Meeting Students From Other Countries

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English Mountain

New member
Joined
Sep 5, 2012
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
England
Current Location
Poland
One of the problems my students have is that in a mono-lingual class they slip too easily into L1. I'm looking for teachers from other countries who have the same problem and might be interested in having our students communicate to help break this reliance. Please let me know if you think you might be interested.
 

moonlike

Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2012
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Persian
Home Country
Iran
Current Location
Iran
Hi English Mountain and welcome to this forum :hi:

Well, it has happened a lot to me, especially in starter and beginner classes and also in Pre-intermediate levels that the learners aren't accurate enough for that level (I mean the weak ones). For the beginners I let them know they have to speak in English and they have to try, they can do pantomime, draw pictures in the air, lie on the floor;-) in a way do their best to make me understand. L1 is the last resort. However, for a bit upper level students can be as follows:
1. Firstly I let them know I get furious when they shift to L1. It makes the other learners distracted and it's against the rules (some of my colleagues think adults know how to behave, so even if they use L1, she doesn't dare inform them, she feel embarrassed herself, but I don't at all)
2. Some of my colleagues punish that student to pay or buy something for the class (I don't use it, it sounds like hush money to me).
3. I say the one who uses L1 will lose his/her class activity mark and whenever they use L1, I wave my hand at them and say, Oh! goodbye 1 mark, goodbye 2 marks....
4. I really appreciate those who use English out loud and sometimes give them a positive point.
5. I talk to them in private and inform them that they have lost lots of mark for using L1, and they should try hard to make up for that.
If I come up with other ways, I'll let you know.

Good luck!
 
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