Tips for teaching a foreign language

I have been teaching Greek as a foreign language for the last years and i feel that i would like to share some ideas on it that could be useful both to anyone who teaches a foreign language as well as to students who learn a foreign language.

The aim of this article is NOT to provide full-scale instructions on that, besides i am sure there are very good articles as well as books that can do that. This article only wants to pinpoint some of my personal conclusions after teaching for the last years.

1. It does NOT matter how

As a historian due to my master’s degree, i am also a teacher of history. When i teach history, my emphasis is on helping the student understand how they can acquire information about something, how they should think critically about anything they read etc.. Teaching them what happened goes second, because the most important thing for them is to learn HOW they can reach their goal. So the methodology is essential. We don’t want students who just accept anything they read or are being told. They should be able to compare, criticize, analyse the information. So the big emphasis should be on teaching the student not just to learn a few pages or books in order to achieve to an exam, but on something deeper.

In the language, on the other side, only the goal matters. Can someone learn a foreign language just by watching porn online? Super, go ahead! I would surely encourage my student to do it. Of course, i am joking, i don’t expect that this is possible, otherwise there would be many people out there who would be polyglots.

What i do mean is that here we only care about helping a student to learn a language. Does he like series? Go on! With subs or not, anyhow it helps, do it as long as it helps. Songs? Reading books? Whatever! There are thousands of ways to learn a language.

So here is an important duty of the teacher: help your student do it. You are not there just to practice speaking or reading or correcting mistakes or whatever. You are there in order to help your student incorporate the language in their everyday life through their hobbies and interests.

Now, someone would wonder: and why do we need the teacher? But ideally the teacher should not be so important. The teacher should be there to help the student in things that it would be difficult for them to cover. Yeah, the student cannot practice speaking alone home, the teacher is important to that. Yeah, the teacher must help the student understand easily the main grammatical and syntactical structures, so that they can make it easier for the student to approach the language. But the really good teacher is the one that would render themselves less and less useful while the student finds the ways that help them improve their command on the language.

2. An interesting and funny lesson

The student should have some lessons in order to learn. If the learning procedure is funny, it is much more possible that they will continue having the lessons. If the perspective is “unfortunately we have to learn these things even if they are boring”, it is possible that they will quit. I would also quit! So no matter what you want to teach them, do it interesting. You can practice anything with a funny game. Look for ideas from others, ask feedback from your students about exercises or games that they enjoyed, do everything to make it funny for them AND for you. If you have fun, the student will also have fun. If you both have fun while practicing the language, the student will improve.

Important note: a lesson can always be funny if you just make a big pause and start speaking in another language about other funny or interesting things (especially for beginners who many times have important things to discuss, but they are still very beginners to do it in the language-aim). However, this does not serve the aim of improving the knowledge of the language. So either encourage and help the student discuss anything in the language-aim or if the student has just started the language, give a few minutes during the lesson or -even better- after the lesson to discuss something irrelevant and then come back to the lesson by practicing the language in a funny way.

3. Speaking is not a future goal, it is an ongoing-situation

I recently had a discussion with a student who wondered when he would be able to visit Greece and speak only in greek. He wondered after how many months or years it would happen.

What i tried to explain him is that speaking Greek should not be a goal, but something real from the first time. The day that we had this discussion, we had been speaking for a whole hour only in greek, although he had started lessons as a beginner a month before. We were discussing basic staff of course, such as where he is from, where he lives, what his hobbies are, we were playing role games such as that i was working at a cafe and he was ordering foods and drinks etc..

Everything in Greek. So yeah, of course he cannot go yet for a coffee with a Greek and analyze the long-term effects of the rise of the temperature for the humanity, BUT still he CAN speak Greek. And every time he can say more and more things.

So, my advice to anyone who learns a foreign language, enjoy it! Try to practice all the vocabulary you know, don’t be afraid of mistakes, try to be innovative on how to cover the poor beginner’s vocabulary, “cheat” and “show off” using an wow word that you just checked in google translate and go on. You don’t play bowling because you will be a champion in the future, you play bowling to have fun. And by practicing, you become better! If you start by thinking “when will i only have strikes?”, then most probably you will quit soon.

So peeps just enjoy it and -advice to the teachers- speak with them in the language they learn. Teaching them Greek or Spanish or Russian and speaking English for a whole lesson is more a practice for you to refresh your English rather than for them to learn the language they want. I know it’s difficult, yes in the beginning the discussions will be very basic and they will be repeated again and again. Yes, you will hear again and again their profession, their origin, their city -never ask their age by the way!-, but it is still the language they want to learn. And their brain will get used to hearing and speaking this for much time and it will help them regardless of how basic the dialogues are. So get them exposed to the language!

4. Remember that each student is different

This is what i found most difficult in teaching a language. I have students that i have been using a method and it works perfectly. We start only greek from the first lesson, they learn fast, they have fun, i am satisfied, they are satisfied, everything is super.

I have other students that it does not work. The language is more difficult to them? They can learn easier by reading or by listening or by writing or anyhow else?

Ok, so now you have to remember. If your system does not fit your student, it’s your problem, not the student’s problem. So we as teachers have to find out what we can do to help the student.

Excuses we can find? Thousands. But the truth is that we must have multiple plans. Yes, i like it to put the student deep into the language from the first lesson. But if, for example, the student feels lost, we can try to help them. We must find a way to make it work.

We must ask ourselves during and after every lesson: “Is this efficient?”. As long as it works, it’s ok. As long as it doesn’t, find something else.

I will be honest with you. I have had students that i did not know what to do. I tried many different methods and after the sessions i was still feeling that the lesson was not as efficient as i wanted. The more experienced i am, the less times this happens. Because i can go back and think of other occasions with other students that had relevant difficulties and then i can use methods that i used in the past and worked.

So my advice?

To teachers: always try to find more and more ideas, materials, games that could help your student improve. The more ideas you have in your “hardware”, the better you will be able to distribute it to different students according to THEIR needs.

To students? Try to find the teacher that fits best to your way of learning. It does not necessarily have to do with a good or a bad teacher, it has to do with what works. So try to find that teacher whose method works better for you. Their method may be amazing for others, but another method could work better for you!

I will be more than happy to see your comments below the article.

You can also send your comments at stefanos_nikitaras@hotmail.com