Respecting Students’ Feeling

Human beings possess feelings, emotions and dispositions, therefore when dealing with them these must be given due deliberation. This is more so when interacting with students.The manner teachers treat their students can affect their productivity negatively or positively. What I will be specifically discussing in this article, are the consequences of teachers respecting students’ feelings.
Feeling Valued- If a teacher deals with students by respecting their emotions, this will make them feel respected and in turn will make them behave in a responsible manner in class. This will create a positive environment for learning. It is very
important because an insensitive teacher will make students react in a negative manner which will adversely affect the learning environment.

Breeding Love- A considerate teacher will quickly make the students love and respect him or her. The importance of this can not be over emphasized, as when you love someone you may tend to also love what they possess. As such, this may create love for the  subject he or she teaches.

Hard Work- It is natural that when students love and respect their teacher they will become interested in the subject he or she teaches and they will be motivated to work harder. This motivational environment makes the teacher’s duty easier and fun
to do and the students are more likely to excel in the learning process.

Saving Time- Because of the good teacher-students’ relationship, unnecessary wastage of time will be avoided. Thus, the time that would have been devoted to discipline students and dealing with their interruptions will be spent to make progress in
the lessons.
Development of Creativity-The cumulative effect of the positive relationship and environment may cause students’ creativity to develop and their overall progress will be enhanced. Any contribution to this topic will be greatly appreciated.

What Worksheet Can Do !

The task of teaching a foreign language is not an easy one. Therefore, as teachers we should device ways to ease the learning process for students. The course book which I use to teach indicates in a particular lesson that students are required to write a paragraph of composition of their childhood memories. This proved to be difficult for them considering their level of English. Contemplating solution to this problem led me to use worksheet to simplify their task. In this article, I will discuss some of the usefulness of the worksheet.

According to Longman dictionary, worksheet is a piece of paper with questions and exercises for students. From this definition, we deduce that worksheet is an effective tool of practicing English. It is from this perspective, that I used the work sheet to help my students to write about their childhood memories in a very easy and interesting way.  The following are the features of the worksheet which I used according my own evaluation:

-It is suitable for group work: Bringing students together to work as a group contains lots of benefits like sharing ideas and be more motivated to overcome the learning challenges they may encounter

-Provision of specific guidelines: This can be compared to a scenario where students are in a bus going to a designated destination. They will need a road map to guide them to their target. The most suitable tool that offers this guide is the worksheet. Because it indicates the necessary points and expression needed to compose a paragraph.

-It provides the needed vocabulary: Students may come across difficulty to write a composition as a result of lack of adequate vocabulary. In a worksheet the necessary vocabulary are readily available; this makes it easier for students to use them.

-It contains illustrations: Worksheet with pictures and diagrams enables students to understand faster; especially for visual learners. They can easily make connection between pictures and diagrams to construct meaningful sentences and ideas.

-Simplification of the teaching and learning process- Worksheet allows the teacher explore wide range of creativity in terms of introducing diversified mind maps and diagrams. Furthermore, it makes explanation easier for the teacher and students are able to grasp the lesson quickly. The bottom line of all this is an effective usage of time in the teaching and learning process. Any comments in this connection will be well appreciated.

Avoiding”Mother Tongue”In Classroom

Learners of a foreign language may face lot of challenges as a result of the differences that usually exist between two languages. The other day, I was having a discussion with some of my colleagues when the topic of using mother tongue in classroom cropped up. We discussed about when and how to use mother tongue when teaching English. In this article, I will discuss the result of that discussion and make some recommendations.

 In order to treat this topic with the justice it deserves, the following questions will be asked:

1. In which level should we avoid using mother tongue?

2. What are the tools that can be used to help teachers and students avoid mother tongue classroom?

 Recommendations

 1. When to avoid using mother tongue

For the purpose of simplicity, mother tongue may be used in a limited way for beginners. This is because a new learner may need to make connection between his or her native and the foreign language. Some language experts have even suggested that a sound grammatical understanding of one’s native language will assist greatly in learning a foreign language by way of correlation. However, after the basics of the new language have been grasped at the beginners’ level; it is better to gradually avoid the use mother tongue at the intermediate level. For a complete avoidance this can be done at the advanced level.

 2. Tools that aid the avoidance the use of mother tongue

  The following tools may be employed to help avoid the use mother tongue:

1. Course book: a course book with diagrams and illustrations will make understanding easier for students and thus there will be no need for the use of mother tongue.

2. Flash card: makes learning easier without the need for another language so also is slide show.

3. Photo-Dictionary: some students usual use dictionary with words translated to their native language. A dictionary with pictures will make the need for another language unnecessary.

 In addition to the above, some foreign language intuitions have introduced rules that aid the avoidance of mother tongue such as separation and prohibition.

 Separation is the situation where in students with the same native language are given placed in different accommodations; thus, those with different languages stay in the same room. In this way, they will be obliged to communicate in the new language.

Prohibition is when it rules are passed that make it prohibited to speak mother tongue in classroom or the entire school campus. Usually, a sort of penalty is be levied to those who break the rules. Any suggestions concerning ways to avoid mother in learning a new language will be greatly appreciated.