next week.