Keeping sane

Q Becoming a teacher of modern languages – why do we do it?

Q ML teaching – easy option or nightmare?

Q How to cope with the four skills

Q Where do feelings of failure come from?

Q What is the secret of success?

A It is the only available career which really appeals to you, and you have no idea what will be involved

A Far more difficult than you expected, but also far more rewarding

A Break down your tasks into simple units with which you can feel secure

A Trying to do too much too soon

A Retaining the enthusiasm of your learners

In at the deep end!

Welcome to the modern language teaching profession! For some years now you have enjoyed travelling to the sunnier climes of Europe, and imbibing the fruit of the vine (there is no avoiding it!) You have admired the style and verve of the unEnglish, and cannot deny that you have picked up a little of their eloquence and elegance yourself. As a result you have come to feel that your true vocation may lie in this area. But you have a problem. At last the hour you have long dreaded has arrived – graduation. Your student loan has reached unheard of proportions and neither the state nor Daddy will support you in your chosen way of life a moment longer. Decision time has arrived – you must leave the groves of academe and find a job.

Air stewardess or translator?

You have dismissed the idea of becoming an air stewardess or steward (how old is too old?), or a tour representative (adore package tours?). You would really love to do translating or interpreting (bilingual or a genius?) and highly paid secretarial work is tempting (speak two foreign languages and like offices?). Somehow you are not quite suited to any of these. So what remains? Well, as your mother used to say, 'there is always teaching'. Suddenly, you look at teaching in a different way and it begins to assume a rosy glow. Yes, you had left school vowing never to go back, but wait a minute, what about those long holidays and early afternoon departures? The teacher friend you have in France who spends every afternoon on his surf board? Permanent contact with the foreign country you love, and all those free school trips? The respectful hush in the classroom and those eager faces looking up at you, yearning to be filled with knowledge? And, best of all, sitting on the other side of the desk at parents' evenings – revenge at last? You quite like children, they quite like you, so why not teach them French, Spanish, Italian or German? What could be easier? After all, this is a profession where you start with many years experience at the receiving end, so it's obvious that you know how it's done. In no time at all you will have the whole class rattling away like native speakers!

First encounter with the National Curriculum

When you arrive at your first school, however, you find it is not quite as you imagined. You find that you are not, after all, going to do your own thing. A considerable shock awaits you. You are introduced to that great national monument: 'The National Curriculum'! This document strikes fear into the heart of the boldest of readers. There are also frightening things called SATS, regular national tests to reveal exactly what your class has (or has not!) learnt, and something else you had forgotten all about – classes of bored children! Even, yes, children who do not like French, Spanish, Italian or German and have no desire whatsoever to learn them. It is hard to imagine, and it is not what you had expected. At first sight, you are discouraged by the enormity of the task before you. But do not fear, this is a normal reaction. What could be more natural? Teaching languages is not an easy option, and you are beginning to find that out. Language learning is divided into four areas, and the skills required for each are all quite different. Not only do they vary greatly in difficulty but each one requires completely different teaching methods.

Keep calm

Do not be afraid, all is not lost. The good old National Curriculum, scourge of teachers who were in schools during the early nineties, need no longer fill you with dismay and feelings of inadequacy. Its complexity was beyond human comprehension, and I am proud to say that I lived through the introduction of the original document, which divided up language teaching into myriad tasks of unbelievable complexity, all written down in excruciating detail using almost incomprehensible prose. Thanks to the teacher troops who went over the top before you, and their vociferous protests, the new and modified NC slipped quietly in with the new millennium, and is a considerably simplified document. Don't worry about it. Just find out from your co-ordinatorhowit is interpreted in your school (because all is in the interpretation), and get on with it.

Taking the bull by the horns

Ignore the National C. for the moment, but don't forget to keep your eye on the ball. What is the ball in language teaching, you might well ask? The ball, I'm afraid, is examination success. That is what you will be judged on, what your school will be judged on and what you will have to have in mind from the earliest years. The four skills to be examined will be listening, speaking, reading and writing. In real life, all the skills are learned together in an interconnected jumble, but in the classroom, you have to be aware of each separately. It's simpler therefore to divide your teaching task into these four areas from the beginning. Ask yourself exactly what has to be learned in order to be proficient in each of the four areas:

(1) Listening and responding = lots of practice in listening to tape recordings of authentic French and answering questions about them. Main problem: finding sufficiently easy material at the right speed for the first year or two.

(2) Speaking = memorising and repeating fluently some common conversations. Main problem: motivation.

(3) Reading and responding = learning a wide range of new words (including different parts of the verb). Main problem: avoiding boredom.

(4) Writing = memorising and writing, with correct spelling if possible, some simple material e.g. a short letter. Main problem: many children cannot achieve this in their own language, let alone...