“Anyone who speaks the language can teach the language”

 

HAMNA AZIZ

 

Honestly "No" .. as I am learning English Language since my childhood or from kindergarten, you might think that I am perfect in English language. I write, I can easily speak or learn easily. No, you are wrong I can't do anything perfectly in my school life even in my college life I don't have the confidence to write an essay. I tried to memorize the essay which was given by English Teacher and to pass exam. Question is that my teachers have a master degree in English Language, they have good content, they have good skills but why am I not able to do any writing in English Language?? Why it's so hard or you can say Hardest of all languages I think it’s because of LACK of Technique. Their class was pretty boring because of the lack of good techniques as in the first module we learned from the example of cake, you prepared perfect chocolate cake which tastes delicious but if you do not present it perfectly it loses its charm. Same goes for language, if you have skills but you don’t know how to utilize, it goes to waste.

 

  Mostly Non-Native English language teachers need to understand the students rather than the language itself. They provide high level content but lack the ability to deliver it. For example, if a teacher is helping students of grade 1, it's not essential to give them a difficult task to achieve in spellings or reading. The balance between quality and content is very important. Working within proximal development is effective. Give students a chance to show their skills under your guidance and experience more effective outcomes.

Most of the teachers use difficult terms (vocabulary) in front of students which are hard to understand. Simple language and clear ideas with effective techniques is the key of success of any teacher. Body language is another way to communicate with students and make material/content easier to understand.

Many native speakers are only efficient at speaking but they don't know how properly convey the content to speakers who are not native speakers. Clear and meaningful message or lecture is more important. For example, if you’re teaching grammar structure to the student of elementary school. It should be clear and understandable for their level. If you give them more complex structures they won’t be able to understand and the desired outcome remains to be seen.

Scaffolding is an important key of success for the English language teachers. If you go step by step and advance from easy tasks to difficult chances of being overwhelmed is reduced to none. Some additional skills like use of repetition and restatements, less complex grammatical patterns, simplified vocabulary, transitional phrases and words to guide students, appropriate cultural references, frequent elaboration and explanations, clarification of confusions and give answers of questions.

 

Finally, as a non-native teacher in-depth knowledge of the language. It's more important how to make an easy language for the student using techniques. It can be quite complicated teaching a certain language which comprises of having accurate knowledge about the course material, a strong connection and understanding between the teacher and the student and being familiar with fine teaching techniques.