What do you do if your foreign language proficiency is hindering your success as a language teacher?

Growing up in a multicultural and multilingual environment, I can say that proficiency has quite a lot of facets. That is why, as a language teacher I help my students to think more into competences and situations. And I also love to remind them that even native speakers do make mistakes ! Foreign language teachers should also still consider themselves students and keep improving, discovering, experiencing languages because it is part of who we are. So go for it, learn, ask, try, fail, try again, succed, and eventually reach your goals.

If my proficiency in the foreign language I teach is hindering my success as a language teacher, I would take proactive steps to address the issue. This includes honestly assessing my current proficiency level, seeking professional development opportunities such as language courses and workshops, engaging in regular practice through immersive experiences and utilizing resources like textbooks and online platforms. Seeking feedback from colleagues and mentors, adapting teaching strategies, and maintaining motivation and persistence are also crucial. Through targeted efforts and ongoing learning, I can enhance my proficiency and effectiveness as a language teacher, ultimately better supporting my students' learning needs.

I think an honest self-evaluation helps identify specific areas of difficulty, whether in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, or any of the 4 skills, which is crucial for improvement. Understanding our weaknesses enables us the focus on a specific area to improve. Additionally, feedback from colleagues can provide an objective perspective of our proficiency. Even when this process might be uncomfortable, it is a vital first step in addressing challenges and setting realistic goals for improvement.

English has always been relatively easy for me, unlike other academic subjects mind you, but the toughest part was listening comprehension, especially with "exotic" accents such as Scottish or Indian for example. Living in Britain for a while helped me a great deal but I wish I could have more opportunities today to interact with English natives speakers as I feel my ear might be not as good as it used to be....

-iTalki -Lingoda -Langauge specific websites (Turacoon, MGU) -Meet someone online that is looking to improve their language skills in your native language

Entender que trabalhar com um idioma estrangeiro é olhar o mundo com olhos diferentes dos seus é um passo importante para ser paciente e tolerante consigo mesmo e, consequentemente, com o outro. Além de dominar regras de uso de ferramentas linguísticas, estudar um idioma estrangeiro é estar disposto a encarar a realidade de um jeito diferente do seu, e isso é um trabalho sensível e que demanda muita coragem e paciência. Entender isso possibilita ao professor ser mais compreensivo com suas próprias dificuldades e com as de seus alunos e também o impulsiona procurar maneiras de superar essas dificuldades.

1. Connect with fellow teachers to share experiences and strategies for improvement. 2. Find a mentor to seek guidance from experienced language educators. 3. Join learning communities using platforms like Polyglot Club or Italki for advice and support. 4. Participate in language exchanges using tools like Tandem or ConversationExchange to practice with native speakers. 5. Attend local meetups and join language cafés or local language groups for informal practice.

Being an English teacher for the last twelve years, I realized teaching is closely related to learning. According to my experience, your teaching will be far less efficient if your remain within a safety area or a routine. You need to keep the fire burning so that you have this enthusiasm, this curiosity that makes the difference when you teach. How do you do that ? Well, luckily, it's not difficult today to access numerous and exciting ressources on the net. The only thing is not to be overwhelmed or drowned by abundance.

Being a confident teacher is important in the teaching process,because the students are relying on you.However,being confident doesn’t mean not struggling sometimes with the target language.The excessive thinking about confidence can create the opposite feeling and turn confidence into insecurity.We tend to think that we need to be good at the language we are teaching, but we’re allowed to make mistakes and not know or remember certain things.As teachers, we constantly tell our students that it’s okay to get things wrong and learn from it, it’s not their first language after all.But it’s not ours either and acknowledge our difficulties and embracing continuous learning it’s good to get the confidence feeling back and motivate our students.

Try to pick up a new daily habit like listen to read a children's story or having a weekly language lesson with someone virtually.

Lifelong learning is essential to overcoming challenges in life and work. In my own case this has helped me to individually understand my students and how to tailor my language curriculum to help them to succeed.

