# Language Learning: Teaching English as a foreign language



## Etcetera

Hi all. 
I've recently started to work as an English teacher, and in the school I'm working from now there's a rule that teachers should speak to their students only in English, even if the students are beginners. I'm not going to ask whether or not this approach is right - it definitely has its own advantages, as well as disadvantages. I am just curious, what's the state of affairs in your country? Do teachers of English speak to the students in English only, or they use their native language as well? 
When I was at school, our English teachers strongly prefer to talk to us in Russian, except for one - but she actually had to switch to Russian sometimes, when we couldn't understand something she said. At the University, all the teachers use English, and they speak to us in Russian only when they're angry with us. 
So, your turn now!


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## Grekh

Unfortunately in México teachers prefer to speak in spanish, besides students are not really interested in learning, there are very few people who is really into learning languages. It's a shame because our world is changing everyday and we must be updated.

I'm in college, studying Modern Languages, and although my major is focused on languages, our teachers all speak in spanish! that's so disappointing!


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## ireney

In Greece it depends. In most cases however, teachers are supposed to use both English and Greek with beginners. How on Earth do you explain grammar terminology etc in English to someone who doesn't know the words?


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## jester.

ireney said:
			
		

> In Greece it depends. In most cases however, teachers are supposed to use both English and Greek with beginners. How on Earth do you explain grammar terminology etc in English to someone who doesn't know the words?



In Germany it's the same.


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## Chaska Ñawi

There's a growing trend in Canada, where French is compulsory in most provinces, to teach only in that language right from the beginning.

I found teaching in French-only to be much more effective than using a mixture, even when only having each class for half an hour a day.  My students learned grammar through using it, as opposed to just writing out eternal rules.  To be really effective, however, the students have to speak the target language constantly; I used a choral approach so that everybody was speaking most of the time instead of a few people some of the time.  

Some core French teachers will only speak with (and appear to understand) the children in French .... even outside the classroom.  If you enter their classrooms, you are expected to speak in French ... and will only get a response in French if the class is in session.  With this program, many children simply assume that Madame does not speak English ... and are shocked at parent-teacher interviews to hear Madame conversingly fluently in English with their parents.

The same principles apply with instruction in any second language.


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## Stéphane89

In my school, I think that teachers must speak English to us all the time (except in our first English year) but they don't do so. Either because they don't feel like doing it or because it is too difficult too teach the grammar and the vocabulary in a foreign language or because they see that most of the students are not interested in learning that language and that if they speak in English, they feel that most of the class will simply not listen to them.

It's a pity if you ask me! I'd really like the teachers to teach me in English only.


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## susantash

Chaska Ñawi said:
			
		

> There's a growing trend in Canada, where French is compulsory in most provinces, to teach only in that language right from the beginning.
> 
> I found teaching in French-only to be much more effective than using a mixture, even when only having each class for half an hour a day. My students learned grammar through using it, as opposed to just writing out eternal rules. To be really effective, however, the students have to speak the target language constantly; I used a choral approach so that everybody was speaking most of the time instead of a few people some of the time.
> 
> Some core French teachers will only speak with (and appear to understand) the children in French .... even outside the classroom. If you enter their classrooms, you are expected to speak in French ... and will only get a response in French if the class is in session. With this program, many children simply assume that Madame does not speak English ... and are shocked at parent-teacher interviews to hear Madame conversingly fluently in English with their parents.
> 
> The same principles apply with instruction in any second language.


I agree that you learn a language by using it, that's absolutely true for me. The thing is that you have to see when speaking only the target language is effective, especially if you think of beginners. I have some real beginners in my class and I try to talk to them in English as muchn as I can, but there are times when I necessarily have to use spanish; What's the point of spending an hour explaining something in English if you can do the same in one second using spanish? I remember an anecdote that my own methodology teacher told us, she remembered of a teacher who was trying to explain the meaning of "lentil" using English only; she spent practically the whole class trying to make the students guess the meaning when only one second of Spanish would have done the job.
Moral: Don't complicate things unnecessarily and always evaluate cost effectiveness.


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## cherine

My first three English teachers used to speak/teach in Arabic, but we didn't learn that much.
Then came a teacher who said : I'll speak to you in English only, and won't use Arabic unless very very necessary, which she did. And we did learn. Grammar was explained in English, with very few use of Arabic, vocabulary was also explained the same. I can't forget *that* teacher (though I can't seem to remember those first three, I even remember they were three only because I remember studying English for three years befor that teacher). She was simply great.

A similar experience I had -sorry if off-topic- when first studying Spanish : my teacher was a Spanish young lady who didn't know Arabic, she barely ventured a word or two in English when people couldn't at all understand the vocabulary. Grammar was explained only in Spanish.
Result : after one month of extensive course, I was able to speak -very little though, but still- some Spanish.


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## ireney

Your books (I mean at the very beginning of learning a language) where all in English too? Everything?


