Teach to learn
When I graduated, I started teaching for one of the biggest language schools here in Brno. The school was famous for using drilling as the main method of teaching English. I have to confess that – as much as I acknowledge the benefits of using drills occasionally – I have always been against drills used as an omnipotent method for teaching foreign languages (and I’m not the only one). Despite being fully qualified as an English teacher, I had to undergo the drill training but ended up teaching “non-drill“ classes (mostly conversation oriented and preparatory classes for various Cambridge exams). And why am I talking about all this? There’s a point, please wait for it 😉
Once we were sitting and talking about teaching and learning languages with the owner of the school when he said with a Buddha-like smile on his face, “You learn something best when you teach it.“ I started panicking. I got angry. I definitely disagreed. With a fresh diploma in my pocket, a diploma for which I had to work really hard for many years, and the conviction that a teacher “must be perfect and has to know everything long BEFORE they enter the classroom“, I couldn’t understand how someone could dare to teach something they don’t know PERFECTLY. Of course, you need to know first, then you can teach it to someone else, right? Oh boy, could I have been more wrong?
Let’s fast forward to last Friday. I had yet another delightful lesson with a group of young women. At the beginning of the course, they asked to revise the system of English tenses. Their English is at a fairly advanced level, so we did a brief overview of the tenses in one lesson together and then I divided them into pairs and assigned one tense to each pair of students. When we started with the actual micro-teaching and I saw their notes, I was utterly at awe. I have to say that I’m often lucky to work with diligent students, but (based on my colleagues‘ stories) I guess it’s more of an exception than a rule. It’s true that some of the students in this group are teachers of other subjects, so they are well aware of the importance of pre-class preparation but still… I thoroughly enjoyed their performance and was really sorry we didn’t have more time to continue (and yes, we ran over anyway).
As I was sitting there and listening to the young ladies, my mind suddenly went all the way back to that pub discussion with my then boss. After about 15 years it dawned on me. The circle came full once again. I had done this activity so many times before but I never felt this strongly about it. Such active engagement in the process of learning augments learning outcomes. All the time spent preparing, plus being in the teacher’s shoes, standing in front of the board with a marker in their hand and being fully in charge of what’s happening in the classroom (at least for some time) make this a memorable experience. And I’m not even mentioning the fact that it was truly refreshing and rewarding for me too to hear all the comprehensive explanations and great examples. Last but not least, I could also finish my cup of (already cold) coffee.
Would it have been so successful with less dedicated students? Unlikely. Would this activity be popular with less motivated/hard-working students? Hardly. Many factors have to be considered beforehand, including the personality of your students (some learners dread the idea of standing and talking in front of the class), their level and abilities. I do believe, however, that bits and pieces can be always smuggled into the class to make it not only informative but also interesting and funny. All in all, my experience says that students do profit a great deal from such assignments and I decided to employ this practice more often in my lessons. For the benefit of students, of course! 🙂
The photo taken by myself.