tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-150754262011-07-31T04:22:04.338+02:00Let the Czech check it outJirinoreply@blogger.comBlogger371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1133896326018142382005-12-06T19:50:00.000+01:002005-12-06T20:15:23.243+01:00

Hey everyone!Thank you very much for your invaluable comments. Making up my mind had turned out excruciatingly painful but I eventually decided to go for the IT position. So that's the end of this blog. Now I've got to brace myself for juggling my uni, work and personal life. It's going to be a challenge far greater than anything I've been through so far BUT I'm aware that:...as soon as people

Jirinoreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1133446982619337712005-12-01T15:04:00.000+01:002005-12-02T12:22:34.533+01:00

As some of you may know I've got some experience in IT. Now a friend of mine is looking for someone who would work for their company and overlook (oversee, of course) a project for a major client. I didn't turn them down immediately but asked for loads (I mean LOADS) of money and it seems now they're completely out of their mind or hard pushed for time or whatever but they're on the verge of

Jirinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1133350825371977172005-11-30T12:13:00.000+01:002005-11-30T12:40:25.383+01:00

One of my students is struggling as she often seems unable to understand simple questions let alone much of the more complex input I provide. She's been through a few traditional language courses but what she clearly needs now is to work on her listening skills. As I see it, a high affective filter plays its part as well. Simply put, she always seems somewhat insecure and is beginning to skip

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1132138379976956512005-11-16T11:24:00.000+01:002005-11-16T11:52:59.990+01:00

We were talking today about work uniforms and my student told me in Czech something along the lines of:I hate it because I have to wear it every day.I swiftly put the expression on the board, repeated it several times and modelled the emotions by stressing the words HATE and EVERY. The student then, much to my amazement, said: "every SINGLE day!" It's an expression we'd come across before and I

Jirinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1131622773814794252005-11-10T12:02:00.000+01:002005-11-10T12:39:33.826+01:00

Once you step onto the grammar-translation path, forever will it dominate your destiny... ha, ha, ha-- Darth HogeIt's classic really. I've been overtly enthusiastic about some of my BE students who joyfully embrace new ideas and begin to direct their own learning and now it's about time I mentioned the others. They all come from different walks of life but while the former tend to be younger and

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1131438645301352552005-11-08T09:20:00.000+01:002005-11-08T09:37:38.286+01:00

While there's much academic debate going on about classroom blogging I'm enjoying now the practical side of it. I'm now attending Mental Health and Selfmanagement seminar at my university and since we have WiFi on the premises I thought I might blog some: there's an exquisite poem over at Sarin Miso. Go refresh yourself :)

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1131382077532392332005-11-07T17:33:00.000+01:002005-11-07T17:48:24.123+01:00

There is a great necessity for teachers to face themselves. If they don’t, they can’t face others.-- Ephraim Weintraub

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I'm really excited about how my BE students are keen on exploring the kind of autonomous learning I have outlined in the "Dear Learner" letter. They read and always proudly tell me how much reading they've done so far, they get themselves monolingual dictionaries, they choose movies we watch together... they take charge of their own learning!I seem unable to steer clear of making inappropriate

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1131098694883605362005-11-04T10:25:00.000+01:002005-11-04T11:47:52.520+01:00

I've got a couple psychology courses at my university but I find myself struggling a bit with the underlying philosophy which is essentially about competition, ie. understand and handle your partner in order to make a profit. This clearly is in stark contrast with the kind of cooperation philosophy a teacher needs to embrace in order to be able to help and support their partner.I vividly remember

Jirinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1131026248549004312005-11-03T14:34:00.000+01:002005-11-03T15:08:14.266+01:00

I recommend all my students ought to read as much as they like and I really want to find out how free voluntary reading works so I've just bought The Adventures of Tom Sawyer + CD (Oxford Bookworms Library, Stage 1) for my brother. He's going to be my guinea pig but not the only one. As EFL Geek once pointed out, all language teachers should be learning a foreign language so they could better

Jirinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1130971016175241532005-11-02T23:20:00.000+01:002005-11-02T23:36:56.200+01:00

There's some great stuff in the following two articles: Organic learning and Trust your instincts:the virtues of spontaneity and personalisation. The authors stress that we should plan less and let the lesson generate itself from the conversation that arises. Right on! I utilize this approach with my BE 1to1s and it works amazingly well.

Jirinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1130793165964955022005-10-31T22:02:00.000+01:002005-10-31T22:12:45.976+01:00

At the beginning of each of my courses I introduce some classroom questions/requests useful for student - teacher interaction such as "Sorry, could you say that again?" and go on to dictate a short text while the students are expected to use the questions. It's a sort of drill really!As a kind of learner training though I thought it's a good idea to tell my students something about one of the

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1130792525436914912005-10-31T21:52:00.000+01:002005-10-31T22:02:05.456+01:00

I know some TEFLers groan at the idea of teaching children but there is no doubt children are the most amazing learners and I was truly blessed to teach everything from preschoolers to teenagers and young adults in my previous job.I can see it now every day how we need to re-learn from the little ones what we have lost - to overcome our fears, be open about how we feel and grab every opportunity

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1130534658687748632005-10-28T23:07:00.000+02:002005-10-28T23:24:18.720+02:00

There's yet another brilliant post over at Effortless Language Acquisition and yet another blog on my Bloglines account.There's been a lot of reflection recently from AJ and others on what makes an outstanding teacher and that got me thinking about MY best English teacher (I'm actually the only one who can reflect on my English teachers because AJ&Co. are all English native speakers!). I was

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1130328928772575472005-10-26T14:09:00.000+02:002005-10-26T14:15:28.780+02:00

One last for today... I've just stumbled upon lots and lots of free movies. There's also a free educational video, Connect with English, over at learner.org

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1130327296624598512005-10-26T13:29:00.000+02:002005-10-26T13:48:16.630+02:00

I'm not trying to hide it, I steal a good deal from AJ. Anyway...Dogme, I realized, is by its very nature very personal. To provide more comprehensible input in a not-so-much-personal and therefore less demanding and more creative way I've started using interactive stories and movies.First, I came across Focal Skills Approach and its Movie Technique and I immediately took to it like a duck to

Jirinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1130325371270527942005-10-26T12:55:00.000+02:002005-10-26T13:16:11.290+02:00

I came across the whole idea of Dogme some time back in Humanistic Language Teaching and have just subscribed to its very lively discussion group. Both the magazine and the group contain wealth of information and excellent ideas - highly recommended!My take on Dogme is this: we spend about half of the time speaking on general topics (eg. work or learning) while practising functional language (eg.

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1130323943469503792005-10-26T11:43:00.000+02:002005-10-26T13:27:55.106+02:00

I started this blog with an outline of my approach to teaching English as a foreign language and now I'm getting to explore how it could be best translated into real classroom experience for my elementary BE students: Textbooks: No textbooks Other Material: Supply large amounts of authentic comprehensible input (Natural Approach): student –

Jirinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1129884386641109672005-10-21T10:33:00.000+02:002005-10-21T10:46:26.646+02:00

I'm getting to see I've got a lot on my plate now. If I'm disciplined enough (hard to steer clear of any booze in this country, you know) I get just about 6 hours of sleep a day because all my classes begin early in the morning. Obviously, it's a little hard to get into it at 7a.m but as the classes gain momentum I always feel more and more energized. So it's a great way to kick off the day after

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1129846023055116472005-10-20T23:36:00.000+02:002005-10-21T00:07:03.063+02:00

I believe that as we draw the focus of our attention from single words to chunks (especially fixed phrases, sentence heads, semi-fixed frames and the like) we also have to increasingly rely on context in which the chunk is usually used as its defining element.I've had a couple of really interesting business people today (incidentally, all have been put through a few years of devastating

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1129728668281583422005-10-19T15:23:00.000+02:002005-10-19T15:31:08.293+02:00

Uff, this one took me a while:Dear SirI am writing regarding the dismissal of one of your English teachers, Allen J. Hoge, from Thammasat University.It appears that Mr.Hoge has been dismissed on the grounds of what he has published on his weblog at http://effortlessacquisition.blogspot.com/. If this is so I have no other option but to deem your decision wrongful. Please, allow me to explain

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1129629557662193152005-10-18T11:22:00.000+02:002005-10-18T11:59:17.670+02:00

Imagine you have a multinational. The substantial majority of their employees needs or will in the near future need to have a good command of English to be able communicate across the company. The training scheme have been up and running for a few years and is very well designed as far as the incentives are concerned and fits well into the overall HR development programme. However, it's

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1129547879532723812005-10-17T12:43:00.000+02:002005-10-17T13:18:59.543+02:00

Recently I attended a workshop on lesson planning and it was both good fun and very informative. It turned out we, conciously or not, use one of the 5 lesson styles:progressivetopicalunconnectedskills-centredevolutionaryDuring the workshop I remarked that the evolutionary lesson style (ie. kick it off, wait what comes up and deal with on the spot) appeals to me greatly as it is definitely

Jirinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1129474772440600462005-10-16T16:39:00.000+02:002005-10-16T16:59:32.446+02:00

Possibly one of the greatest teachers of these days was fired for his unconventional, innovative approach which didn't comply with the system!It's obvious such people are few and far between - it takes lots of guts to go against the flow even if one believes it's right but we are in desperate need of such radical teachers because they tread paths where no one has travelled before. They create

Jirinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1129371988517153122005-10-15T12:02:00.000+02:002005-10-15T12:28:01.376+02:00

This is what happened during one of my classes this week:I introduced the phrase "Let's get down to business" and put it on the board right away. Even though I also explained when and in what kind of context (eg. meetings) we use the phrase the student, as he was trying to figure out the meaning for himself, asked about the word "down". I then introduced the phrase "It doesn't make any sense" and

Jirinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1129327734787375192005-10-14T23:12:00.000+02:002005-10-15T00:14:20.033+02:00

The first week of teaching is over - 8.5 hours total - but from next week on the regular weekly load should be up to 10 hours, including 2 exam preparation classes.I see 3 of my individual students twice a week and I can already say they're going to stretch my ability to adapt. It's truly amazing to realize over and over again how diverse people can be and my prior teaching experience never

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1129209228232168632005-10-13T14:37:00.000+02:002005-10-13T15:13:48.240+02:00

In my previous post I pointed out that I would focus on long-term goals but now I'm facing a task of setting such goals that would be measurable!I understand that any business spending lots of money on their employees' education wants to see some measurable ROI. Prior to breaking into EFL I specialised in e-marketing and in that area almost anything could be defined, measured and analysed. BI

Jirinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1128977238896247332005-10-10T22:28:00.000+02:002005-10-10T22:47:25.603+02:00

I guess probably all EFL teachers in Asia have at one point or another complained about their students' lack of willingness to speak out in the classroom. Well, I wasn't an exception and back in Malaysia I was often thinking what it would be like to teach my fellow Czechs..Now I've had only 2 one-to-one classes so far but I'm already pleasantly surprised by how well the students respond and

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1128517687116578942005-10-05T14:47:00.000+02:002005-10-05T15:08:07.126+02:00

Having been inspired by Allen's on-line course I'm thinking of setting up a blog that would bring all my individual students together and create a sort of virtual classroom with all the benefits of a social environment. Another purpose of such a blog would be to introduce the idea of blogging as I can't expect all the students to be familiar with the concept.As for the content and features, I've

Jirinoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1128504665941830502005-10-05T11:05:00.000+02:002005-10-05T11:31:05.950+02:00

Okay, so I'm starting a bunch of one-to-one classes with business people next week and this is a handout I'd like to go through during the first lessons.Prague, 5 October 2005 Dear Learner It's my pleasure that we've just started our classes. I'll try my best to help you improve your English and meet your goals. However, the total amount of our classtime is very limited and by no means

Jirinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1127917123163077812005-09-28T15:48:00.000+02:002005-09-28T16:20:55.630+02:00

I've just stumbled across WriteAPrisoner.com and while browsing through a number of profiles it struck me that this is a vast pool of possibly highly motivated pen pals. Clearly, murderers and the like wouldn't make the best match for kids but adult learners who would like to find someone interesting to write to could give it a go.Here's what Mumia Abu-Jamal, one of the more famous prisoners, has

Jirinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1127851759756355002005-09-27T22:04:00.000+02:002005-09-27T22:09:19.776+02:00

I've been watching in awe how Allen is going crazy about his experiments. Allen is clearly one of a kind and I personally learn loads of new things by simply reading his blog. I just wonder what's going to happen of him. It was the first time here where Allen admitted he would, sooner or later, be fired. Now wouldn't that be a shame? I can see Allen's point of view as a teacher who loves his

Jirinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1127575120625101152005-09-24T16:50:00.000+02:002005-09-24T17:18:40.643+02:00

I'm now reading Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, an ebook by Stephen Krashen and I personally find it an utterly fascinating read. The model he outlines on the first few pages looks simple yet groundbreaking. It boggles my mind though that 20 years after its original publication most EFL folks around here still seem to take it for granted that what Krashen calls 'second

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1127316005973194112005-09-21T17:19:00.000+02:002005-09-21T17:20:05.973+02:00

After some time in my previous job I came to realize how often I had dominated our discussions with my adult classes. Being very opinionated I simply didn't steer clear of presenting my own views and by doing so I effectively stifled any further opinions on the subject from my students. Now it makes me wonder. If a student makes an effort to express themselves in English we sure ought to praise

Jirinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1127315961222325052005-09-21T17:18:00.000+02:002005-09-21T17:20:41.813+02:00

I set out to get myself a teaching job in Prague and it seems there are lots up for grabs. The specific thing about the market here however is that most schools get the bulk of their business from arranging tailor-made classes for corporate clients, while running in-house courses is a marginal thing. The implication obviously is that a teacher's life here involves lots of travelling every day.

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1127314996325276172005-09-21T17:02:00.000+02:002005-09-21T17:03:16.326+02:00

Once I answered the previous question I feel it's crucial to set out the key points of my teaching approach. 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. I believe learners have to gradually acquire skills and

Jirinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15075426.post-1127314903883312272005-09-21T16:47:00.000+02:002005-09-21T17:01:43.893+02:00

I was thinking why I love teaching so much and eventually came to several reasons: Leadership – I enjoy the power to have some impact on society. Creativity – I enjoy myself preparing for classes. The endless choice of what you can do in 90 minutes can stretch any creative mind and eventually yield some wonderful results. People - I enjoy working with people face to face and learning how

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