stharitou

“The sound of silence” was a song of the 60s, which I enjoyed in the 80s. The first thing that attracted me was the simple though soulful melody played by the guitar and the sad sweet opening phrase: “hello darkness my old friend” performed by the two mellifluous voices. It gave me the impression that the artists indulged in loneliness, which is exactly what I more often than not relish in my life.
I believe that loneliness is misjudged and not given the credit it deserves. Being on one’s own does not necessarily mean being isolated or alienated. I understand it contains a feeling of sadness but, why not, satisfaction too. It is a time during which one can rest from the other people’s noise, the crowd’s roar, the clamour of voices and the hubbub of streets.
It is the precious time during which one should bring their routine to a halt in order to ponder over one’s life, relationships and actions. It is the time to get to know oneself or reconcile with it. I often meet people who “avoid themselves” deliberately because they are afraid of what they may find out! Or even worse, people who wriggle out of assessing their behaviour and persist in complaining about others.
I find it really difficult to sympathise with all those individuals who are afraid of being alone without a tangible target to meet. People who need a heavy programme to keep themselves busy. Unfortunately they end up engaging in boring, useless activities as well as forcing themselves on others. I feel suffocated by this attitude particularly when it is expressed by members of my family circle.
However, I am quite optimistic about the future. I notice that such forceful attitude belongs to the past and is not adopted by modern people. What used to be characterized as neglect or indifference now is regarded as patience, courage and calmness.

Long discussions are being held about NESTs(Native English Speaking Teachers) and NNESTs(Non-Native English Speaking Teachers). It is amazing how justified all of them are. What I can contribute to these talks are some conclusions based on my experience as a NNEST, since I am Greek and I teach English as a foreign language(FL) to Greek students.

I would like to start by mentioning the strengths:

a NNEST can

• give time-saving lessons through controlled use of mother tongue(MT)
• highlight similarities and differences between FL and MT
• easily recognise MT transfer during the Ss’ production process and implement clever, on the spot remedies and guidance
• build rapport fast

On the other hand a NNEST’s weaknesses are:

• occassionally incorrect pronunciation modelling
• excessive and unnecessary use of MT
• ignorance of collocations and fixed expressions resulting in unnatural spontaneous (unplanned)  responses during small talk
• inability to answer straightaway Ss’ questions that have not been anticipated in the lesson plan

However, there are remedies to overcome the above weaknesses:

A teacher should

• thoroughly check and practise pronunciation during lesson planning (dictionary CDs make this very easy)
• anticipate his/her own problems at the lesson planning stage
• be quick to jot down his/her errors or queries during the lesson in order to study them at home and keep record of correct language
• create a checklist with practices to avoid and refer to it at the end of each lesson or week.
• invite an observer to give objective advice
• have constant exposure to everyday language (through films, TV series, songs, youtube videos, internet chats)
• read various texts (magazines, newspapers, novels, poems, internet articles)
• use reliable reference material (collocations dictionary, idioms dictionary, etc.)

Finally, let me state that whatever teacher (NEST / NNEST) one is, the most important thing is to recognise  weak points and aim at improving skills.

I would be particularly pleased to read your comments.