English Angel 在師大 (鄭苔英老師)

These few years I have had experiences teaching students from different settings, universities and school of continuing education. Some students are studying at a prestigious university. Some are studying at a low ranking university. The others are adults who take English classes just to improve their English abilities or personal satisfaction. I have to say that I actually learned a lot from teaching these students. For example, high level students who are currently at a so called "good university", the majority of them has good English abilities and their attitudes toward English are positive. They have the habits to read English and they are more responsible for their own studying. A lot of them are from a family where their parents pay attention to their education and will be willing to provide them a good learning environment. Therefore, students' general English abilities are higher. On the contrary, lower level students who are from low ranking universities do ha...

Good teachers make a difference. But the question is "What is a good teacher?" "Am I a good teacher?", sometimes, we all ask ourselves the same question. From time to time, we examine ourselves and hope we are the one who inspires the students and helps them learn in class. Sometimes, I hear complaints from students and I am so surprised by what they say. Students who have a problem learning or hate English due to the teacher's attitudes. Therefore, I believe that as a teacher we can do the following. A good teacher should: 1. have enthusiasm and patience. 2. answer students questions patiently. 3. give students challenging tasks. 4. inspire students to learn. 5. motivate students. 6. have good interaction with students. 7. provide variety of activities in class. A good teacher shouldn't: 1. deride students. 2. look down at slower learners. 3. have a superior attitude toward students.

When I teach freshman English Reading class at universities, I do find out students' attitudes are quite negative toward English. I remembered the previous year when I taught lower level students at a university. I asked students how much they enjoyed learning English. The students' answers were quite disappointing. Students told me that they hated English a lot. Like usual, I had a big class around 65 students. Many students attended the class simply because it was compulsory. Few students really liked or were motivated to learn English reading. In order to know their attitudes toward English, I asked them on my very first class to tell me how much they hate or like English. I would draw a graph from 0 to 100, every ten is an interval, to see if they like or dislike English. O means they like English very much; 100 means they hate English the most. The survey results showed that almost 2/5 of my students hate English a lot. 1/3 of the students say they don'...