Looking back over the past few months I can say it’s been a learning curve and not just in teaching English. In many ways this course has turned my life upside down.

I would have saved a lot time if I had been more computer literate before starting and would advise others to make friends with their computer beforehand. Another practical point was how I would have to reorganize my day many times to find the best study time, my best time did not always suit everyone else.

As a homeschooling mum I never dreamed how helpful the course would be in my general teaching skills with the children.

During the course I became more and more interested in English grammar, with a growing realization of how bad mine was and a desire to study more. Then the shock, it will take four years of full time study to do this properly. A pleasant surprise with all the grammar work is how it has aided me in learning and understanding more a third language.

This course has also made me acutely aware of my husband’s mistakes in spoken English, his second language, along with the mistakes of the children who are now speaking three languages. Here the skills came into practice of constantly encouraging and praising, yet still trying to find creative ways of correcting.

I never realized how interested others would be that I was taking the course and how many requests I would have to start teaching English to individuals. Most of them very happy to act as ‘guinea pigs’ for my teetering start at a career in teaching English.

Although not required of the course, I wish I had known how useful to my own learning actually having the practice of teaching English would be. It is well know that we learn and retain more by discussing and doing, as the following quote points out

"Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves (Chickering & Gamson, 1987)."

The extremely limited experience of English teaching I had during this time has helped me to make the material a part of myself, and will continue to be so, and improve, the more I teach.

What if I had known all this before starting the course? I would have done it sooner!

Deborah Santos