TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH THE MAGIC WORLD OF THE PRINTED LETTERS.

As a learner I remember at primary school that at the beginning of each unit we had a little comic story and first we heard a cassette tape. Once it was done, the teacher made us to read it, repeating it until all of us had read it. I think that it was not a good way to make us understand the global meaning of the story, because there was a lot of new vocabulary that we didn't know. In my opinion, the teacher had to work before the new words and expressions and then, start with the reading.
At high school we started to read short story books. They were interesting, but not related to what we did during the lessons. I think that it can be a good methodology to work the autonomy of the students, though this it's only possible if they have some level and some of us hadn’t got it.

Despite those bad reading practices during my education, I learned a lot because I love reading and when the teachers sent us little stories or short books I enjoyed a lot with a dictionary by my side. Doing this I acquired a lot of lexicon.

 My first English book at school.

So, the connected words of other people, during my school and high school years, helped me to enhance my English, but if I have to be sincere the way that I learned (and I’m still learning these days)  the most is reading the lyrics of the songs. It all started with a small notebook in which I write the words of the song I liked. I finished two notebooks. I noticed an improvement in my reading and pronunciation and, of course, in my writing skill.

I was growing up and some other lyrics and artists came to me like Springsteen, Carole King and Cohen, but If I have to chose my best English teacher, he would be who, in my opinion, is the best lyricist: Bob Dylan. With a big book with all his lyrics that I got and a good dictionary I can be sure that I will have my best English lessons.

My best English teacher.

Learning a language is always a challenge, but to make meaningful the learning process I think that one of the most important things is to find it useful. I found (I find) this utility in understand the lyrics of my favourite artists.

I work as an English teacher in pre-primary. My main goal for them related with the reading is make them love the story telling, the story time during the classes. 
As I said, when I studied at school some of my classmates had not a good time due to they don't understand the texts, so I never start a new unit telling them the story, because in these years (kindergarten), they have to feel security while their are learning. Normally, we start with the story in the third day when the main words and expressions are familiar to them.

With all the levels (P3, P4 and P5) I worked with big flash cards of the pictures of the story and with a video of the same story; one week we watch video and the other we listen the story with the flashcards.

In P4 I can include some other extra activities: in the English book they have the pictures of the story and once they cut them, we listen the story with the flashcards and they have to look for the right picture. I give them some time.

In P5, we do the same, but a little bit harder: we listen the story, but without the support of the flashcards, so they have to listen well.

As a teacher and as a learner I know the importance of reading, of making them go into new worlds in which they listen or they read in English: Because of this, we have to give to the reading the place that it deserves.