Jan 18

CZECH They Understand!

Checking for meaning
Why CHECKING learners understand is important. For CELTA & novice teachers...
Even if you think that you have taught something REALLY well, it's still important to CHECK that your learners have understood. If you want an illustration of this and an 'aha' moment that I had about it, 'Czech' out my video (if you watch it, you'll understand the pun...)
Video transcript

You teach your learners something new. You ask if they understand and they say ‘yes’. Job done. Well, not quite. And if you want to know why, keep watching.

If this is the first time we’re meeting, I’m Jo Gakonga, I’m a teacher educator and I’ve been a CELTA trainer and assessor for over 20 years. I’ve also got a website at ELT-Training.com where I make video based support material for English language teachers at all stages of their careers. Check it out and if you like this, give it a thumbs up and subscribe, I make a new video every week.

I’ve only learnt one language in an immersion environment where the teacher only spoke the target language in class and that was when I was learning Czech, working in Prague.

We had a lovely teacher who was very dynamic and enthusiastic and I liked the class but she tended to go quite quickly. One day, she was teaching a new word – ted’. She was standing next to a table and she did this ted’ ted’…. Because she was actually pointing at it and probably also because it started with a /t/ sound, I assumed it meant ‘table’…. Wrong.

Ted’ actually means ‘now’ in Czech and the irony is that the teacher was using hand gestures that I would use myself in class – now, the past, the future… but I STILL got confused.

It was a great lesson for me for my own teaching. Even if you think you’ve done a really clear, obvious job of explaining something, it’s not at all certain that they’ve understood.

And DON’T ask ‘do you understand?’ because if my Czech teacher had asked this, I would have confidently said ‘yes’!

If you want more help with concept checking questions, I’ve got a great course to help you as well as lots of other material on the site. See you on the inside...

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