睿騏英文家教
EFFT 成人英語聽說訓練
豐足英語實力,看見更佳視野
Enrich English, Enrich Your English
EET 睿騏英語 Teri 老師 2017年教學回顧
Annual Teaching Reflection 2017 by EET Instructor Teri
Bilingual (雙語對照)
Many More years to come 令我振奮的教學生涯
Time Goes by Fast
They say time goes by fast when you like what you are doing and I couldn’t agree more. I hardly even noticed that it has already been a year since I have been with Enrich English Tuition (EET). To be completely honest, my journey with EET all started out as a passive thing –something productive to do with the few extra free hours that I had, but as time went by, I slowly came to realize that this relationship I have with EET is no longer just to fill my extra hours but rather teaching for EET has actually fulfilled me: as a teacher and as a person in general. I have learned a great deal in a span of just a little over a year and I am certain that I will learn so much more in the future.
我在 EET，時光飛逝
正所謂：「做喜歡的事，時間總是過得特別快。」我很認同這句話。在 EET 睿騏英語 已經不知不覺一年了。老實說，我一開始只是想在多出的幾小時找點事做而已。但隨著時間過去，我漸漸發現，我和 EET 的關係，並不再是單純兼份差事而已，這份教學工作充實了我，不論是以老師還是以個人的身分來說都是如此。我在這一年的工作中學習收穫甚多，且確信以後我還能學到更多。
Why I came for EET
What attracted me to even consider working for EET are EET’s core values and framework of teaching approaches. I have been an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in Taiwan for around five (5) years and have had my Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) certificate for around 4 years prior to working for EET and I have never worked for or even as much as encountered a learning institution with a framework such as EET’s.
兼課 源起
去年，我之所以考慮成為 EET 的一份子，是被 EET 的核心教學理念及教學法的框架吸引。五年前，我取得國際英語師資認證證書 (TESOL certificate)，就開始在台灣從事 ESL 教學 (以英文為第二語言的教學) 。但在來 EET 之前，我工作的地方沒有一間和 EET 有相同教學理念和框架的，我聽都沒有聽過哪裏有這樣的機構。
EET Teaching Approaches Just Fit
EET’s core values and framework of teaching approaches are very much aligned with my personal teaching philosophies that it actually surprised me that I haven’t found out about them and started working for them earlier on in my career as an ESL teacher here in Taiwan. But as the popular saying goes: all good things are worth the wait.
The following are, according to my own words and understanding, EET’s core values and framework of teaching approaches:
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Eliciting Teaching Approach; Learner-Centered Approach
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Systematic Teaching and Curriculum and my personal teaching philosophy and favorite:
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Dissuasion of rote learning
In writing this teaching reflection, I want to specifically touch on a few things about my experience with working as a teacher for EET for the past year or so:
First, the teaching setup;
Second, the degree of student-teacher relationship built within the teaching period;
Third, the student’s willingness to practice and thereby effectively use English even outside of class;
Fourth, the advantages of abiding by EET’s core values and framework of teaching approaches.
So first: the teaching setup. Most, if not all of the classes are held in coffee shops. This makes for a safe but fun and relaxed environment as opposed to having classes in a classroom or some other secluded place. Holding the classes in coffee shops over appropriate drinks make both the teacher and the student feel like they are merely hanging out or catching up with their own friend. On occasion, light snacks such as pastries or cakes might even be thrown in. Whereas if the classes were held in a classroom; I doubt if drinks, aside from water, would even be allowed; thereby making the atmosphere very stiff and not very conducive to adult learning.
