How to learn English through listening?

Listening comprehension is the first skill one acquires while learning a foreign language (and a mother tongue as well). It is the starting point of your foreign journey. To speak more fluently, to enrich one’s vocabulary, one has to listen to a language. Through listening to the speech, one learns how to react and use certain phrases in specific situation. 

Professional English/Angielski zawodowy

Czy każdy zna dzisiaj angielski? Gdyby przeprowadzić tego typu badania, dowiedzielibyśmy się zapewne, że większość w szczególności młodych Polaków umie posługiwać się tym językiem. Pytanie tylko w jakim stopniu i w jakiej tematyce? Podstawą nauczania w szkołach jest język angielski ogólny – General English, ale tak naprawdę dopiero wtedy jesteśmy specjalistami w danej dziedzinie, kiedy umiemy posługiwać się językiem specjalistycznym dostosowanym do naszego zawodu lub branży. 

How to start the new school year?

Welcome everyone after the holiday break! It is probably difficult for both students and teachers to get to work after holidays. You recall the beautiful spots you have visited, people you have met and new exciting things you have tried. And now you have to start once again. 

Teaching Methods and Types of Personality: Introvert

Introverts are people who prefer individual work to group work. They are usually strong personalities who know what they want to achieve in life. What they need is a consistent approach and a teacher’s adaptability to the student’s (perhaps) extraordinary ideas. Introverts live in their own worlds which are often closed sanctuaries with a difficult access. A teacher should not interfere with the very world. Rather, s/he should apply varrious methods to make the student go out. 

Teaching Methods and Types of Personality: Extrovert

Extroverts need company in order to develop. They have to be surrounded by people. They are the most effective while making new friends, talking with different personalities and mixing with others. Their sociability requires dynamism. Extroverts are, herefore dynamic people who enjoy the atmosphere of liveliness, movement and spontaneous exchange of thoughts. 

 

Here are some methods suitable for an extrovert:

  1.  Be a companion. You should be the one with whom your student would have the opportunity both to talk in a foreign language and discuss his/her learning proces. You are to be there, to create a motivating surrounding and to arrange meetings with other learners. 

  2.  Organise English camps with other learners and teachers. This will help your extrovert student to open up and learn English while getting to know new people at the same time. 

  3.  Teach by means of interractive games and group work. Make your students make various projects and presentations. 

  4.  Think of some extraordinary tasks involving socialising such as: making a short film, an interview or a videoclip, creating a business plan with other learners. 

  5.  Teach grammar and vocabulary by means of dialogues and scenes.

Teaching Methods and Types of Personality: Emotional Type

Emotional type? What methods should be applied to teach such a person? Firstly, let’s take into account the characteristic personal features of your student. Emotional types are people for whom feelings, relationships with various people and psychological analysis are really essential. Those types need a teacher’s particular attention. They search for a closer contact with a techer and treat him/her as a kind of coach who is going to direct them through the exciting paths of a language labirynth. Emotional students are sensitive, they need to know that your are really engaged in their learning process and that you simply care. Not only do they seek an opportunity to learn a language, but also a special bond with the very teacher. 

Here are some methods suitable for an emotional type:

  1. Try to create a bond between you and your student (e.g. stay a little bit longer with him/her to explain something again, ask about his/her feelings concerning the leearning proces). 

  2. Choose an appropriate topic (people and relationships, social problems, environmental issues, stories). 

  3.  Initiate discussions, debates, role-plays and interactive exercises. 

  4. Introduce grammar by presenting the correlation between the tense and emotions (e.g. Present Continuous may in some contexts express irritation: He is laways leaving his dirty socks on the floor). 

  5.  Teach vocabulary in context (showing the words emotional associations). 

  6. Give them problem-solving tasks, make them work in pairs or groups and enable them to learn through expressing their own feelings, referring to their own experiences and presenting their own ideas.

Teaching Methods and Types of Personality: Logical Thinker

How to organise a language lesson that would match the personality of a logical thinker? What methods will be appreciated by an analythical mind? For sure, a teacher should pay attention to the appropriate choice of topics. Thinkers won’t probably be interested in topics about relationships, emotions or social problems. Rather, they would prefer to engage in lively discussions on how to run a successful business, how to invest money wisely or how to decrease taxes. They would be keen on translating some mathematical formulas into English or writing a business report. Thinkers are interested in mathematics and science, so why don’t you make them count or deliver some mathematical arguments in English? Why don’t you ask them to create a business plan or negotiate the price of a product?