ESL Blogs

I am a passionate non- native English teacher from Poland. Teaching is a crucial part of my life. With that understanding, I am a lifelong learner.
I am applying a blended learning/ training and flipped classroom method.
The traditional physical classroom settings are not efficient enough for my lessons.
In my opinion, technology gives us countless new possibilities.
As I have already specified, I prefer blended learning, which means taking advantage of both traditional f2f techniques and opportunities confronted with new technologies.
An occasion to meet and connect with people from the entire Globe is one of the reasons I appreciate online communication very much.
I retired in October 2013 and signed for a freelance Senior Lecturer occupation at the Wroclaw University of Technology.
At present, I am going to continue taking and giving online English courses.
Thinking in a foreign language is precisely what I want my students to accomplish. I teach without a bridge language or lingua franca also known as a common language, trade language or even vehicular language. Students do not share any mutual language. I focus on practical communication skills which cover the ability to speak appropriately to a wide variety of students while maintaining good eye contact, demonstrate a varied vocabulary and tailor the language to your audience. We need to listen effectively, present ideas appropriately, write clearly and in brief and work well in a group. All of these abilities and competencies require excellent communication skills.

When I teach Polish, my foreigners and I have to speak only Polish, and my English classes are run entirely in English.
This means they are required to forget about their native language and start speaking as well as thinking in a foreign language.
My students learn English in different contexts, mostly singing phrases, expressions, collocation, idioms, and phrasal verbs, and also telling stories.
I correct only substantial mistakes. I do not want them to stop talking. I also encourage my students to listen to songs, watch movies with subtitles in a language they learn, read a lot and so forth.
Additionally, to improve a student’s pronunciation, I often use YouTube videos as well as movies with English subtitles and songs.