So today I just thought I'd do a quick check-in to let you know how I'm getting on with everything. The good news is-I'm now on the final unit of my online grammar module (THANK GOD), which has been driving me a bit mad. As a Native English speaker, I've really taken for granted how complicated our language is, and how difficult it must be for foreign learners to pick up. So, all I can say is-massive kudos to all of you who have learnt English as a second language!
Although doing the grammar module has been a bit of an uphill struggle, it's been made a whole lot enjoyable due to the fella that this post is devoted to-James, a language teacher from www.engvid.com (a really good website offering free English video lessons). I first came across James when his video on adverbs was embedded into my course material-and it's safe to say that I've looked forward to grammar lessons a lot more ever since! Why? Unlike most of the online TEFL material, James makes me giggle. He's always cracking bad jokes, getting carried away and makes the occassional mistake. He's also clearly a really, really good teacher, with some really clever methods that stay in your mind long after the bad jokes are forgotten. In fact, he's a prime example of why we need human teachers, and just not words on a screen, to help us learn things (okay, I know he's just in a video on a screen, but you get me). Even if you're not learning English or doing TEFL, I'd recommend that you watch a few minutes of his video on phrasal verbs featured below, just for the entertainment value...
I think you'll now agree-he's a dude.
If you watched for long enough, you may have noticed one of my favourite things about James-his wormy whiteboard sidekick, Mr. E! Mr. E features in all of James's vids, and I think he's an absolutely brilliant invention. Essentially, he's just a worm drawn on a whiteboard, but he's usually put to good use in order to highlight important points, and James gives him a silly highpitched voice which I (and most other 6 year olds) find highly amusing. When I'm actually qualified to teach myself, I think I may use a 'Mrs.E' (or another invented whiteboard friend) in a similar way; especially as I'm mostly interested in teaching young learners who I imagine would love a silly gimmick like this.
So, before I sign out, I just wanted to say a big THANK-YOU to James (and Mr. E)-not only for teaching me grammar, but also for teaching me how to teach. Hopefully, the little bits of inspiration you've given me will help somehow in the future.
Anyway-I'm gonna go and revise some future tenses (might watch another of James's vids, in fact!). Need to keep my mind off the fact that I get my final Uni results tomorrow (eek!).
See you soon!
Hope xx
P.S Just wanted to give Ronnie of EngVid a shout-out, too. Her videos are kickass and my second favourite.
No comments:
Post a Comment