My Second Language        Acquisition Experience

Class#: 32th

Teacher: Valerie

Name: Geun Hong Park(Kelly)

Date: August 14th. 2010

Word Count:  582

When I received this assignment, I looked back on the past and I tried to remember teachers who taught me English and gave me any influence to study English in Korea. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember any names and even their faces. However, I could remember the French teacher in high school who made me lose interest in French. He was like the messy French Guy and his spit spattered when talking. However, that was not a main reason that I lost interest in French. I am not saying that he was not a good teacher. He was very enthusiastic, but only him in his class.

His classroom was very traditional. I could not remember any activities in his class even listening. I can still remember only his voice with his spit. He was just a lecturer and students were as listeners in his class. He was well-prepared for the subject but he couldn't make students' participation in the class. Also, he was always standing in front of the class.

He was the explainer of French subject. He had a lot of knowledge for French. However, he didn't know how to teach the language effectively. He just explained and push the info to students. In addition, he taught the French extra hours. That made me sick of French. I knew he had a passion for teaching students. But, he didn't know the way to involve and enable the students.

He was not an effective teacher. As I told you, he was the explainer and also lecturer in his class. We didn't do any activities during the class. He had never brought the cassette tape player. It was almost twenty years ago. Students just listened and read textbooks. Students studied only for the test. So, the teacher  taught French not for language but for test. He did too. The way of teaching was focused on the test. Students couldn't participate the class and be given any group discussion, demonstration and teaching activities.

He didn't care of the learning styles. Actually, the class had almost 50 students when I was in high school. Too many students in one class. I understand he can't think of all students' learning styles. However, he sould try to teach language with many ways. If so, I could have had an interest in French. He just sticked to his teaching way which was teaching by rote. He could possibly use some materials  and give students activities for learning language. If he had tried various ways to teach, some students would have responded to him.

The chance that I had interest in English was a English teacher of Academy after graduating high school. I just wanted to speak English like her. She was not even my teacher. She never taught me. On the other hand, the French teacher who made me lose interest in French terminated the learning chance from himself. I admit that he was very enthusiastic and knowledgable for his teaching. I think that is the problem. He wanted to give all information that he had. He didn't know that giving a lecture was not the effective teaching. He should try many ways to teach. A few weeks ago, I started to teach students English. While writing this essay, I thought many things about how to teach. I hope that I am not like the French teacher to my students.