Is the method of English teaching in schools helpful for learning English ?

Piyali, could you point us out to some of the methods you think are not satisfactory?

Piyali, could you point us out to some of the methods you think are not satisfactory?

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I agree with Piyali.

The methods of teaching English in textbooks are holdovers from the way Latin was taught to scholars back in the 12-13th centuries. It does not even make sense to native English speakers.

I have been teaching English over 30 years to American college students whose schooling is in English speaking schools. They have different oral communication problems than those from a nonEnglish background, but still have difficulty making themselves on topics other than concerts, dating, and sports events. In written English, most are simply incompetent.

Linda Aragoni
http://www.you-can-teach-writing.com
http://twitter.com/LindaAragoni
http://GreatPenformances.Wordpress.com

I agree with Piyali. The methods of teaching English in textbooks are holdovers from the way Latin was taught to scholars back in the 12-13th centuries. It does not even make sense to native English speakers. I have been teaching English over 30 years to American college students whose schooling is in English speaking schools. They have different oral communication problems than those from a nonEnglish background, but still have difficulty making themselves on topics other than concerts, dating, and sports events. In written English, most are simply incompetent. Linda Aragoni http://www.you-can-teach-writing.com http://twitter.com/LindaAragoni http://GreatPenformances.Wordpress.com

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I think Piyali has a point. I met some BPO recruitment agencies in Kolkata at a British Council conference on the teaching of English in India last November. They were exasperated at the lack of progress of so many students and it is their speaking and listening skills and soft skills (being able to just chat easily) that is the biggest problem. In my experience the way to improve those areas are through focused socialised practice of language (i.e. pre-teach some language and then practice it with some fluent or native speakers). Confidence, motivation, intonation and fluency will all improve when the learner experiences real and memorable progress through proving to themselves that they can be understand and be understood using the target language. I also learnt that many Indian teachers don't feel confident in their own speaking and listening abilities and thus tend to teach to the written tests in a rote fashion. Students simply don't get the right kind of preparation and practice that they require to be able to produce language without being lost for words (which they probably do know and can write, but cannot speak). I could ramble on but if you are interested have a look at my content in which there is a presentation called 'Introduction to teaching English Out There'. In it there are some slides and I am recorded speaking about how we process, store and recall language/information and how materials and methods that are widely used are indeed not up to the job.

I think Piyali has a point. I met some BPO recruitment agencies in Kolkata at a British Council conference on the teaching of English in India last November. They were exasperated at the lack of progress of so many students and it is their speaking and listening skills and soft skills (being able to just chat easily) that is the biggest problem. In my experience the way to improve those areas are through focused socialised practice of language (i.e. pre-teach some language and then practice it with some fluent or native speakers). Confidence, motivation, intonation and fluency will all improve when the learner experiences real and memorable progress through proving to themselves that they can be understand and be understood using the target language. I also learnt that many Indian teachers don't feel confident in their own speaking and listening abilities and thus tend to teach to the written tests in a rote fashion. Students simply don't get the right kind of preparation and practice that they require to be able to produce language without being lost for words (which they probably do know and can write, but cannot speak). I could ramble on but if you are interested have a look at my content in which there is a presentation called 'Introduction to teaching English Out There'. In it there are some slides and I am recorded speaking about how we process, store and recall language/information and how materials and methods that are widely used are indeed not up to the job.

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Hi, I have been engaged in English teaching for last 5 years... I have also experience in teaching school... now I am engaged as a spoken english trainer... in my spoken english class I mostly deal with the college students... most of them have their schooling from nonEnglish medium schools...They are very poor in English, unable to construct correct sentence... pronunciation is also very poor...but they are learning english from their childhood...but I think whatever they have learnt from their text books are not useful to them.. because they have not learnt the real english which they need for the advancement of their career...

Hi, I have been engaged in English teaching for last 5 years... I have also experience in teaching school... now I am engaged as a spoken english trainer... in my spoken english class I mostly deal with the college students... most of them have their schooling from nonEnglish medium schools...They are very poor in English, unable to construct correct sentence... pronunciation is also very poor...but they are learning english from their childhood...but I think whatever they have learnt from their text books are not useful to them.. because they have not learnt the real english which they need for the advancement of their career...

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