Chapter One

My Philosophy, My Experience or What I Know After Thirty Years of Teaching English

A researcher by the name of André Giordan, who works at the University of Geneva, published a book entitled Une autre école pour nos enfants (A New Type of School for Our Children). He says we have to put the learner at the center of our education system. It is not the subject we are teaching that matters the most. It is the way in which the student assimilates this knowledge. And that depends to a great extent on the personality of the learner. So the teacher must know how to transmit a passion, give guidelines, motivate and inspire. But at the same time the teacher must bear in mind that each learner has a particular way of assimilating knowledge. I totally agree with this point of view.

Teachers helping each other

André Giordan goes on to explain that in France there are too many class hours and everything cannot be taught by means of electronics (computers and the Internet). Moreover, he points out that emerging teachers in France find themselves in front of a class for the first time without having been instructed on how to animate a group, how to choose appropriate teaching materials or how to assess students fairly, because they have not received any real practical teacher training. This is undoubtedly the case of teachers all over the world and not only in France. Giordan adds that young teachers, with no or very little experience, should be briefed before going into the classro

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