Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 4; July 02

A List of Teacher Worries

Colleagues from the Centre d'Etudes des Langues,
Massy-Palaiseau, France

In the course of a workshop in the Centre d'Etudes de Langues, in a suburb of greater Paris, 10 people who teach English to the business community stated what follows to be the major concerns and fears they had professionally:

Teacher 1: Fear that I will stagnate, become boring and bored.

Worry that I'll lose the empathy for the learner that I have always felt because I am caught up in the pressure of the profession.

I want to find a way to generate enthusiasm and joy among my colleagues ( who are friends) for this profession that I love.

Teacher 2: I'm worried about :

not feeling relaxed with English
understanding the "stagiares" ( participants)
understanding myself.

Teacher 3:

my teaching persona

my accent

when to stop pair/groupwork

Teacher 4.

physical energy ( speaking wears me out )

trying to find interest in activities I have already done 100 times

managing time

Teacher 5:

evaluation, that is to say evaluating the progress of the students

knowing the importance (sic) language which is spoken in their reality

working one-to-one

Teacher 6:

the students don't like learning languages and find the training, imposed by the company, a heavy burden. Even coming to the Language Centre is an effort for them.

the students treat each lesson as a break from work and use French rather than English.

the students never recycle the vocabulary they learn in class and never do their homework, claiming they are far too busy and tired.

Teacher 7:

my English is wearing off and I don't feel as spontaneous as before

unclear objectives

how to measure students' improvements

Teacher 8:

How to maintain a dynamic when teaching one-to-one

at upper levels progress is slower, leading to frustration- how can students be reassured?

How to override the passivity bred by their time in school and by their school books

Teacher 9:

Helping students learn almost without learning

" Driving" groups from one idea to the next ( preparation)

Grammar – is it so important?

Teacher 10:

Me: not dominating proceedings

not echoing or over-correcting

diagnosing problems accurately

Does your list of teaching concerns at all echo any of the thoughts of these 10 colleagues?