Choose Speaking Topics that Interest You

People write about what they find interesting, they read about what they find interesting, and when learning a new language it's easiest to speak about what you find interesting.  I encourage all of my students to tell me stories from their lives or to talk about their interests with me, as it's unlikely that they'll be motivated to speak about a topic in a second language that doesn't interest them in their native language.  For example, politics are a great conversational topic as people often are very passionate about their political views, but some people hate politics and have no interest in talking about them.  Same thing with sports, as some people love them where others are apathetic.  There's no point to force the issue on topics that people don't like because they're more likely to shut down when they should be progressing. Bottom line is tell a story that's interesting to you, or talk about a subject that's fun because that way you'll be more motivated to speak a new language.  Don't be ashamed or embarrassed, make mistakes and improve every day on your quest to master a new language :-)

  

Master the Past and You'll Master English Grammar

From a young age I was always taught to tackle the most difficult task first because after that everything else will seem easy.  I've carried this piece of advice with me throughout life, and I'm now encouraging my students to do the same when they learn English.  Israeli students have a difficult time with all of the different tenses in English, especially with the past tense.  The past tense is so challenging because of all of the irregular verbs in the simple past (V2) and past participle forms (V3), and the fact that these irregulars follow no concrete patterns or rules.  Bottom line if you're a new English learner, you just have to memorize all of the irregular verbs in the past, and until you do that you'll often make mistakes when using the simple past and past perfect tenses.

Before you panic, think about it like this: If you memorize five to ten irregular verbs per day you'll have this task done in two to three weeks.  Not so scary right? I recommend flashcards, and once you know the forms make sure that use the irregular forms in a few different sentences.  Write down these sentences and say them out loud to practice, and soon the you'll have all of the irregular verbs in the past memorized.  It's not fun, and there's no way around it, but I promise that once you master the past tense, the present and future will seem easy.  Master the past and begin your path to conquering English grammar.  Good luck!

Here's a list to get you started. If you don't like the colors you can Google "List of irregular verbs in the past tense" and you will find plenty.  If you want to print out the list just add "pdf" to your search.

Parents are Your Allies

Most young teachers fear parents more than their students, and this fear is often completely unfounded. Nearly every parent wants their child to succeed in school, and if you share that same desire your students' parents should be your allies.

People run into problems when they don't have clear objectives and procedures that align with such objectives. As a teacher you have to make goals for your students and do everything you can to help them reach their goals. You have to be flexible, humble, respectful, and patient with every student, and especially with their parents. Show parents that you have a plan with an end goal and a logical path to achieve that end goal, and they will most likely be on board.  

There should be no ego or power struggle when teaching a student.  Just like any relationship trust must be the foundation.  As a parent you should trust your child's teacher that they know what they're doing and that they're here to help.  As a teacher you should trust your student's parents to back you up when you need it and to stay on top of their kids to make sure that they finish any homework and attend all lessons.

I've been very lucky so far (knock on wood) and I have a lot of great parents who trust me and have faith in my system and goals for their kids.  As a teacher keep your students' success and respect towards your students as your top priorities, and by doing so you'll eliminate nearly every struggle that you may have with parents.

The Rewards of Teaching

I had a great feeling last week when I found out that one of my students scored a 98 and another scored 100 on their English tests (same school, different classes).  It's a great feeling to see that my hard work and effort leads to results. It's so important for me that my students succeed in school, and that they approach English with an attitude of confidence.

I had another parent tell me that her six year old started to read in English on her own when they were at a cafe (she didn't read at all before I began lessons with her).  It's a truly amazing feeling to know that my students are progressing. I take pride in what I do, and it fuels me to help all if students achieve their goals.  It's so important to choose a profession that you're proud of and to use your integrity as fuel to put out the best possible service or product that you can. Days like Sunday of last week are why I teach, knowing that I'm truly making a difference by helping my students improve their English.

Don't let the Tenses Frustrate you

Most Israelis struggle with all of the tenses in the English language. In Hebrew you had past, present, and future, where in English you have 12 tenses (four variations of the past, present, and future) plus the conditional tense. This frustrates a lot of people, as they see the additional 10 tenses as unnecessary and confusing, when actually these tenses just allow you to be more specific.

Here's the thing: you don't have to be super specific, and you don't have to always use the perfect tense for every situation.  I have students tell me all the time that they become confused with the tenses whenever they have to tell a story. I just tell them to keep it simple. You can tell a perfectly good story by using just the simple past. For example:

Yesterday I woke up, showered, and cooked breakfast.  After that I went to to the bank. Then I went to my first two lessons. I taught five students from 2-8:30 pm. After that I went home. 

That was my day yesterday, true, simple, and grammatically correct. Will it win you a Pulitzer Prize or get you on a best seller list? Of course not, but you'll be communicating correctly and directly. When you're starting out with English keep it simple, and when you want to spice things up brush up on your tenses. There's no need to et overwhelmed with all of the tenses when you're a new language learner, as you can perfectly communicate with the simple tenses.

