My approach

Once I answered the previous question I feel it's crucial to set out the key points of my teaching approach.

1. I believe learners acquire much of their L2 lexicon naturally while reading and listening for pleasure away from the classroom. This input must be comprehensible and therefore require little effort on the learner's part.

2. I believe learners have to gradually acquire skills and tools necessary to process the L2 input. These include awareness of the language (especially collocations), an appropriate monolingual dictionary, the IPA and lexical notebook. Learners also have to use these skills on a regular basis to study and analyze a little bit of authenthic input they personally choose.

3. I believe learners have to try to put what they have learned to use and make a conscious effort to produce the L2. As for writing they may try weblogs or penfriends, speaking on the other hand may first be best practised in a safe and supportive environment which has been designed for this purpose – the classroom. Such efforts are understandably painful as they inevitably involve making mistakes. However learners have to embrace mistakes as a natural, and indeed beneficial, part of learning without which no progress at all is possible.

4. I believe the role of formal lessons is to create a social environment for the learners to try to practice what they have learned, exchange their experiences and help sustain their motivation. Ideally, the lessons should be managed in a highly personal and communicative way.

5. I believe the role of the teacher is to facilitate the student-driven learning process by consulting and helping them acquire the learner's skills.