My second language acquisition experience

Jayden (Tesol 32th WK)

2010. 8. 13.

Teacher's name : Valerie
Word count : 500

*Introduction

I took English class at the university of education in the second semester of third grade.  I expected the class to improve my English, but it didn't.

*Paragraph

The teaching method of the professor.

Adult learner characteristics

learning styles according to the environment

Effective teaching to the adult learners

*Conclusion

A teacher can never be the best teacher if he leave aside students'               characteristics

My third year in university I signed up for the English class since I hope to improve my English ability. As everybody know, Korean students are very good at grammar and reading in English, but insufficient to speak and write English. And so was I. So I wanted to practice for speaking and writing in English, however the professor obviously disappointed me and the whole class. Finally I couldn't enhanced my English through the class.

His teaching style was quite traditional, which was called explainer. He never wanted to be an involver or an enabler. It could be funny to write about this but, it is a very difficult thing to remember the class because what he did at the classroom was just explanation. He did not let us do some activities, even he did not let us talk in English in the classroom. He never wanted to be disturbed by us while he was teaching.

Generally, since adult learners choose what they are going to be taught, they are highly motivated and autonomous. Also they are not the passive learners but the active learners who have lots of experience which can be used to study at the classroom. Hence, it would be better for the professor to aim for the conversation-oriented class than to teach by himself. He seems to have got no consideration for the students.

Personally, I don't mind the traditional learning. I mean explanation by the teacher and reading books carefully are not bad learning method. It can be the best method to learn something in some cases. In other words, I consider that attending lectures by the professors who have the expert knowledge and reading books to progress my knowledge are good method to study something, but that is not the case in English learning for the students of other languages. For the effective language education, it could be better to learn about linguistic skills rather than academic knowledge, especially for the adult students like us who have the high motivation.

Thus, for the effective language learning, it is important, not the teacher-directed education, but the communicative education which would let the students carry out their work for themselves. We should not forget that it is the class of their own choosing. They are adults who choose the class for their purpose and they are always ready to study spontaneously.

At any rate, the class obviously did not fit me. The professor who wanted to be a perfectionist couldn't give us good impression. As all of the students know that he is a good professor and has a lot of knowledge, but his demanding and unreasonable perfectionism made each class a library, a very quiet library. However, the only thing I realized after the class was that no matter how good a teacher is, he can never be the best teacher if he leave aside students' characteristics. The best teacher is not only the expert at teaching the subject but also the involver and enabler.