User talk:Esgaleth

Hi thanks for joining. And using a userbox!--Bob M (talk) 02:19, 2 June 2013 (CDT)


 * Hi Bob and many thanks for welcoming me on the site.
 * This project does look fantastic!--Esgaleth (talk) 08:23, 2 June 2013 (CDT)
 * Hi Esgaleth. Thanks for that. Though things are bit slow at the moment I'm afraid.  Do you have any special interests in English teaching? Cheers.--Bob M (talk) 08:27, 2 June 2013 (CDT)

I do. I am hoping to finish my Trinity Diploma on-line but, as you said, things are going a bit slow here as well. Right now I am particularly interested in practicalities of current teaching methods and approaches worldwide. From my experience, I am becoming more and more convinced that students' nationalities (not only L1 but the national mindset as such) may affect ESL teaching strategies. Do you think you teach differently students from different countries?--Esgaleth (talk) 10:19, 2 June 2013 (CDT)
 * I think that you are probably right but unfortunately I can't really offer any special insights on that as I've only ever taught in Spain. If we want to generalise then the "Spanish character" is quite different to the British - but that only works in generalisations.  When you get down to the level of each individual student then every one is unique.  Which may sound very profound - but is perhaps not very useful to you.  :-)--Bob M (talk) 12:21, 2 June 2013 (CDT)

Absolutely! Even in a group of 8-10 students I will teach individuals, and most of us will. My experience of teaching other nationalities has been fairly limited so far. Still, there was something too obvious to ignore, if compared to teaching Russian students. I'm trying to dig into it and hopefully it could help me choose the 'right' topic for my classroom observation and research - the 'right' meaning relevant to my teaching environment. Do you think I could post some questions here? If so, what might be the right page for it? --Esgaleth (talk) 15:34, 2 June 2013 (CDT)
 * The place for that would be Teflpedia:Teachers' room. There are not a lot of us around at the moment unfortunately, but I'm sue you'll get some feedback. :-) --Bob M (talk) 03:07, 3 June 2013 (CDT)

Thanks a lot Bob. I see your point. On- and off-line multi-tasking could be a bit too demanding at times. I'll try to do my best though. :)--Esgaleth (talk) 14:19, 4 June 2013 (CDT)
 * Greetings Esgaleth. Haven't yet had the pleasure of crossing s  words with ye, but as soon as you get that TriniDip under your belt, look out! Re your L1, there is a sort-of related ongoing debate you might find useful over at Debate:L1 in the classroom. As for the mindset issue, because of the varied learning background our students come from, teaching a multilingual class and/or even a multigenerational class might require a more hands-on approach, as in teacher-centred, probably at least in the initial stages (am speaking from memory as, since my teacher-training days, I've only taught students with Spanish as L1 - but not only Spaniards). Hopefully, it should be possible to introduce a more student-oriented/problem-solving approach early on in the course. That said, the most enthusiastic/highly motivated student I've ever come across was when, during my teacher training in the UK, the multilingual/multicultural/multigenerationaI class I had to teach included, as well as the typical businessmen, junior diplomats, engineers and diverse people with a professional interest in learning English, a 68-year-old illiterate lady from a tiny village deep in central Europe who had come to the UK 'cos her only family was a daughter and newly-born grandchild living in the UK. She thrived on the target language. One of those unfortunate cases where the group, in this case "model students" with a formal educational background, can hold back a brilliant student. This def. needs developing, 'cos I just thought of another mindset-related comment that I need to share with y'all. Regs., --Technopat (talk) 04:31, 9 June 2013 (CDT)

@Technopat. thanks for greeting. Great story. The group I have just taught is somewhat similar - young adults, mostly students, confident and self-assured (spending too much time on entertainment methinks) and a 65-year-old lady with a daughter in the UK. Her progress was absolutely fantastic. After this group I was seriously thinking of teaching senior students.--Esgaleth (talk) 16:02, 15 June 2013 (CDT)
 * Greetings again. Glad to see you've also had that fulfilling experience of seeing our highly motivated elders enjoy their lifelong learning opportunities :) (originally had enjoying in there, but took it out for purely aesthetic reasons rather than for any grammatical consideration). Catch up with you over at the debate. Cheers! --Technopat (talk) 03:56, 16 June 2013 (CDT)