How Languages Are (and Aren’t) Learned
By David Shaffer Language learning methods are not always as effective as they might at first seem to be. Here we will take a somewhat deeper (though admittedly brief) look … Read More
Category: Language Teaching
Misbeliefs About Second Language Learning Methods
By David Shaffer Beliefs are formed in large part by the experiences that we have. And misconceived beliefs are often construed by not having had the opportunity of experiencing a … Read More
Myth-conceptions About Children Learning a Second Language
By David Shaffer Myths die hard. Myths in general are misconceptions held by a culture or society, large or small, and persist in almost any area of endeavor that one … Read More
Teacher Traits for Teaching Great
As an educator, no one wishes to be merely a mediocre teacher. We all wish to be thought of as very good or great teachers by our colleagues, our institution’s administration, and probably most importantly, by our students. There are numerous traits that contribute to making a teacher great. In the previous two installments of this column, we discussed ten of them (Gwangju News, May and June 2023), but I would be remiss to limit the discussion to those ten when there are so many more important traits to consider. I do not wish to suggest that a single teacher must excel at each of these great teacher traits, but it is obvious that the greater one excels at each trait and the more traits that one excels at, the more likely they are to be thought of as a great teacher. The great teacher traits presented here – as well as the ones presented earlier – are in no particular order of importance. I consider them all to be of equal importance.
Traits That Make a Teacher Great
By Dr. David Shaffer Every teacher wants to be a good teacher. But like all good things in this world, it takes effort. It takes an effort to consider what … Read More
Traits That Very Good English Teachers Exhibit
Have you ever sat back in your most comfortable chair and reflected on yourself as a teacher? Have you thought about what the most important traits are for an English teacher to possess and then considered how strong you were in each of those characteristics? This is something that we all should do, and do regularly, to improve ourselves as teachers. I think it is safe to say that no teacher is equally strong in all good teacher traits – if such a person were to exist, they would probably have moved into the business field, where they could rake in an income that would place them in a much higher tax bracket than that of teachers.
Let’s consider the following (short and by no means exhaustive) list of teacher characteristics and, as we do, reflect on how strong (or how weak) we may personally be in each of the characteristics, and consider what we can or should do to strengthen ourselves in that teacher trait. As you are reflecting, you need not stop with the items listed below; add your own items and reflect on them also.
Chatting About and Chatting With ChatGPT: Evaluating a Chatbot as a Language Learning Tool
Here we will discuss what ChatGPT can do, what it does well and not so well, and the impacts that it might have in the fields of education and second language learning for both teachers and students.
Looking for a Coursebook
A new session is beginning at your school, and you need to select a coursebook for the EFL course that you will be teaching. What to do? Go to the ELT bookstore in your area to check out the coursebooks available.