A very good English teacher that I know

The following is the column "Campus Voice" in the Student Post dated July 12, 1998, almost 16 years ago.

A very good English teacher that I know

To the editor:

All the English teachers I had before senior high school gave me the impression that English teaching is focused mainly on a tedious one-way practice pattern. Teachers lecture and students listen.

However, Andy, one of my English teachers in high school, altered my views on English teaching. He taught in an interesting, creative and original way.

First of all, he would make sure that we clearly and vividly understood the vocabulary, phrases and expressions by introducing their origins, singing songs which covered the expressions and demonstrating with authentic American conversations. For instance, when Andy taught the word "familiar," he would demonstrate its use by saying, "Oh, you look familiar, but your name escapes me!" These examples of colloquial uses of the vocabulary provided many useful tips on how to use vocabulary words.

Second, he would edit writing materials to use as ice-breakers. The topics covered in these articles would be the focus of discussions. Andy combined writing and speaking activities together in an interesting way. He would cover a number of useful words and phrases from our textbooks and also add some novel ideas and expressions which he would print on a handout for the class. In this way, we enhanced our writing and speaking abilities. Andy would also show us what professional writing is like by using excerpts from The China Post. He taught this in several easy-to-digest lessons.

As for our listening, Andy would prepare basic weather forecasts or funny radio commercials or even songs by Oasis, Paul Simon and other contemporary singers.

Teaching is a process of digging out and emptying oneself. Andy tried his hardest to establish himself and even went abroad for his comparative literature and mass communication doctor's degrees. He also revised his teaching material every semester. Doesn't my English class sound interesting to you? Well, for me, I now know that English can be fun, creative and original!

Lilian Ning

National Taiwan Normal University





Taipei