Focus on adequate communication, in view of capacities and needs of each learner.
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Focus on adequate communication
Focus on adequate communication
for Ton van Hattum
means evaluating goals and needs of each learner and shape the course so that each pupil learns to communicate well and continues to improve communication capacities, within the context that is important for that person.
What is difficult differs from person to person.
Methods and techniques are adapted
to the capacities and needs that each learner presents during the learning process.
For pupils with learning difficulties,
the teacher uses
everything he knows, can discover and develop, to bring this pupil to the highest performance possible.
Private classes or small groups
Classes can be individual or in groups of up to six pupils.
Bigger group sizes are avoided because experience has shown that bigger groups automatically break up into subgroups so the teacher needs to divide time and attention between those subgroups or
spend time and energy on
keeping everybody involved in one central activity.
Will I ever manage to speak that language?
One of the biggest problems of learning a new language is
feeling insecure, being afraid
to never
be able to
speak that language.
"I'll never be able to speak that language."
"I'll never learn that."
To overcome these problems several techniques are used. Learners become confident they can speak English or Dutch and start feeling they are capable of expressing themselves in that language.
Customised courses
To offer more efficient courses, they are modelled
according to the goals, purposes and interests of the pupils and they are constantly adapted to the problems each pupil presents during the course.
Immersion courses are a very efficient way to improve your English. It is called immersion because you are completely surrounded by or immersed in the English language. you use the English language to learn the English language.
There are several varieties of English. It is a good idea to think about which variety is best to learn. Important is to know that American English is the very different one.
All other forms of national English are closer to British English than to American English.
The best teaching is based on the philosophy that
as
a teacher one
needs to be in continuous search of
what that pupil in front of you wants and needs
to learn.
One needs to use
elements from different methodologies
and, if necessary, develop new material and techniques to adapt the teaching to the needs of the learner.
Following these principles, Ton van Hattum
achieves that
his pupils efficiently learn to
express themselves
adequately in English and Dutch.
Watched are not only aspects of language use
but also,
maybe
at least
as important
cultural aspects and
the impact of what is being said on the social interaction.
A good teaching philosophy
values much more than any method or approach.
The communicative approach is based on a very interesting idea. A strong point of the communicative approach is that it focuses on the student's ability to transmit ones ideas in the target language, in this case English and Dutch. Unfortunately, the way it is often interpreted and implanted, in my opinion, doesn't quite have the result one could expect
'Inglês Instrumental' versus 'English for Specific Purposes'
Although, in Brazil, courses called 'Inglês Instrumental' are considered equivalent to courses of 'English for Specific Purposes' (ESP) I prefer to say I offer courses of 'English for Specific Purposes'
because there are important differences.
participants are helped to answer questions about the presented texts. In my language courses for specific purposes, learners are prepared to deal with difficult texts and conversations in the future.
In those courses called 'Inglês Instrumental', normally a glossary is provided with each text to be studied.
Like that, rather than teaching learners to deal with difficulties, difficulties are removed.
It is like practising riding a tricycle
expecting to get prepared for
riding a bicycle. However, the most difficult part, keeping balance on two wheels, is not practised. Practising interpretation using text that come with glossaries, it is possible to learn answering question about the text but
pupils do not learn how to work with unknown difficult vocabulary.
An important goal of English for Specific Purposes is to prepare learners for future challenges.
Focus should be on acquiring techniques and building the capacity to deal with difficult vocabulary and idiomatic expressions so pupils get prepared for working with new texts in the future.
Needing teaching resources which better fit my teaching style and philosophy and because of dissatisfaction with available resources for teaching English and Dutch, I started developing my own.
Among the reasons for developing my own language education resources are these:
Providing learners more explanation about, why certain language forms are considered better and what the problems of using the other forms can be,
Offer better help with language learning in other senses,
The teaching style of EnfoS requires modular course ware.
Dissatisfaction with available resourses
More details and examples of developed teaching material at the page: Language Resources
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Irregular Verbs Lists
English Irregular Verbs with phonetic transcription
Some of the English irregular verbs change pronunciation different than what would be expected from the spelling.
This list of irregular verbs shows these unpredictable changes with use of the International Phonetic Alphabet (API).
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