A comment on the articles written by Jeremy Harmer, published on the magazine English Teaching Professional.
The articles are related to the m
ain aspects of the English teaching process: grammar, vocabulary, listening, writing and speaking. Harmer writes about these topics in a very objective and clear way. He describes some difficulties that English teachers have and give useful tips.
According to him grammar has always been a problem for language teachers and students. Rules are often highly complex and interpretations of these rules are often highly controversial. He tells the story of grammar teaching throughout the century beyond suggesting that teachers have to be familiar with grammar rules and teach grammar in a lively way. He claims that grammar shouldn’t be taught apart from vocabulary, because one makes the other works.
Vocabulary has to be dealt with in a careful way. Many words have different meanings if we take into account the context. He affirms that perhaps the best ways to teach vocabulary are listening and reading. He encourages the use of monolingual dictionaries as a way to learn new words.
In my opinion Jeremy Harmer is completely right when he says ‘the best listening exercise is listening to the teacher’, therefore teachers must have an accurate pronunciation. I also I agree with him when he states that writing exercises shouldn’t be over corrected. According to him it is invaluable to use some codes like V for vocabulary, Sp for spelling and G for grammar.
It was worth reading these articles, I learnt a lot.
The articles are related to the m
ain aspects of the English teaching process: grammar, vocabulary, listening, writing and speaking. Harmer writes about these topics in a very objective and clear way. He describes some difficulties that English teachers have and give useful tips.According to him grammar has always been a problem for language teachers and students. Rules are often highly complex and interpretations of these rules are often highly controversial. He tells the story of grammar teaching throughout the century beyond suggesting that teachers have to be familiar with grammar rules and teach grammar in a lively way. He claims that grammar shouldn’t be taught apart from vocabulary, because one makes the other works.
Vocabulary has to be dealt with in a careful way. Many words have different meanings if we take into account the context. He affirms that perhaps the best ways to teach vocabulary are listening and reading. He encourages the use of monolingual dictionaries as a way to learn new words.
In my opinion Jeremy Harmer is completely right when he says ‘the best listening exercise is listening to the teacher’, therefore teachers must have an accurate pronunciation. I also I agree with him when he states that writing exercises shouldn’t be over corrected. According to him it is invaluable to use some codes like V for vocabulary, Sp for spelling and G for grammar.
It was worth reading these articles, I learnt a lot.
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