Don’t you want to truly shine?
The Greatest thing about CLT
In the previous post, I describe how three of my colleagues tried to learn Chinese in a ‘traditional’ way, from a ‘traditional’ teacher, in a ‘traditional’ school, and how bad it was for them.
And this leads to the greatest thing about CLT. It’s the total opposite to that situation. CLT is wonderful. It empowers you, it respects you, it celebrates that you are an individual who can contribute to the class. You are not seen as passive and empty bottles; you are seen as intelligent human beings who are a resource for everyone! You can really shine (hence the picture above).
CLT is NOT based on nationality, race, or religion. It doesn’t play the insulting ‘you are Chinese, so you need a Chinese teacher’ game. CLT is based on the universal aspects of human nature, the common thinking processes, instincts, and knowledge of society and the world that everyone has.
CLT states that all human beings share the same set of human responses, and are driven by the same needs. We all smile, we can all laugh at a joke, and when a teacher holds up a picture, and we all recognise what we see.
Here’s one of my favourite quotes from the Learning-Teaching textbook which I used when training teachers.
As language teachers, we are privileged to work with a vital and fascinating subject matter. Language is the way we express our very being. It is the way we come to terms with the world. It is the way we make our understanding of life concrete. It is the way we make contact with other human beings.
Teaching English as a foreign language is indeed a great thing, and all teachers who do it should take it very seriously, and strive to do it in the best possible way. The problem is, they don’t!
The Problem: the BIG Problem
The problem is, the old system requires little effort, preparation, or skill, and requires you to keep paying money for course after course with very limited results. This is attractive to many teachers, schools, and organisations.
The problem is, there is a whole industry out there based on this. Ethics are irrelevant when the money rolls in. So, the propaganda, the marketing, the networking, the deceitful advertising, the tricks and games continue. The whole teaching environment changes into methods of getting your money; not methods to actually help you.
Your job as a consumer is to work out what is true, what is false, and what is best for you.
The next post will begin answering specific attacks people might make about all I have said.
Now, check that you know the meaning of the underlined vocabulary (also repeated below).
- to empower (v)
- to be passive (adj)
- to be insulting (adj)
- aspect (n)
- an instinct (n)
- to be priviledged (adj)
- to strive (v)
- ethics (n)
- propaganda (n)
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