Going Native

[peeling]

It's an aspect of teaching in a foreign land which has a lot of plusses and minuses. I'm just going to put a positive spin on it. You're welcome to list the negatives.

You're in a foreign culture. You start exploring it, and end up becoming a part of the culture and the people. You become a part of the landscape, people no longer treat you as different from them and you start finding your own homeland a bit strange. There is a great feeling of pride that you managed to fit into a foreign land and culture and learned so much. Your teaching greatly improves on account of your understanding of the way your students think. The food and accommodation is no longer a problem. You feel less home-sick. The list goes on and on. Do yourself and your students a favor. Go native.

[cool ice]

Originally Posted by peeling

Do yourself and your students a favor. Go native.

What do you mean by this? Go native in the classroom with your own first language OR in your new country's language?

It's a big NO NO in many schools NOT to speak anothe language in the classroom. Teachers are hired to teach in English, and so schools expect that teacher to ONLY speak English.

[Motivated]

I totally disagree with not being allowed to use the local language in the classroom. Here's why:

1. One example: one of my students asked me what 'livestock' was. Now instead of giving them a long-winded answer I simply said mal - the literal Mongolian translation. 20 kids just learnt a new word in 0.3 of a second. No messing about, no need to go rummaging through dictionaries etc. Classroom efficiency, plain and simple.

2. 2nd example: All Mongolian names (they have only one) have a literal translation eg Oyungerel = Intelligent Light, or Sukhbaatar = Axe Hero. 20 students in the class adds up to another 30-60 new English vocab words just from simple name translation. It's like using flash cards without the cards. The kids love this exercise of translating each others names and I've found they actually have a better retention of these newly learnt words than others that come up during standard lessons.

3. A lesser point: one of the main reasons we all teach English in weird n wonderful places is because we want cultural interaction. My students appreciate that I make the effort to learn their language, and that I'm not just there to make sure they understand my own. Being able to converse in their own language is merely just another classroom tool at my disposal - and not the big ugly detrimental-to-learning monster a lot of people make it out to be. Of course there is a limit to how much you should use, but that's just simple common sense. Makes for a good vibe

I know a lot of schools, especially private institutes disagree with such methods, and I'm thankful that my school is totally supportive of how I choose to run my classes.

[english grammar man]

It's a bit of a grey area. Some argue for and some argue against using the local language in the classroom to explain things.

1 of the pros for teaching only using English is that whilst it may take a while to explain the meanring of a word, the whole process is in fact a lesson in itself. Sure it's easy to just translate this word to the students' local language, but then we miss out on the survival skills of being able to explain a word with other words in the same language. Don't underestimate the importance of this skill.

Supposing you were checking into a hotel in a foreign country and trying to use their language for the check-in process. If you want to clarify something yet don't know the word for it in their language, then having the skills to explain that word with other words would definitely help.