The way I teach stems from the fact that I believe that students should be treated as individuals, each of them having a unique potential and that it is the quest of the teacher to unravel this potential and help the student realize it. This is the ideal I try to reach. I started with exploring this topic in my Bachelor thesis and I gradually gain experience and search for new ways of achieving it.
When I teach I try to offer the students a big range of different types of activities from which they can choose the ones that feel the most natural to them and find their own individual learning style. I mostly shape the lessons to what my students like and try to find new ways of making the learning interesting for them.
I was therefore very pleased about learning about new approaches. From what we went through during the lessons I only heard about one – the TPR on which I made a presentation and which I already use in my lessons. I found most of the rest very interesting with the exception of grammar-translation approach, which I think most of people my age or older have experienced and were not very fond of.
One of the approaches I liked the most was the direct method. I think it is the ideal method to use when teaching
I have never liked drills, however lately I realized that if not overdone they can be useful. It definitely depends on the learner, but I noticed that if I just presented the structure of a sentence and an example, the students found it harder to make their own sentences. When I drilled one sentence, than started replacing one word at a time, it was easier for them to embrace. I also let the students to formulate the grammar rules on their own, which, I believe, is very motivating for them and I try to give them opportunities to realize things on their own instead of just telling them. It also prevents the students from only memorizing the model sentences without being able to formulate their