How to Teach a Second Language

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Recommended: Factors affecting second language learning

Presently, teaching a second language has been a very important task in most of the countries around the world, especially English as the universal language. Future teachers and even qualified teachers must be in constant preparation and improvement to achieve their goals with second language learners.Becauseof the time, some things you have learnt you forget put them into practice or some important considerations such as to know what can affect your students, or implement appropriate opportunities for learners to practice the language during the class. According to Jim Scrivener (2011), the general ideas from someone who wants to teach a second language are: what a teacher’s job is, what learners can do and how they should work. Based on these ideas, before you start teaching you have to consider three main steps. First of all you have to know the language, then you need to know the factors that affect second language acquisition and finally you have to learn appropriate strategies to teach a second language. So, “Teaching a second language is a process that requires proficiency in the second language, understanding the factors that affect learner’s learning and teaching methodologies”.

The first step to teach a second language is to know the language. You cannot teach a second language if you do not have an appropriate level of the language. According to the “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages” or “Council of Europe” (As Scrivener mentions), it presents six statements to identify the language level: A1 (Elementary), A2 (Pre-intermediate), B1 (Intermediate), B2 (Upper Intermediate), C1 (Advanced) and C2 (Nearly native-speaker level). For instance, in Chile, the second language that is taught at every school...

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...ires proficiency in the second language, achieving the minimum level required to teach a second language in each place. Secondly, you have to know the factors that affect their learning, it means knowing our students’ characteristics. And finally, teaching methodologies, knowing the most appropriate strategies according to the group. Teaching can be very exciting when you have prepared your lessons correct and efficiently, especially considering the three steps already presented. All these steps mixed make a teacher able to teach a second language and when the teachers achieve the goals previously stated, they will have completed this process of teaching.

Works Cited

Ellis, Rod. (1895). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press.

Scrivener, Jim. (2011). Learning Teaching. The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching. Macmillan.

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