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## cherine

Yes, my books were all in English. But I don't know about the books used nowadays, specially that children start learning English at earlier age than "my days"


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## Insider

In Ukraine, when I was in Primary School and was just a begginer of English teacher used Ukrainian. In Middle School there were two languages at class of English: Ukrainian and English (the level of English wasn't om point where it's possible yo use just English). In High School teacher used only English and sometimes Ukrainian, but in cases when she's explaining the grammar point at fifth time and we cuoldn't get it.  

At University all classes of English are only in English.


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## GenJen54

Hi Etcetra,

THIS thread might give you some insight as to how English as a Second Language is generally taught in the US.  

When I taught English in a high school in France, MOST of the advanced instruction was all in English. However, the more elementary classes were taught primarily in French. 

The same can be true for much foreign language instruction in the U.S. Most basic-level classes (first and second year high school, and/or first year college), are taught not in the target language, but in the language native to the student. 

There are a few private, speciality schools which have full-time immersion programs, but these are not only rare, they are very expensive.


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## jinti

I have taught English in New York City for quite a few years now, almost always in English only.  It's a different situation than in most non-English-speaking countries, of course.  My classes could easily have speakers of 10 to 15 languages in each.  There is no way that a single teacher can have a command of all his/her students' languages in such a situation, and then speaking any language other than English is going to be viewed as favoritism.

Also, for a few years I taught ESL/literacy to students with zero English who were not literate in any language at all.  That meant we had a dozen or so native languages represented in the class, no one who knew much more than _hi_, _ok_, and _thank you_ in English, and no reading or writing ability whatsoever when classes started.  By the time they "graduated" into a regular English class (no literacy support, taught completely in English), they had learned to write their names, written and mailed letters to each other, done some basic word processing on computers, written poetry in English, and produced a book which entered the local library's collection for new readers.  It IS possible to teach English all in English.


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## hohodicestu

Hi,

I think teaching English in English only is a great advantage for the students. This is a way to kind of force the students to pay more attention in the clase and ask for more help in order to understand the teacher's explanations.


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## Grekh

hohodicestu said:
			
		

> Hi,
> 
> I think teaching English in English only is a great advantage for the students. This is a way to kind of force the students to pay more attention in the class and ask for more help in order to understand the teacher's explanations.


Una pequeña correción.


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## Etcetera

Thank you for your responses! 


> Either because they don't feel like doing it or because it is too difficult too teach the grammar and the vocabulary in a foreign language.


Even so?.. I've never thought about it from this point of view. For me, it's really easier to explain English grammar in English - because at the University we're discussing various grammar issues only in English. As a result, I sometimes find that I can't remember the Russian equivalent of some English term, for example. 
As for explaining the meaning of a certain word - well, good dictionaries for learners usually give pretty clear explanations, so if the student already knows some English, they will understand this exlanation, most probably. Sometimes the teacher has to _show_ the meaning of the word. 
And all the books I'm supposed to use in my classes are in English, too.


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## shaloo

cherine said:
			
		

> A similar experience I had -sorry if off-topic- when first studying Spanish : my teacher was a Spanish young lady who didn't know Arabic, she barely ventured a word or two in English when people couldn't at all understand the vocabulary. Grammar was explained only in Spanish.
> Result : after one month of extensive course, I was able to speak -very little though, but still- some Spanish.


 
I have a similar experience too.
My first French teacher was French and he *hardly knew any English*(or may be, he acted so; I guess so because whenever I saw him out of our classes or when talking to other people, he would very well say that in English!! ) when he first came to India. It was really difficult for him and us as we had *no common language* at all; but YES, that was the sole reason that we all had to learn french in order to communicate with him.
In fact, the situation in our class *has forced us* to try out things in French.
He would act, dance, sing and do all kinds of gestures to make us understand things, but never utter a word in english!
And that proved to be greatly effective as we started speaking french after 150 hrs of learning. We could make sentences and express things on our own. He is and will be my best foreign teacher who ever taught me.

Shaloo


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## shaloo

Same was the case with my English teachers too.
We were forced to speak english et school.......so much that there used to be a few spies in our class who would be around all the time and whenever someone spoke in Telugu, his/her name used to be noted down by them. Sometimes, we would'nt even know who the spy was; (s)he would be right in front of us, but we didn't know it.
Each day, the names would be collected and the next morning, those students would be punished accordingly.The punishment would be constructive, like ....writing poetry on a given topic within that period or doing the whole of that day's reading or sometimes, even taking the teacher's position and explaining that day's lesson. It used to be fun, but most of them hated to be pointed out like that and so, in either way, the purpose was served.

In another school where I studied, we used to have a fine levied on us if we were found talking in Telugu.


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## Etcetera

shaloo said:
			
		

> He would act, dance, sing and do all kinds of gestures to make us understand things, but never utter a word in english!


That's what we're supposed to do to make our students understand us!
One of my Finnish teachers at the University (we have two Finnish teachers; one of them is of Finnish origin, the other is a native Finnish. I'm speaking of the latter) almost never speak Russian in class. She do speak some Russian, but she prefers to speak to us her students only in Finnish even outside the classroom. In fact, it proves to be really effective!


