Teaching: Lesson One

A couple of months ago in the office, Mr. T asked me what I was about to teach on that day. 'Globalisation', I replied. He must have seen through my anxiety about teaching that subject, so that he had an expression of 'ah ha, that topic!' to tease me. I then talked to him about my indecisiveness about what information to 'teach' or to 'share with' students on that day. I was very much troubled, since my own position became very strong when talking about issues like this. There were so many to say about the subject, and I didn't feel justified if only one type of views was emphasized. So it turned out that I had too many materials to go through within the sapce of 90 minutes.

Mr. T asked about the level of the class. A few minutes later, he came back with a set of cards with vocabulary items on each of them, and, of course, every word was related to globalisation. He then talked about what he did when he had a class on globalisation years ago. Each of the students received two cards, and their responsibility was to make a sentence that connects the two vocabulary items they had. Whatever sentence would do. At the end of the game, they would figure out something, whatever that was, on their own.

I didn't use that handy activity in the class in the end, but that certainly was a epiphany-like moment for me as a language teacher instead.

Considering the type of the class, I was not there to inform them about extant debates about the issue. As a language instructor, my job was to help learners express what they thought and what they wanted to say. Then, if needed be, in-depth discussion would follow. My personal position should come after their thoughts and needs.

I have to admit that a unknown (well, I know what it is) ambition and pride had prevented me from committing myself to that function of a language teacher until then. But I was lucky that this primary note to me as a language teacher was picked up in a small game.