I am done with English classes. I do, of course, still learn something about English on a near-daily basis.
1.)
Well, there's the standard answer "the whole world understands it", of course.
Also, I am studying computer science and not only is many a professor a foreigner but pretty much everything we are taught is either riddled with English expressions or relies on English literature entirely.
English also greatly helps in acquiring information in the web.
2.)
Our teacher used your standard teaching repertoire:
- "Listen and repeat" (CD)
- "Listen and answer questions" (CD)
- "Listen and ..." (CD)
- spoken grammar exercises in pairs
- discussion about the exercises and/or the topic they covered"
- reading parts of a book or an article aloud (in turns)
- discussion about books or articles we had read
- oral presentations
- etc.
Reading (silently) and Writing was mostly left as home exercises and I must say, I much prefered it that way.
3.)
No, he did not. And I would advise against changing the pace at all.
Trust me, I'm hearing impaired and I absolutely hate it when people want to "help" by talking in a sloooow and o-ver-pro-noun-ced way.
Not only does it make both you and the one you're talking to feel like an idiot, it also makes you - contrary to what everybody appears to believe - harder to understand.
It's meant to be kind, I know, but it's a kindness I usually ask my partner to refrain from after the first sentence they speak that way.
If it's already disturbing me, I can only imagine how much more it must irritate a non-hearing impaired person.
And not only does it mess with your listening capabilities, it also messes with your way of speaking.
An example - and that's about the only fault I can find in my former teacher:
I cannot seem to forget how we used to pronounce certain words incorrectly. "Photography", for instance.
Our teacher would go like "No,no, it's pho----TOgraphy".
That's a perfectly fine thing to do, I think ... but please do remember to say it in a normal fashion afterwards.
For when the student would continue to read after repeating the properly (over-)pronounced word a few times with the whole class, it would always sound like
"When Alice showed the pho----TOgraphy to Bob, ..."
Even now, years later, I always have to remind me not to overpronounce it quite as much.
4.)
I remember being rather confident, and I think it was because we would constantly use English. Our teacher was adamant about speaking nothing but English in, inbetween, before or after classes - even privately or when passing us on the street - with us. (It actually startled me when I once overheard him speak German on the phone.) In classes, he would also not tolerate students talking to each other in anything other than English.
Probably not much of a problem in the UK but even if you do happen to know the mothertongue of your students, do not use it (except when translating, of course).
5.)
I don't exactly "study" English anymore.
But other than learning vocabulary for an exam, I did never really do anything for the English classes that I wasn't explicitly required to either.
Nowadays, I sometimes come across an expression I do not know and look it up (or ask here about what I do not find, I suppose).
Since discovering this forum I also sometimes look at issues other people post about here.
But that's about it.
6.)
Well, I think I already said most I would recommend:
- speak English and only English and make your students speak nothing but English, your students will grow more accustomed to the language and will be more comfortable with using it
- suggest them an English-English dictionary
- speak in a normal fashion, so the students can train both listening (by hearing you) and speaking (by imitating you)
- make the students speak every chance you get, so they have to use what they are supposed to learn
- correct them as much as possible, for nothing does more damage to your progress than learning faults
Here's hoping you can use that.