Even if I have been teaching for many years, I have never stopped learning. Continuous learning is actually a very important tool for teachers. Even if it’s just reading books, watching movies, listening to music or podcasts it is an almost daily activity I believe teachers ought to carry out. The quantity of new information new words, new expressions, that we learn on a daily basis is incredible. Sometimes that happens also with our own native language. There is no limit to learning, and that always makes us better teachers.

Technology is definitely an asset to learn languages quickly and efficiently. Still, I doubt you can truly learn a language without human interaction eventually. AI is an interesting field of course, but it's not the same thing for the moment at least. Technology gives you an incredibly easy access to culture (literature, cinema, TV among other things) but if reading posts on social medias is appalling most of the times, no matter the language and reality TV doesn't teach you much either.

I'm not a fan of Duolingo unless you are already proficient or decent at that language. I prefer a classroom setting or a tutor. iTalki is a great way to find a personal tutor or teacher. Also, there are Discord servers where people chat with each other in all sorts of languages. Memrise is a better app than Duolingo in my opinion. Lingoda has very interactive group lessons for a few different languages which has been proven to be a very effective method of learning.

Use language learning apps in your curriculum. Encourage students to use resources such as conjeugamos, word reference, duolingo, and phonetic transcribers.

I feel like embracing technology is very important in our day and age. Nothing happens without technology anymore. And to be honest, this isn't a problem. Especially with languages. Of course, you need to have face to face interactions to actually get a real understanding of the language you're learning. However, having technical "support" doesn't hurt. In my opinion, technology can help immensely. We spend so much time on our smartphones, why not improve a foreign language while being on it?

Don't be shy to speak in the target language. Sure, you will make mistakes, but most people won't correct you. If anything, they will be extremely grateful that you are speaking their language. (unless it's French or German, ha!) Speaking as much as possible will only strengthen your skills and confidence.

1. Be Patient: Understand that progress takes time. Don’t be discouraged by slow advancements. 2. Celebrate Small Victories: Recognize and reward each achievement, no matter how minor. 3. Acknowledge Effort: Every bit of effort contributes to your growth as a language teacher. 4. Model Patience: Be open about your learning journey with your students. It will help them in their learning experience, too. 5. Foster a Supportive Environment: Encourage a classroom culture that values patience and mutual support among learners.

This is key whatever your proficiency in the target language may be. Without self-assessment and reflection, and no small amount of humility/humbleness in doing so, there is no growth but stagnation and complacency. This means taking responsibility for your teaching actions and owning what has gone wrong if it is yours to own. Be a stern judge of yourself. Keep a dialogue journal with yourself, ideally with colleagues. Be open and keep a good eye out for in-service teacher training offers. In case you find dry areas of curriculum are killing your enthusiasm, seek out new ways of presenting and practicing the material. And by all means strive to kindle that passion to be as much of a proficient language model as you can possibly be.

Always try to check in with your students to reflect on how you could teach the material differently. Some people benefit from different learning methods, and it is a chance for you to broaden your language teaching skills.

I teach academic English in China. My language proficiency in Mandarin only becomes a hindrance because I refuse to use Mandarin in the classroom. I have been speaking Mandarin for over 28 years, but it is a crutch for students. I have to work hard to NOT use my language skills.

To be confident in your language expertise and instil that confidence in your students, it is important to spend time immersing yourself completely. I would recommend joining a language programme abroad or finding a teaching/volunteering position.

Always check your own biases to your native language in order to learn as much as you can from others that speak a different language.

Deve-se levar em considera??o que Ensinar uma língua estrangeira é uma profiss?o e, como tal, depende n?o somente de conhecimentos específicos da língua estrangeira, mas também de saberes relacionados ao ensino de línguas, como teorias de ensino, linguística aplicada ao ensino de língua, etc. Conseguir identificar se a dificuldade está em quest?es relacionadas ao domínio da segunda língua ou em quest?es da prática pedagógica é crucial para poder aplicar esfor?os no sentido correto, a fim de superar essas dificuldades e al?ar patamares mais elevados na prática profissional