踏破鐵鞋無覓處
讓我很驚訝的是，EET 的核心教學理念和框架與我個人的教學想法十分雷同，更之前我在台灣教英文時就是用此方法教英文。但願在我的英語教學生涯中我能早點遇見 EET。 但我想，也許美好的事物都是值得等待的。
『EET 的核心教學理念及框架』就我理解闡述如下
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引導式教學，以學習者為主的教學法
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系統式教學和課程規劃，還有我的個人教學理念和偏好：
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不要學習者以死記硬背的方式來學習
個人教學感受
這份教學回顧，我以這一年在 EET 教學的部分個人經驗來舉例：
一、教學環境；
二、師生於教學期間建立起的默契；
三、學生是否願意練習，接著能於課堂外真正使用英語；
四、遵循 EET 核心教學理念及框架下的優點。
先談 教學環境
普遍上英文課的地點大多不在咖啡廳。但是相對於教室或是其他隔離式的環境，咖啡廳內的舒適又輕鬆的環境上課起來較有趣。於咖啡廳上課，點杯想喝的飲料，可讓師生都覺得彷彿只是和朋友約出來見面聊聊。偶爾可能還會點些下午茶之類的糕點。如果是在普通教室上課，我想可能連水以外的飲料都是不被允許的，會使得氣氛非常枯燥，讓大人的課堂學習效果打折。
Next is the degree of student-teacher relationship built within the teaching period. I am proud and happy to say that I have built a positive relationship with each and every one of my students. [Not that I have a lot; I currently only have five (5) students!] I strongly believe that creating a friendly learning atmosphere by holding the classes in coffee shops does help build the friendly and positive relationship that the teachers and the students have. During the entirety of the teaching period, the students do not just learn and practice English by using the textbooks provided. Although these textbooks are of course extremely helpful, I, as the teacher, try to reconcile the topics on these textbooks to the student’s personal life and/ or profession. This way, what the students learn will be relevant and this will thereby make their English learning retention more natural and less forced.
師生默契的建立
我很高興我可以很驕傲地說，我和我每一位學生都建立了相當正面的默契。(這不是在說我有超多學生，事實上我目前只收五位學生! )
我深信在咖啡廳上課，友善的學習氣氛能為課堂和師生間的互動加分。在我這輩子的教學生涯當中，學習者不是只拿課本上的英文來學習和練習。儘管原文課本十分有用，但身為成人英語老師，應當將教材內容和成人學習者的個人生活和專業做結合，學習者，便能自然而然地學以致用，且不容易遺忘。
This brings me to my third point which is the student’s willingness to practice and thereby effectively use English even outside of class. If the students do not, in any way, feel pressured to retain what they have learned about the English language, they will be more willing to use it in everyday situations. I am always glad to know, through their own stories, that my students are gaining confidence to use the English language in their respective lives. People study a language, in this case English, for a multitude of reasons: One of my students deals with people from different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities as part of his job. And of course English, being the lingua franca that it is, is almost always used.
According to this particular student, he has evidently noticed that his confidence in using the English language has steadily increased over the course of his learning period with EET; not to say that his vocabulary has also widened over this same period. Thankfully, he is still with EET so it will definitely only get better from here on out.
On the other end of the spectrum of reasons why people learn English, another one of my students states that the main reason why she is studying English with EET is because of her love for travel. She doesn’t really need to learn English as part of her job per se, but she does so anyway because it makes travel a whole lot easier. Yet another one of my student’s reason is just because he doesn’t want to become “rusty”. Thus he just wants to continually practice speaking, reading, listening, and writing using the English language for no other significant reason at all but to just have a chance to use it every so often.
This leads me to my last point:
the advantages of abiding by EET’s core values and framework of teaching approaches. As I have mentioned earlier, never in my whole teaching career in Taiwan have I ever encountered a learning institution with a framework such as EET’s. And EET’s core values and framework of teaching approaches are extremely effective. In a country where the norm of learning English is through memorization and grammar structures like a mathematics formula, it is an incredibly pleasant surprise to know that EET’s approach to learning English is different from this. While I do not discount the fact that it is important to learn to spell and know grammar structures, I believe that a better way to do this is through constant practice as opposed to mere memorization. The way I have always looked at it, if we just memorize something, we will come to forget it sooner or later but if the new information we have learned is not forcibly remembered but sticks to our minds through constant practice, then that way, it really sticks and stays.
