Issues in Language Teaching While Teaching We Feel Tired Too

Issue in language teaching are various.We love language teaching but know many things as barrier and try to resolve that so knowing language is a thing but teaching is another fact.Teaching English – or any other language – is not easy, especially in today’s fast-paced society. Language teachers need to catch up with their students’ interests to motivate them and at the same time to offer applicable knowledge in the form of up-to-date information, texts, and means of communication. This course will help language teachers experience how to motivate students to communicate and develop all four language skills. At the same time, it will empower participants to create their teaching materials using their creativity and resources. The course will mix digital and plug-free activities to meet the expectations and interests of language teachers from different backgrounds regarding available schools and facilities. During the course, participants will explore a variety of ways to promote all four language skills including CLIL, video, photography, and ICT, as well as everyday items (real-world materials). Participants will also be given plenty of ideas on how to use a variety of media and sources to engage students providing a motivating language acquisition environment. .1. Languages are complicated To teach a language, educators usually need to have native speaker fluency, but that’s often not enough to do the job. It’s absolutely essential that educators also understand the grammatical structures that underpin all languages – this part of the job is frequently ignored and underappreciated but it’s vital for classroom success. After all, if you don’t know the difference between an adjective and an adverb or cannot provide examples of countable and uncountable English nouns if you are teaching English language, then how can you hope to explain key concepts to students? 2. Language teaching is hard work! Keeping your students engaged, interested and motivated in their learning day in and day out can be a challenge. Particularly in formal education settings (like in primary school or secondary education) where students often don’t have any choice about attending. Educators will frequently find themselves teaching different subjects to different classes across different age groups (read also our dedicated post about teaching languages to different age group). All of which require a bespoke lesson plan using a variety of stimulus to work through – teachers therefore need to be highly organised, detail-focused, creative, resilient (I could go on!) to succeed. Creating lesson plans, marking papers, writing reports and doing all of the other student analysis required is also very time-consuming. It’s important for language teachers to keep focus on language learning outcomes and to ensure that this administrative work does not take up too much of their free time. 3. Classroom management Of course, a key challenge for all educators is ensuring that all students stay on task and work in a calm and orderly manner. Yet in every language classroom and in every school, there’s always someone who seems determined to make life as difficult as possible for the teachers. Handling those students can take skill and experience. For language educators teaching their native language overseas, this does present real challenges. Just imagine that you’re trying to engage a 14-year old who is refusing to participate in your Spanish class and she’s talking to you in her mother tongue which you don’t understand. How would you respond to ensure that her behaviour doesn’t distract the rest of the class? Remember to check out our other post “6 effective strategies for classroom management” for further tips on classroom management! 4. Supporting your learners Ultimately, the role of the language teacher is to help students improve fluency in their target language, so working with individual students’ needs can present a wide range of challenges. Although teaching in higher education or teaching adults can be hugely satisfying as you help them achieve their life objectives, the classroom environment can often be serious and overly goal-oriented. This puts additional pressure on teachers as they expect top-quality teaching class after class to get the grades they need. On the other hand, teaching students in primary school usually means more time spent on behaviour management, more time spent building basic language skills and certainly more time spent developing engaging lesson plans and resources. And of course, there’s parents to deal with too! 5. Handling parents Many language teaching institutions are privately-run businesses with demanding, paying customers. Parents want to ensure that their children are getting the best education possible and that they are making or exceeding expected progress. Parents can therefore be a regular and sometimes unwelcome classroom presence for both students and teachers. Setting clear boundaries and building a positive communication and relationship with parents does therefore pay dividends. If you’re teaching overseas, it’s also important to carefully research the culture of the country or region that you’re working in. Every parent will be different, but being culturally aware can help you avoid unintentionally offending someone and causing a major diplomatic incident. 6. You’re in charge In the classroom, the teacher is in charge. You set the course of the lesson, you look after the students in your care, deliver the learning outcomes and control the learning environment. Language educators, and all teachers, therefore have a huge responsibility every time they walk into their classroom. This doesn’t suit everyone but the best teachers see this as a unique opportunity and a privilege. 7. Classroom resources Many language educators take the opportunity to use their skills to travel and to see different parts of the world. Depending on where you end up, the school may not have all of the educational technology or materials (e.g, apps, broadband, laptops, textbooks etc) that you’re used to. This can understandably come as a shock and forces teachers to rethink which language teaching methodologies they can use and the resources that they have available. In other settings, teachers may be presented with a strict curriculum or schemes of work that they must follow and resources that they must use. If you’re used to being creative in developing your own materials that are tailored to each class, then this type of environment can also present its own challenges for educators. 8. Support and assistance Wherever you teach, it’s vital that you have support and back-up when you need it. Teaching a room full of strangers a new and foreign language can be difficult, so building a network of peers who you work with is invaluable. Whether that’s for sharing teaching resources, tips for professional development, student insights and, of course, for socialising! If problems arise with students or with parents, it’s vital that your head of department and school leadership are available to help and support you. While the core principles of effective language teaching apply to teaching any modern language, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Arabic or Mandarin, there may be some differences in emphasis or approach depending on the specific language being taught. However, these differences are generally minor, and the most effective teaching methods can be adapted to suit any language. For example, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) are all highly effective for teaching any language. These methods prioritize authentic communication, meaningful tasks, and contextual learning, which are essential for successful language acquisition regardless of the target language. However, certain aspects of a language might require more specific attention or focus. For instance, English has a more complex phonology and a larger vocabulary compared to some other languages, which may require additional emphasis on pronunciation and vocabulary building. Spanish and French have grammatical gender and more verb conjugations than English, which may necessitate a more structured approach to teaching grammar.