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## shaloo

Etcetera, I believe teaching in English and only English would really do good to your students.


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## shaloo

Etcetera said:
			
		

> That's what we're supposed to do to make our students understand us!
> One of my Finnish teachers at the University (we have two Finnish teachers; one of them is of Finnish origin, the other is a native Finnish. I'm speaking of the latter) almost never speak Russian in class. She do speak some Russian, but she prefers to speak to us her students only in Finnish even outside the classroom. In fact, it proves to be really effective!


 
Yeah, my french teacher would also do the same.
He would never speak English with us,even outside the classroom.
I was telling of the time when I learned and realised that he knew English very well, but told us that he barely knew a few words.
In that way, he was actually encouraging us to extract our best and express it in the target language.


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## ireney

What ages are we talking about?


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## shaloo

Ireney, whatever the age and time, its ultimately gonna be the real life experience that'll make one speak fearlessly and express oneself effectively.And when you have absolutely zero knowledge, especially in a foreign language, its only a teacher who can correct your mistakes patiently and instill confidence in you to face the world.Otherwise, though you'd be a master in written language, you'll always be nervous to talk to people, and more, if they are natives. 

Shaloo


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## Mariaguadalupe

I used to teach a beginners english class a long time ago.  We had a _*picture book*_, _*no words*_.  The teachers's text did have all the grammar exercises that were required for the pictures.  We did a lot of repeating and question & answer exercises, all intended to get the students "speaking/talking" in English.  Grammar was shown but not the traditional way with written exercises.  That course is quite successful.  By the time students moved to the next level, they had a good verbal grasp of grammar but had not been distracted with spelling, written grammar, etc.  It made it easier for them.


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## cirrus

I used to teach English in Colombia.  In my class I had a rule: if you couldn't say it in English, you had to use another way to explain what you meant, if that didn't work; you could use mime or draw it.  If that didn't work then students were allowed to use Spanish and I would offer the English.  It meant that we had some howlingly funny improvisations where everybody learned a new word along the way. 

The difference was that at the end of the year instead of knowing about the language and endless pointless debates (in Spanish) about which was better - American or British - the students had got used to hearing it spoken at normal speed and speaking it themselves.  When they graduated and we went out for a drink to celebrate many of my students were amazed I could speak Spanish fluently - they'd formed the idea that I couldn't because I didn't use it in class.


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## ireney

Ok, I hate to play the devil's advocate here but using pictures or hand signals or whatever else is not the same as using only English. They are 'another language'.

(my personal belief is that when we are talking about beginners, and especially if the beginners are kids then there should be some use of the native language if only for reasons of time-save. The by far greated amount of time should be spent using only English but some things I think is best to be explained in the native language)


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## cirrus

ireney said:
			
		

> Ok, I hate to play the devil's advocate here but using pictures or hand signals or whatever else is not the same as using only English. They are 'another language'.



The people I was teaching were adults. They had spent years supposedly learning English but couldn't bring themselves to say anything they hadn't written.  I wanted them to speak, a no Spanish rule was an effective way of changing this.


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## Etcetera

I have two students now, of 10 and 24. They both already have some knowledge of English, so my task isn't so hard.


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## THE SPANINGLISH

In the school I learned english the teachers always talked to us in english if we didn't undestand something they tried to explain the same in other words. I think this is very good incluiding in the begginers because in that way they learn to hear the words.


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## Etcetera

THE SPANINGLISH said:
			
		

> In the school I learned english the teachers always talked to us in english if we didn't undestand something they tried to explain the same in other words. I think this is very good incluiding in the begginers because in that way they learn to hear the words.


And they also learn how to express one and the same idea in different ways - which is also very useful.


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## User1001

Etcetera said:
			
		

> Hi all.
> I've recently started to work as an English teacher, and in the school I'm working from now there's a rule that teachers should speak to their students only in English, even if the students are beginners. I'm not going to ask whether or not this approach is right - it definitely has its own advantages, as well as disadvantages. I am just curious, what's the state of affairs in your country? Do teachers of English speak to the students in English only, or they use their native language as well?
> When I was at school, our English teachers strongly prefer to talk to us in Russian, except for one - but she actually had to switch to Russian sometimes, when we couldn't understand something she said. At the University, all the teachers use English, and they speak to us in Russian only when they're angry with us.
> So, your turn now!



I agree with what you said - there are advantages and disadvantages to that approach. An advantage is, if you are forced to be in an environment with a different language or culture, you will learn the language or become assimilated into the culture. A disadvantage is the fact that the students learning could become depressed or feel horrible about not understanding anything you are saying for the first few weeks, but they need to be made aware that they won't understand a word for a bit, however, then they will be learning the language later at a rapid pace.


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## Johnny Blaze

It depends. My teacher was from Toulouse but spoke English to us most of the time when teaching us French and I found it much easier to learn. If he had to have explained transitive vs. intransitive verbs to us in French.....well I wouldn't have got very far.


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