My second language acquisition experience

When I became a middle school student, I leaned English for the first time. My first English teacher was a middle-aged woman. Let me shed new light my first grade English classes with her.

My English classroom was traditional. During class, I concentrated on listening to my teacher and made a note of the class. Each chapter of my textbook consisted of a dialogue, a reading text and writing questions. When my teacher taught a dialogue, she played the audiotape, then we listened and repeated it. She made us memorize the dialogue and check out. These were for listening and speaking skills. In the reading text, she taught the related grammar and translation. I learned listening, reading, writing, and speaking separately. Listening and reading skill were the main activity. English class was not for communication, but for the school exam.

My teacher's type was 'explainer'. She was intelligent and knew the subjects very well. But there were no game and no chant. She didn't use other materials and ways. Sometimes, she gave us some printouts for test. She gave a lecture only on textbook. After class, there was always homework such as memorizing words or writing the text. It had to be done by myself, not with my classmates. In class, there was scarcely group working. I didn't feel anything challenged or interesting. I thought the class was helpful, but felt boring.

I think that she had 'authenticity'. Though she wasn't friendly to me and my classmates. When we answered her question, she smiled and said briefly, "Well done." However, if we didn't answered quickly, we had to get corporal punishment or do more homework. She gave clear feedback when we did good job. However she didn't empathizes with our problem when we didn't finished our assignment. I don't think that she showed us respect and empathy enough. She was a very strict teacher. Nevertheless, we conceded that she did her best to teach us English well in spite of her tense class.

My intelligence type is mainly Intrapersonal and Logical. My classmates are different from me. Some were Musical, others Kinesthetic, etc. Of course, we have all kinds of intelligences, more or less. Nevertheless, her class was always same and lock-step. There wasn't any discussion about the text. During class, I had to listen to my teacher, translate the text and memorize the important grammar. 'Only text' without other materials  needed to me continuous endure. Several quizzes as well as school exams made me nervous and boring.

My first English teacher was 'explainer' of 'traditional classroom'. Although she had authenticity to help students learn English well, her class was limited to the only textbook. She was a typical English teacher and her class was a model in those days, in Korea. However, every student has different learning styles(intelligences). To teach English for communication, not for school exam, English teachers should have a 'real rapport'(It's called 'authenticity' by Scrivener.) with their students. Also, teachers should use various ways and materials considering their students' learning styles, and teach four skills(listening, reading, speaking and writing) as the integrated approach.