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Date Posted: 06:25:36 10/18/05 Tue
Author: Renata Oliveira
Subject: Final paper for evaluation: Teaching o beggining English Classes

Basic English classes in language institutes are the most crowded ones. However, learn a second language seems not to be an easy task for everybody. Many of the beginners quit before the end of the first stage and, as the level gets higher, the number of students lowers. This fact shows that the first contact to the English language for some people is traumatic. The basic course, which is the entrance door to a learning career, has been closed to a substantial amount of students and the main excuse is often “personal problems”. However, it does not explain much.

About the main causes, motivation is a key word. The reasons that lead them to start an English course are as motivating as the reasons that keep them in the course. To most people studying English means new possibilities in the professional career. Speaking English is a differential qualification, which could exclude a good professional from a job position, even if the person will never make use of the language in its work activities. In this way, it provides a non-sense status. Meaning is another key word. A meaningful learning could give the students a real reason to go to the English classes. The teachers should show the students that learn a second language is more than just a future guarantee. It is part of their job not only hold the entrance door opened but also to welcome and cicerone the students in their start. In such a way, teaching to beginners is taking profit of the advantages and disadvantages of the first level situations to motivate the students to find a meaningful purpose to go on learning a second language.

Since there are not trustful manners to level the students, in any case, aptitude, attitude or capacity, into the beginning stage, dealing with heterogeneous level audience could be a difficulty to some teachers if s/he does not make the interactions of all the learning components. First of all the learners have to self-interact about his/her reasons and difficulties in learning a second language. As soon as the teacher knows their motifs, s/he would interact him/herself to the learners in a better way. Then, the learners should interact to the other learners. “Peer working” and group discussions are examples of strategies which possibility the interaction between the learners and would also provide a comfortable atmosphere in the classroom. These interactions make them feel confident enough to make a self-evaluation about their learning development. Moreover, they will learn to deal with their mistakes as well as using it as a group strategy to achieve accuracy. So, confidence could be built through the learning of strategies too. The learner has to be aware about the strategies that fits him/her the best. But it is not all. The learner should be exposed to authentic materials to know which procedures s/he follows to deal in the different situation of real life. In such a way, all the interactions have to be meaningful and motivating. In fact, it is a vicious cycle: satisfying the individual needs is a way to give meaning to what the learners matter and what they matter is motivating to what they need to learn.

Brown (1994) classifies the beginning level the most challenging level of language instruction and the most tangibly rewarding level for a teacher (101). He also lists 10 factors which would teachers should take in account when formulating an approach to teach beginners. They are: students’ cognitive learning processes; the role of the teacher; teacher talk; authenticity of language; fluency and accuracy; student creativity; techniques; listening and speaking goals; reading and writing goals; grammar. Brown points out the importance of authenticity in all factors in order the learning to be meaningful to the students.

To sum up, there are advantages and disadvantages in teaching to beginners. However, the teacher has an important role in the learner’s second language acquisition. The professional should teach not the language itself but how to acquire the English language in a better way. Thus, the teacher has to provide an interaction of the components involved in the learning process in order to possibility a comfortable and confident environment. The awareness about the strategies importance has to be shown in the first stage and the learning process has to be meaningful and motivating. Finally, the beginner should give much more emphasis to the learning process to succeed. Starting an English course could be a challenge to many students but it must be an investment not only of money but also of time. The students have to be aware about the giving of work they are supposed to spend on practicing the language to achieve their goal; they should not present any prejudice or self pity about their own capacity; and, most of all, they have to be open to the failures on the learning process.

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