Moreover, from what I have been seeing in this country, people have already mastered the art of memorizing how to spell words and grammatical formulas in middle school or so. As adults, I think it is only fitting that we move on from memorization to really knowing how to use the English language colloquially –that is by knowing the context, the culture, and when to appropriately use which words instead of just the literal meaning of these words.
These four (4) points work together and none of the three (3) will deliver the same results if we disregard one (1) of these four (4) points because they are intrinsically tied together.
As much as I am fond of looking back at the year or so that I have been with EET, it doesn’t compare to the excitement that I feel for the, hopefully, many more years to come, the more new people (not just students but also coffee shop staff etc.) to meet, the more places to see, the more food (mostly drinks! Haha!) to discover, the more experiences to share, the more lives to touch, the more lessons to learn, the more people to inspire and other more stuff to embark upon. Cheers!
接著就是第三點：學生是否願意練習，接著能於課堂外真正把英語用出來。如果學習英文，不須要靠著考單字文法，學生就不會覺得有壓力，這樣當他們比較能夠將所學的英文運用在日常生活裡的時候，就會更想多學。
我很高興從學生那裡聽到，他們更有信心在自己的生活中使用英文。會學習外國語言 (以英文舉例) 有很多種原因，我有位學生工作上是因為得和來自不同文化種族背景的人們打交道，英語自然是他們之間通用的語言，他和我說，在EET上課的期間，發現自己用英文真的愈來愈有信心了，會用的詞彙也同時變多了。目前他還在 EET上課呢！ 我想他英文能力當然只會再更好。
也有不是為了工作來學英文的人。我另外一位學生說，她之所以在 EET 學英文，只是因為她熱愛旅行。她工作上不需要用到英文，來學英文只是想讓國外旅遊的一切變得更順暢。還有另一名學生學英文的原因是，他不想讓他的英文能力「生鏽」，來上英文課就僅僅只是想維持對英文聽說讀寫的接觸和練習。
最後一點：
遵循 EET 核心教學理念及框架下的優點。
誠如上文，我在台灣教英文這些年，沒遇到過像 EET 一樣有這樣教學觀的機構。EET 允許我們發揮的核心教學價值及框架真的會非常有成效。在台灣這樣一個學習者普遍以背單字和文法就像背數學公式來學英文的國家來說，令我難以相信 EET 能鼓勵和允許老師採用與群眾背道而馳的英語教學法。我不是說 "拼單字和懂文法規則" 不是好事，我只是覺得透過反覆練習英文的成效會比硬背規則的結果更好。我總認為，如果我們只是透過硬背，遲早有一天我們又會忘記；反之，如果新知識並非透過強記，而是透過反覆練習，與我們記憶相連，我們就較能持久記住。
還有，我在台灣看到的情況是，大家在國中開始吧！開始懂得如何拼更多英文單字和知道更多文法規則。我覺得出社會後，成人增強英語能力的方式應該要能從 "背英文" 轉變為真正能夠將所學的英文知識拿出來在口語上使用；亦即知道英文使用的情境、文化，及在什麼時候該用什麼字，而不只是停留在只了解英文單字字面的意思。
以上四點環環相扣，缺任一都無法得到相同結果，因為這四點就是如此密不可分。
回顧過去在EET兼課的時光是很愉悅的，展望未來在 EET 兼課也同樣令我振奮。我期待觸及更多的美好教學時刻，連結更多人們 (學生或咖啡廳店員)，造訪更多咖啡廳，探索更多食物 (還有飲料! 哈哈!)，我期待更多經驗的分享、更多的人生故事的認識、更多的課堂學習、更多的學生和咖啡廳店員的相遇和啟發....... 我期待認識更多更多的一切事物。歡呼！
2017 Teaching Reflection -- End --
2017 英語教學回顧 全文完
作 者： EET 睿騏英語 Teri 老師
中 文 翻 譯 : EET 小編
刊 登 日 期： 2018/4/8
留下意見：
Education is the process in which we discover that learning adds quality to our lives.
