Have I discovered THE BEST WAY to learn English?

hello and welcome to kangaroo English my name is Christian and today is Tuesday the best day of the week in in today's video I'm going to be talking about myself today's video is a little bit personal and it's about my my evolution as as a teacher so if that's something that doesn't interest you now sir now's the time to leave so I wanted to start by telling you a story so a few years ago I was contracted to teach a group of students some business English and so to prepare for this to prepare for these these classes I I got the the workbook from the teacher the workbook that they were that they were using in a class and I kind of used that to make a structure for for my classes and one of the lessons was about giving directions and in the in the business workbook it was about you know asking how to move around an office you know left and right and so I decided you know that based on what I knew about the best way to teach language I would make the activity really interactive you know really social and a really a doing activity right using the language so what I did was I cleared out the the whole room and I put chairs just everywhere chairs everywhere and the the people the students they had to work in in pairs so one student was blindfolded and the other student had to guide them through this maze of chairs right so go straight stop go left go right and and I remember at the time I was I was in the cast thinking yes Christian this is amazing this this is this is this is this is the real way to teach directions you know this is we're doing it it's interactive it's not boring it's like it's a great class but what what I didn't realize what I never stopped to take into account is that for these students learning how to give and understand directions was basically a useless skill almost completely useless right in in any child's or adult's life they they very rarely need to ask for directions it's it's like number number 10,000 of things that you need to do with language right especially in a business environment so this this activity this thing that that that I was teaching that I thought was really good had this fundamental flaw that basically made it really quite terrible a quite a terrible waste of everybody's time and and I'm telling you this story to illustrate to illustrate something that I have been learning recently that that I am still after after 10 years of teaching and and and a real passion for for learning new things I'm still very ignorant about so much in the world of of teaching and learning and for example you know I've made videos in the past few years that now you know I don't agree with them I don't agree with things that I said I've I've learned new things I've been convinced that those things are either a little bit wrong or very wrong and so this this this is an important thing for me to discover is the depth of my own ignorance because one one it shows the importance of of continuing development right I think all teachers need to continue their professional development but but also it it shows how you know all of those you know individuals as those teachers all of those companies who are selling the solution to learning English or learning a language you know they've got the system they've got the app they've got the web courses what whatever it is whoever is claiming to have the magic solution just just doesn't because you know the the more that I talk to people you know professionals in the world of language you know psycho linguists and and second language acquisition experts people who's dedicated all of their lives to one one aspect of language one thing and they tell me you know we don't really know we we know some things about learning language but there's a really a lot of things we don't know so the more that these people tell me that there's so much we don't know the more I realize how wrong it is for for people to suggest that that they know exactly how to do it and and you know I'll give you another example and actually this is an example of how you know I can inspired by other students and other teachers so you know I've I've always talked about how trying to lose your accent you know try to reduce your accent is it's just it's not something that you you want to do or need to do right and I've talked a lot about that but there was always this kind of little little voice in my head that said you know Christian your your answer is not really very good like okay it's part of your identity but it's not not really the complete kind of picture and recently this this other teacher Emme from Rome she sent me a link to a video from an accent coach okay and this accent coach was talking about this specific thing about reducing or losing your accent and he said he said in the video he said what what you're doing when you when you improve your pronunciation you're not losing or reducing your old accent you're gaining a new one you're gaining a new skill and I just instantly it clicked yes yes that's that's exactly it that's that was the missing piece you know the missing little piece of the puzzle right it's not about losing it's about gaining more skills more skills and you know they're the little things that make me a better teacher every day you know when I when I learn something new that helps me to to complete the picture so that I can I can pass that on to students so that the reason that I'm making this video and and I'm still I'm still not a hundred percent clear why I'm why I'm sharing this but I think though the one thing that I have learned that that is underneath all of language is the social aspect nobody you know scientist or teacher nobody who has success at learning or teaching language can deny the social aspect so if if you do one thing in your in your language learning or in your language teaching if there's one principle like one foundation for everything that you should do that you do it should be the social aspect because you know the social aspect is is why children some children learn more no more vocabulary than other children because people talk to them the social aspect is why the students pay more attention in class because they get treated like individuals the social aspect puts you in conversations where you get to actually use language for communication and the social aspect is what has taught me so much and and I hope you know every day is making me a better teacher so this basically I think that this you know this this strange and unique moment in in human history where we're all you know kind of quarantined and isolated at home it's it's given me you know a little a moment for reflection and and yeah so but now I don't know how to how to end the video I just want to say that I love you guys and I hope you're all happy and healthy I'm Christian this is kangaroo English end and I'll see you in class [Music]

Channel: Canguro English

Views: 69,908

Keywords: how to learn English, the best way to learn english, how to teach english, the best way to teach english, canguro english, kangaroo english, canguru english, how to teach english to beginners, how to teach english grammar, learn english grammar, learn english grammar step by step, learn english grammar structures for speaking english fluently, teach english online, english grammar lessons tenses, learn english speaking for beginners american english in real life

Id: PulBRUPYssA

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2020