Are you making this one TEFL Teacher Talk mistake?
We all make mistakes as we learn how to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL). I know I definitely made a ton of them when I first started out in Korea. There’s one common teacher talk mistake that I made back then and I’ve observed native-English speaking teachers continuing to do it for years. It often goes unnoticed and unexamined, but it’s there and it doesn’t help our students. Perhaps you’re doing it, too. What is it? It’s accidentally imitating our own students’ common errors.
Teacher Talk Mistakes
The version of this teacher talk mistake that I recently saw the most of was with the use of “teacher” instead of “I” or “me”. For example, “Everyone, listen to teacher.” This is really common in Vietnam and I hear teachers frequently making it. Others include dropping articles (a, an, the) and leaving out challenging parts of the language for students, such as “s” endings on plural nouns and 2nd person verbs.
Why and What can we do?
In this video I’ll share with you some reasons why I think teachers make this teacher talk mistake. I’ll also discuss why I think it’s something we should watch out for and correct. Finally, I’ll give a tip for how you can find and fix your teacher talk mistakes – it’s something I used to correct many of my teaching mistakes.
How about you?
Have you noticed teachers (or yourself) mimicking any of your students’ common speaking errors? If so, what are they? Share in the comment section below!
And, what other TEFL teaching mistakes might you be making? Check out these articles on preschool praise mistakes and other common ESL teaching mistakes.
