Teaching? Guiding? Helping?

I just commented on a post about teaching on Doshar's blog ... and it triggered me to write a post I've been postponing for so long...

I've been teaching English as a Second Language since 2001... started as something part time ... a hobby... but then I found I enjoyed it sooooo much I wouldn't give it up....

But what is teaching exactly? Do you instruct? Do you train your students? Do you lead and show them the way? Do you help them learn? But what does "learn" mean? Does it mean "to be taught"? Or "to gain knowledge"?

So many questions... and so many answers... depends on who you're teaching and what you're teaching....

My experience has taught me (and what does "taught" mean again? ;-) that to make students learn English ... you must make them first "want to learn" ... and know why they want to learn... then guide them through it... help them acquire what they want to ... not "give it" to them ... elicit it from them... bring it out from them.... they must feel that you are there to guide them... but to learn... they must make an effort .... and enjoy that effort... and then feel the "thrill" of being able to use a language they once knew nothing of !!!

It isn't as blissful as I make it sound.. but I do try to do what I can to make it that way... I don't always succeed but there are many times that I do...

But it isn't all about acquiring knowledge... there's the discipline part too ... and that's the tricky part ... especially with adults... I always put myself in their shoes... what would I feel like if I were sitting there?

I started teaching when I was 22... most of my students were older than me... I'd have men in their early forties ... or housewives in their late thirties... people who didn't have a chance to learn English.... and I realised it's all about "respect" .... show them respect ... it reflects..... they give you respect... the point is I genuinely respected them... I appreciated the fact that they were coming to learn... sometimes with the younger ones ... the ones around my age or a little younger... I'd have a few problems ... but nothing really major.... I gradually learnt when to have to stop at a problem and when to let it go....

Now I'm part of a sort of "crash course" programme... I go from 9-3 with 2 half hour breaks .... by the end of the day I'm quite exhausted and so are my students (I have 16) .... a couple of weeks ago... one of my relatively good students almost dozed in class... it was around 2:30 ... and I saw his head nod... I chose not to look in his direction and pretend I hadn't seen him ... I don't think anyone felt that I'd seen him.... at the end of class I found him waiting for me at the door ... telling me he's really sorry for what happened in class 30 mins ago ... I couldn't believe it .... here was this 28 year old gentleman ... owning up to me... out of respect... now had I embarrassed him ... would he have felt that way?
Not all cases are the same ... and I sometimes deliberately ask students who are always not paying attention to join in something we're discussing... but like I said ... you eventually learn when to stop and when to let go....

In all I think I enjoy teaching... I don't know how I'd feel if I were teaching something like Physics for example... but language teaching suits me just fine....
I think to teach you must keep in mind that you're helping people acquire and gain something they don't know... you guide them and show them the way... and try to make them value what you're leading them to....