English Grammar: Look at it like Suggestions for Communicating

For those of you new English language learners who are very frustrated with English grammar don't worry because most native speakers can't stand learning and can't properly use grammar.  Sure you should have a great grasp on grammar if you want to be a writer, scholar, or working professional in a country where English is the first language, but if not then don't get hung up on all of the grammar rules.  Some new language learners get so hung up on grammar and following the rules that they give up on communicating.  This is one pitfall that I urge all of my students to avoid.

Sure grammar is great because it organizes language and puts reason behind every small action, but that doesn't mean that you can't play with the language a little.  It also doesn't mean that people won't understand you if you make a few grammar mistakes with you speaking or writing.  For instance, I just made a couple of big no-nos by using two double negatives in consecutive sentences.  Any English teacher, including myself, would tell you that double negatives are a poor use of English grammar, unless of course you're using them as a stylistic choice, or if you want to play with the language.  Play with the language, and have fun with communication, because in the end the most important thing is that you communicate and articulate yourself in an understandable way.

Put yourself in the shoes of a student in today's society.   If someone put an English grammar text book in front of you and told you to complete exercises to improve your English would you be excited? Would you eagerly jump to the task and enjoy every second of it? Of course not.  You might do it because you have to, but you probably wouldn't consider it fun.  The bottom line is this: Grammar is there, and it's not going anywhere, but knowing grammar does not mean that you know how to or have the courage to communicate.  Speak, listen, read, and write.  Grammar can always be learned, corrected and perfected, but you have to start with the courage and desire to communicate.

Why so Little Focus on Speaking?

I have some students who can read, write, and understand English at a relatively high level for a non-native speaker, and what kills me is their near inability to speak. Every parent who hires me to teach their children desires that their children speak English at a high level, which makes a lot of sense considering the practical, real life applications of spoken English.  In  my opinion the education system in Israel doesn't do enough to give students the ability to communicate well in English.  

For example, the English  Bagrut, or test for receiving a high school diploma in Israel consists of reading comprehension questions and a short essay.  I just wonder, in today's workforce, if there is a single job where you have to read a passage, not in your native language, and then answer question about that passage in a certain amount of time.  I can't think of one, which makes me wonder why these exercises are the basis for measuring English language competency in Israel.  I understand that a student has to be able to read, write and comprehend, but if they can't articulate themselves and communicate what does reading and writing matter? 

My big point and concern is that the most desired and important aspect of the English language, speaking, is receiving the least amount of focus in the Israeli education system.  As a private teacher with the aspirations of one day opening my own learning center, I must strive to develop a program that will help people improve their speaking above all other language skills.  It is the most important part of language acquisition, and must be my focus moving forward.  I know that I can work with a student and get them to the point where they are scoring between 95-100 on their exams, but they're still not speaking, which means that I have far greater challenges ahead.  Bring them on; I'm ready for greatness.

Is it a p,b,d,or q ?

I have found that these four letters are very difficult for new English language learners.  I want to call these letters the compass letters, because they are all the same shape, just facing four different directions: north, south, east, west; like a compass.  Nearly all of my students struggle with these letters, especially "q" as you don't see it often, and moving forward I'll want to develop (or find) some games or activities to help my students differentiate between these letters.  I'm sure that the solution is repetition with sight words for each of these letters, but I know that it must be frustrating for my students to constantly make mistakes with these letters.  For those of you struggling with this problem I would recommend making lists of sight words (commonly used words) for each letter and reviewing them often.  These sight words should mostly be words that can't be replaced by the the first letter of one of the other three letters, for example: "pickle" would be a great sight word because there's no such word as bickle, dickle, or qickle.  For "q" it's easy because you just have words that start with "qu": question, quit, quality, qualify, qualification.  For "b" words like battle and battalion would be great and for "d" words like doctor, drunk and distance.  Try to make lists with sight words for every letter and review these lists until you know just by looking at a letter if it is a b,p,d or q.  Give me some time and I'll try to find a fun game for this activity as well.  Good luck :-)

Learning English from a Native Speaker

People often ask me, "why is it so important to learn English from a native speaker?" My response is that non-native speakers often make grave mistakes in grammar and pronunciation that any native speaker could catch.  I'll just give a couple of examples from my own experience of teaching English here in Israel.

One of my students was answering every question in reading comprehension exercises with "because." When I asked him why he did this, he told me that he was instructed to do so by his teacher.  I then explained to my student that out of the five "w" questions (who, what, when, where and why) "because" would only be the appropriate beginning to answer a "why" question, and even then it's often not the best way to start a sentence.  Needless to say he was surprised that his teacher could have been so wrong, but this happens too often when learning English from a non-native speaker.

I had another student who mispronounced the vowel sound for the letter combination "ew".  Instead of pronouncing this combination like the long "u" sound (the sound that comes out when you say the letter "u") She would say an elongated "ee" followed by the "u" like in the word "feud." You may be saying to yourself that I'm super picky, but think about it like this: This student would say every word with the "ew" letter combination incorrectly.  I just did a quick Google search and I found this list: http://www.morewords.com/contains/ew/  which featured 1276, which my student would now be mispronouncing had I not corrected her.

I attribute both of these mistakes to the fact that my students are learning from non-native English speakers, and as a result are being conditioned to make serious mistakes.  That means more work for me to correct these mistakes, and I'll be happy to help anyone who needs it :-)