![\"Encourage,](\"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles\/why-learning-neednt-be-lost-in-translation\/lost-in-translation-1.jpg\" "\\"Encourage,")
\nI currently teach English on a course aimed at students and staff of the faculty of UNIVATES, a private university in Lajeado, a small town in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Having taught for close to twelve years now has given me the opportunity to test several different methodologies, and a bank of practical knowledge of what is and isn’t effective when it comes to teaching English to Brazilians.<\/p>\n
It goes without saying that there is no perfect method for teaching English, as it is dependent on the motivations and focus of each individual learner.<\/p>\n
I chose to adopt the Audio-Lingual Method for my classes as I personally find it a really effective method for training students\u2019 oral skills. First and foremost, I like to teach my lessons entirely in English, even though the course where I teach (which uses the Communicative Approach rather than the Audio-Lingual Method) gives no explicit instruction about not using the students’ native language during lessons.<\/p>\n
So, when I step into a new class do I just launch into a lecture to show off how good my English is?\u00a0Not at all!<\/p>\n\n
A good teacher keeps in mind that their role is to teach and encourage students to speak English, and that to do so there are techniques – such as visual aids and gestures – that depend both on the teacher’s and the students\u2019 engagement to work well. However, as a native Portuguese and proficient English speaker, I like to take every opportunity to stretch my Brazilian students’ vocabulary and grammar in English.<\/p>\n
For example, there are many similar words in English and Portuguese that I purposefully use to explain words and phrases that sound completely different in English; such as\u00a0answer<\/em>,\u00a0hard<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0call off<\/em>. Call off is a synonym for cancel, which sounds very similar to\u00a0cancelar<\/em>, its equivalent in Portuguese. So, instead of providing the translation for call off in the following sentence \u201cWe should call off the meeting.\u201d Instead, I explain to my students that call off and cancel are synonyms.<\/p>\n I do the same with the words\u00a0answer<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0hard<\/em>. Although answer and respond are not exact synonyms, respond sounds very similar to its equivalent\u00a0responder<\/em>\u00a0in Portuguese, and hard is a synonym for difficult (dif\u00edcil<\/em>\u00a0in Portuguese). Even if the words and phrases in question are not exact synonyms, I prefer to draw on their similarities rather than translate. As my students\u2019 English improves, I start to introduce more elaborate explanations.<\/p>\n The benefits of this technique are increasing your students\u2019 vocabulary and thus comprehension through regularly introducing new words. As well as equipping students with a richer language-bank so that they can come up with their own way of expressing their ideas in English without resorting to their native language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With English being such a lingua franca, namely in academia and in the world of technology, more and more Brazilians are recognising the necessity of familiarising themselves with the language.<\/p>\n As a result, a large number of new English schools open in Brazil every year, and as they emerge, the need for qualified teachers and attractive methodologies – combined with affordable prices – become fundamental to a school’s success in the growing private education sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Krhd-BL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2347,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions\/2347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles\/why-learning-neednt-be-lost-in-translation\/lost-in-translation-2.jpg\" "\\"Hands")
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