Divulgando....

Hello my friends,

Look at the bottom of this page and you will see an invitation for you. It should be a really interesting show! Some of you may have already received this invitation but I am sending it to you again just in case.
Anyways, I wanted to tell all of you how the APLITINS (Association of English Teachers for the State of Tocantins) seminar went...
Well, my presentation was titled 'The Fear of Speaking'... and how appropriate this was because before the presentation I was so nervous I thought I would be sick. I am not sure why I got so nervous but I really did. Fortunately, after 15 minutes I calmed down (got into the 'groove') and I suppose it went pretty good after that. There was about 80 teachers in attendance and some really great speakers.
It is strange but I would always get scared like that teaching my first day of class with new students too - an anxiety of 'will they like the class?', 'will I like the class?' etc. Anyways, I lived through it and I made it back to Brasilia. I think many of us and our students feel this fear in communicating for various reasons. For our students, I think the main thing is to make the classroom an area where it is OK to make mistakes. With my students, I have even on occasion congratulated their mistakes more than when they are doing the right thing... Why? You may say I am crazy but mistakes are lovely for us as teachers because they show us where to focus our attention. Think of tests - for the students, tests are all about the good grade. On the other hand, for us as teachers tests are more about the wrong answers because we see what we are missing with our students. Mistakes are diagnostic tools just like physical written tests! Make your students comfortable to make mistakes (if you go over my punctuation in this Email you will be congratulating me all night! - terrible!)
Oh! I also tell my students to imagine a person who they think is an excellent speaker (in any language) and try to copy them (gestures, eye contact, dynamic voice, etc.) My favorite is Bruce Lee. True, his accent was terrible but what an amazing communicator he was! Check out this old interview with him and maybe you won't understand a word he says but you will see he speaks with no fear! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-cnizLDEE&feature=related
Don't just teach English, teach courage and be courageous.
As always, anything you need let me know. My book is finished.

Andre H. Polushin
ELT Consultant
Richmond Publishing & Santillana