Teaching in Germany, like teaching everywhere else, has
its high and lows. Although I hadn`t had an idea where I was going to work or
even where I should apply for a job, I was absolutely self-confident when I got
here. I am an experienced teacher, with plenty of qualifications and always
willing to learn more. That`s when I had my first surprise. Nobody knew what
COTE, CELTA or DELTA was and the ones who knew didn`t seem to think much of these qualifications.
All that matters was that you were an English native speaker. This situation
has been slowly changing, as with the EU and the Common European Framework of
Reference, language teaching institutions gradually began to realize that
learning foreign languages is indispensable no only in Europe, but in the whole
world and that for some specific purposes the teacher must know what he or she is
doing in order to really be able to help students in their process.
So, there I was 5 years ago, trying to find a
job position and facing the difficulty of making people believe that although I
wasn’t a native speaker, I was highly qualified for the task of teaching. Soon
enough I realized that if I wanted to work here, it would have to be as a
freelance and that finding job wouldn’t be very easy. When I was almost giving
up, I came across a school where the coordinator was a very nice lady from Brighton, who happened to have had gone through lots of
trouble herself when she first got here and she didn’t hesitate in offering me
some groups. So, I started working freelance at that school and soon enough I
started to get very positive feedback from the students and from the
coordination. One of the courses I taught was for young children aged 6 and 7
and as they told at home they were having a lot of fun with the classes, some
parents came to meet me. They raved about my work at the children’s school, so some
parents decided to put together a course for children from the 1st
and 2nd grades. These children hadn’t started having English classes
as part of their school curriculum yet. The parents wanted to take advantage of
the fact that the children seemed to be willing to lean the language. Normally they
would only start having English lessons at school on the 3rd grade.
I loved the idea and wrote a project in which I
suggested a kind of play group where children would simply start to get in
contact with the language in a playful way. The day we went to the school and
presented the project to the other English teachers and the principal, I had a
very strange experience. They all were against the project for two great
reasons: first, they were very concerned about how disruptive the children
would behave in class on the 3rd grade once they realized that they
already knew some of the material being taught. And second, because they
thought a non- native teacher would “spoil” the children’s accent.
I was speechless.
Aren’t we supposed to teach the students and not our lesson plans, meaning that
we should always try to adapt our lessons to the students’ needs and not the
other way around? This way, we could always find a way of teaching the same
material, if necessary, without the lesson being repetitive and boring, thus
creating disruption in class. Also, isn’t it very strange to be concerned with
accents, in a world where globalization makes sure that English is used
everywhere and not only in places where it is the original language? Much to
the dissatisfaction of those teachers, the course happened, it lasted two years
and it was a great success.
But apart from this weird experience, I also
had very pleasant moments teaching in Germany. Adult students here are
very hard working and take their learning very seriously. They will happily try
out the suggestions you give and as they notice their command of the language
improving, they are very grateful for our contribution as teachers. I don’t
think they used to have very communicative lessons in the past so, in the
beginning of an adult course there is always a bit of unease. They don’t know
if you mean it seriously when you ask them to stand up, move around and find a
partner, for example. But as soon as they notice that it is indeed possible to
have fun and learn at the same time, they became very enthusiastic learners.
Seeing normally strict, rule-loving German adults, relaxing, smiling and having
fun with their English learning process is definitely making my teaching here
worthwhile.