Teaching adults with

More and more I become aware of how teaching English is changing as we teachers become increasingly aware of how confusing English is for students. Ok, no news but  over the past few yearsI have found myself trying to help students gain an awareness of the fact that words in English (or any other language for that matter, i'd dare to say) don't necessarily have a one word equivalent or meaning but rather one or more translations into another language. The way I see it, looking at words as concepts or metaphors should be encouraged when possible.

It is true, however, that not all words lend themselves to this sort of interpretation but many do. Traditionally schools gave a  translation of a word, taken as its only meaning, to students and learners only to find themselves confronted to the word in another context and causing confusion. The last decade there's been an emphasis on collocations, great, that was an improvement, and a more real English as opposed to textbook English. Real English is not easy to acquire in places where English is a foreign language with no contribution from the "system" to actually learn it and use it but it's what should be taught.

I have noticed that just like i have been doing, teachers in online videos teach words and collocations and expressions. I think it's the way to go. It doesn't ensure they'll learn and remember all the translations but I hope this will contribute to a more open-minded approach to vocabulary and lexis learning little by little.
The example I often give them is the word meet translated into Spanish: quedar, encontrarse, ir a recojer, conocer (a alguien - primera vez), satisfacer, cumplir, entre otros. And the Catalan/Spanish word "deixar/dejar": leave, let, stop ing, lend, borrow.

There is also the fact that every single adult who studies English in Spain nowadays has studied English in the past, with little success in most cases. This means we don't have to go through teaching English as if they know nothing, our role is to tackle the very well-identified problem areas in their language if necessary and help them retain, activate and create new words. By creating I mean word formation, which luckily for them, just happens to be just like they do in Spanish. Adding prefixes and suffixes to roots. Most are unaware of the potential language they can understand and produce once they develop an understanding and an awareness of this fact.

Again, the example I usually provide in Spanish is acto, actuar, actuación, actor, actriz, activo/a, activamente, acción, accionar, etc. They all have the same root. We should aim at developing their intuition to learn to create adjectives, for examples with lots of input.

So let's all  teach the differences but also the similarities...their prejudices, their prior knowledge, often weak but there, force us to have to teach them a different way of looking at language, and teach them based on what they know, which makes teaching English in Spain different from teaching a new language from scratch.

està incompletoooo!

Hay que dejar de estudiar y hablar palabra a palabra. Es mucho más rapido y a la vez parecereis más naturales si os aprendéis el vocabulario junto a otra/s palabras:

ejemplo: cuando aprendais que make significa hacer, aprendedlo con todo lo que podéis "make", make a call, make coffee, make a mistake, make a change, make a difference, make me do sth, I can't make it, etc

Otro ejemplo muy interesante es con el verbo meet. Yo lo que recomiendo que no os miréis las palabras como "una palabra, un significado" para los que no podéis evitar traducir. Una palabra se puede traducir de muchas maneras.

I first met him at a party a while ago but i started to get to know him better when we happened to be in the same English class. Now I have known Micheal for a few years and I can say that he’s a great guy to meet up with!

(First) meet somebody – se usa para describir la situacion en la que hablas con alguien por primera vez.

Get to know somebody – Start to become friends with someone, by speding time or doing things together, more personally.

Know someone – conoces (des del momento que os conocisteis/ hablastéis por primera vez a menudo). Sabes bastantes cosas de él, quizás hablais a menudo (no necesariamente), quizás soys compañeros de trabajo, amigos, ...)

Meet somebody – quedar con

I am meeting my friends for a drink at 7pm

I meet my friends on the weekend cos i work till late during weekdays

I first met Peter a few years ago. Since then, we've met a few times but we've never had the chance to get to know each other.

When i went to Romania, my friend met me at the station.

Know se traduce:.. (incompleto)

Know somebody- conocer

Know something- saber

Ojo! Meet tiene muchas traducciones segun lo que lleve detrás!

Tambien tenemos el meet sth, as oposed to meet somebody, como veíamos arriba.
Meet your deadlines, meet the need for... , meet the demand, meet my objectives, meet the target, meet the expectactions, meet the standards, etc....
Cumplir o satisfacer ....